My immediate reaction was: Thus ends the soundtrack of my generation.
My immediate reaction is that if anyone’s earned retirement, he has.
It’s hard carrying all those Oscars around, I bet.
Indy March>Star Wars theme for repeated listening. But he got the Oscar for the latter. Indy deserves it, but the Academy was probably like “we gotta share the wealth already.”
Someone joined just to post that? (spinning head emoji) All music is just an adaptation of that beat that Og Grr slammed on that rock in a cave near Ur 523,000 years ago.
Also, heck, I’m shocked he was still working.
Everyone got bills. :D
It was the same year as Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire, so a nomination was all anyone else was going to get.
I love it, but my favorite remains Close Encounters, becauuse the music is actually part of the storyline and the man somehow managed to weave “When You Wish Upon A Star” into it.
It’s really tough to pick a favorite among all his great iconic soundtracks, but this is usually where I land as well. The Superman theme is just… man, so perfect. Plus it’s got this great rhythm to it, like a powerful locomotive, while also have these high notes of tenderness too. Ugh. So good.
My favorite anecdote recently about John Williams has got to be the “Movies that made us” series on Home Alone, where director Christopher Columbus after describing all the trials and tribulations says they ended up with an okay movie. But on a whim, he decided to throw a hail mary when it came to who would do the soundtrack because he knew someone who knew John Williams (Spielberg maybe?) and sent the script to John Williams. And lo and behold, Williams read the script to Home Alone and loved it, and came in and scored the movie, and turned what was an ok movie into basically a holiday classic.
this x100
If your local orchestra ever does a John Williams show, go. I’ve had the chance to do some where the orchestra played with the film, and some where the orchestra just played a program of John Williams, and wow it was a powerful experience.
William’s themes are just 10x levels above most movie soundtracks, and exist both in alignment with the film as as a standalone piece.
“I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity,” Williams says with a chuckle, speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles. “I can’t play tennis, but I like to be able to believe that maybe one day I will.”
What a great quote.
Man, I was despairing of ever becoming a passable pickelball player. I guess that’s why he is a household name around the world.
I meant to post the same thing the other day. I went to a Star Wars night at the symphony 10 years ago and I still get a little buzz just thinking about it.
I love that he was originally credited as “Johnny” Williams, but didn’t take long to change it to John.
As a kid he used to also conduct the local Symphony and my folks took me to see him conduct the Star Wars music.
It was as fantastic as you think.
