WEBVTT
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Films that I've composed of my favorites, A Close Encounters,
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some of that music, I'm fond of All Alone, I'm
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fond of the score. Steven Spielberg loves the Reavers, which
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is a step McQueen film done so many many years ago,
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so quite a bit. Superman as an overture to a
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concert works extremely well. There's a lot and so all
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of various Star Wars films, Indiana Jones. But really, you
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know what people ask about the favorite scores? Really like
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about saying what's your favorite child? When you've got three kids,
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you love them all and there are things about each
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one you might want to improve if you could.
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This Sunday is John williams ninety fourth birthday, and gentlemen,
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in honor of the occasion, let's talk about the music
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of John Williams with our top five favorite scores. Hello everybody,
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I'm Jeff Johnson.
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I'm David Burns, and I'm Wayne Whiten.
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And this is a Film by podcast doing a special
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episode once once again. Last month we talked John Carpenter,
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the music of John Carpenter. You guys were with me.
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We did our top five Carpenter scores. Wayne doing an
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amazing job hosting that one, and I know how busy
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you guys are with phaser sets of stunt are ongoing
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Star Trek themed pod that that happens. To my knowledge,
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Williams has never been involved with the Star Trek franchise.
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Correct, he has not, no, unfortunately, okay.
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Well, well, Despite his absence from the Star Trek franchise,
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John Williams is one of the most iconic and influential
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composers in the history of cinema, with a career spanning
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more than six decades and a body of work that
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has defined the sound of modern cinema. From the unforgettable
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themes of Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana, Jones, and Jurassic Park
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to the emotional depth of Et, Superman and Schindler's List,
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Williams's music transcends the screen, becoming as memorable as the
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films themselves. His mastery of orchestration and melody has shaped
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generations of filmmakers and audiences alike. John Williams is more
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than a composer. He's a cornerstone of movie history. And
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I am so thrilled that we are getting to talk
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about it today. Before we get into it, I know
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we're I know you guys are probably excited to share
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your your top five John Williams scores. But you guys
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have something I can only dream. You guys have both
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had an experience I can only dream of. Uh, you've
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seen John Williams in concert three times?
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Three times?
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Okay, see, I saw you guys had seen him twice.
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I didn't realize that it was it was three. I was, okay,
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Can we can we talk a little bit about what
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that experience is like for for for those of us
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that dream of seeing it and are hoping to see it,
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because you know, the man's still out there, he's still
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he's still torn and doing stuff. What what What was
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it like? So tell me about the first time. Let's
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talk about the first time.
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I remember the first time.
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That was great, the first time. We're never going to forget.
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For one, I was definitely sick, definitely were but nothing
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was stopping me from seeing John Williams in concert. We
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were in Pittsburgh, our favorite city, not but yeah, and
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we went to see it downtown and then it was
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the first time. Obviously, I mean Wayne and I both
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were like gigantic Williams fans, and the fact that we
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were getting to see him for the first time in
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concert with a thrill in itself, so me being.
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That was a fancy concert to addressed? Was that one?
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Yeah, that's a fancy one. But the only thing, the
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one thing that I vividly remember was the fact that
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Sin as he started his the music and started conducting,
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a screen came down and it started showing clips from
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the movies as the orchestra is playing them live. Yeah,
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and I'm telling you, it was just chills, goosebumps running
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up and down my spine on how incredible that experience was.
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It was amazing. You know. He started off with playing
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some of his concert works, but then the first film
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piece he played was Close Encounters. When he played those
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those five familiar notes set chills down my spine. It
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was just unbelieve. I couldn't believe I was actually listening
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to this lie with him right in front of me.
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And then you go back, you see him a second time.
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Is this like a I imagine like maybe a couple
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of years down the road, And if so, yeah, what
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you know, Like I think about like seeing one of
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my favorite bands multiple times when they come to town.
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The set list is always going to change. A little bit,
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but they're going to also play the hits. So the
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second time you see him, is is it a little
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bit different or is the set list kind of like
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is the man doing the same the same thing?
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It was different, Yeah, because what he likes to do
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is for every concert he does, he'll choose like one
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of these obscure films that most people don't realize, and
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he'll play like three or four pieces. I remember for
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the first concert he did TV film that he had
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done called Jane Eyre, And I think the second one
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didn't he played Harry Was it Harry Potter? Yeah? I
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think it was Harry Potter? Maybe that he that he did,
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but it wasn't obscurity. I know he was doing. Didn't
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he debut Chamber of Secrets? Play a piece?
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Maybe? I think I remember it correctly. I do know
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he did the was it this? Was it CNN that
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he did?
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Yeah, at the end, not many people knew that he
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had he had done the NBC.
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NBC, that's what it was, NBC. A lot of people
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didn't realize he had done that. So he kind of
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like kind of turned around to like talk to the audience,
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and then he was like I'm going to play something
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that a lot of you probably don't realize I have done. Uh,
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but uh, you're gonna recognize it pretty quickly. And as
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soon as he went into the first few bars, like, oh,
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we know where that's from, it was the news.
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Wow.
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Uh.
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And of course the third time, you're you know you guys,
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I have to imagine the excitement is just as strong
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as the first time.
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Right.
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So, so the third time was in our hometown here
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in Cincinnati. It was was the last time we got
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to see him. And funny story behind that was as
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soon as we saw that he was coming to Cincinnati,
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I immediately went on and bought tickets first because Wayne
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had taken care of the other two, so I went
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ahead and bought them. And then at the time Megan,
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my niece, decided that her and her husband at the time,
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were going to buy tickets too, So we all bought
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tickets separately, and by we did not end up right
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next to one another. And what are the chances than that?
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Honestly, all I'll ask is if and when he comes
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anywhere near us, we please just call me and let
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me let me know. I really don't want to miss out,
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you know, Okay, so I've I've actually had conversations with
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both of you off Mike, so I kind of got
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a little sneak preview of what your top five lists
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are looking like, which I was surprised by some of
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the choices. I'm a Williams is my all time favorite composer.
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I could easily make this top five list, but I'm
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excited because most of my selections are I believe you
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guys are gonna are gonna talk about them, but we're
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gonna take a quick break before we get to that
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top five.
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Welcome to the All Eighties Movies Podcast. I'm Bill and
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I'm Jason, and this is the podcast where we talk
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about the blockbusters, the flops, and everything in between from
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one of the freshest decades for movies, the nineteen eighties.
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So whether you're a brain, a jock, a valley girl,
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or a Jedi, we've got some Eighties classics for you.
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Do these movies stand the test of time? Are we
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discovering something new? Is there an Eighties movie we are
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finally watching for the first time.
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Join us each week as we dive into the cinematic
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nostalgia that inspired and influenced a generation from the hits
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to the cult classics. We'll discuss our earliest memories, favorite scenes,
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fun facts, and are not so favorite movie moments too.
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You can find the All Eighties Movies podcast wherever you
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listen to your podcast. Please subscribe and happy listening.
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Welcome back. We are discussing the legendary composer John Williams
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and we're doing a little top five. This had to
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be difficult for you guys to to pare it down
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to just five choices. I know, you guys are gonna
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cheat and give me like an honorable mention later on,
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but even even at six, like picking six, you know,
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I can't imagine you two, especially agonizing over your choices.
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Well, I mean, my number one was easy. That's always
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been my number one. Yeah, that one was not hard
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at all. But the other four I struggled, especially when
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I got to picking five, because there's so many that
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like could be there that I had to like put
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on the back burner. A couple of them that are
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not there really broke my heart not to have them there.
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But I mean I had to look at what are
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my five favorites, and I can't have them all there,
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otherwise it'd be ten. Right, So, yeah, here we are.
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You know what you make.
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You make a good point.
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It's you know, you said your five favorites, and we're
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not saying these are the top five best John Williams scorers.
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We're saying these are our top favorites. Right, So Wayne,
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why don't you start us off? I would love to
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hear your number five pick.
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My choice for number five will start in nineteen ninety
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one with the often overlooked and forgotten Steven Spielberg Classic
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Hook Hooks Score. It's an emotional roller coaster from you
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got your gentle sweet melodies, you got your loud, bombastic
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marches that you're very familiar with, thrilling, exciting action cues.
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It perfectly matches Spielberg's magic vision of Netherland and the
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legend of Peter Pan that he gives us. It's got
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an incredible sweeping main theme, some beautiful motifs, especially the
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ones associated with Peter's you know, lost childhood. Just it's
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got an incredible melody, really brings out wonder and a
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bit of romantic orchestration there. It's it's just an incredibly
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magic score. You got you know, things like the song
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when You're Alone and then there's that six minute que
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the Flight to Netherland, really capture that pain of growing
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up and joy of rediscovering fun and imagination, with Williams's
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music doing just as much work telling the story as
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Spielberg's visuals do. There are two cues that I really
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wanted to point out of this score. One of them
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is You Are the Pan which is just a haunting
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and almost overwhelmingly beautiful theme. That's the scene where Peter
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is formally recognized by the Lost Boys and their leader,
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and then he gives them the sword. It's an emotional ceremony.
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This is a new theme that was introduced in the
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score about halfway through the film. Rich strings and choir,
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the lovely French horn. It reminds me just how much
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Williams can really tug at the emotions. And then there's
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Remembering Childhood, which is really the centerpiece of the entire score.
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It's also the longest cue, with over eleven minutes. All
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of the themes that he's composed for hook has heard there,
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big brass, sweeping streams, beautiful piano. It's heroic, it's glorious,
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it's majestic. It's really John Williams at the top of
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his form and hook has been released quite a few
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times on CD. It just recently was released about two
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years ago by Lall La Land Records in a three
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CD set. I think you got I got you that, David.
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What do you think of that set? I haven't. I
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don't have that one yet. I got the two CD one.
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Oh, it's a wonderful set. I mean, giving us inditional
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music and stuff that we haven't had before. It is
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extremely well done, as you know, and try to. They
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do everything extremely well by the way they do when
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they remaster this stuff. It is just beautiful in listening
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to it. So yes, I would highly recommend if you
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don't have it in your collection, get it.
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Yeah, it's top of my list, right, you know, aget
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I said, I got the two CDs set that they
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did about ten years ago, and it's wonderful. This this
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is just an incredible score that just shows everything that
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Williams can do, especially during the eighties and the nineties.
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Wayne's starting things off with an underrated choice from an
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underrated Spielberg film, David your number five choice.
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So Wayne mentions he used one word that encapsulates the
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score that I've ever already talked to and of course
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he used the word magic, and of course I am
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talking about the two thousand and one Harry Potter and
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the Sorcerer's Stone. This will come as no surprise to
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anybody that this is in my top five. For one,
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I love the books, I love all of the films,
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I love everything about them. But the fact that Chris
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Columbus got John Williams to do the music for this,