After completing my rundown of my entire Goldsmith collection earlier in the year, I figured it was time to fill some gaps. A few I acquired mid-rundown and decided to save for later. Most I purchased in the last two weeks, with some of those out-of-print though still (with one notable exception) reasonably priced on the secondary market.

Up first though...it’s the forgotten music for 1973’s forgotten crime drama The Don is Dead, recently released for the first time by Intrada.

I’ve seen some commentary focus on the work’s electronics, and, gosh, they certainly don’t do the album a lot of favors. Even in the context of Goldsmith’s experimental stuff in the 70s and 80s, the usage here is particularly grating, as if someone recorded a dripping drain, processed the noise through a guitar amp, and then played those sounds on a keyboard at a single pitch in an echo chamber. Listeners who hate this type of material might give up after the first track which has a few moments of JUST. THIS. SOUND.

And that would be a shame, as that isn’t all there is to the score. The love theme and the “old country” theme are decent, though rather understated. There’s no one moment where Goldsmith really lets one of them rip, which seems to be a function of the film and perhaps a smaller budget for the recording as well. Still, they’re pleasant examples of Goldsmith’s warmer tones from the period, and it’s nice to have another instance of Jerry’s wife singing (she’s good!). [EDIT: whoops, she only wrote the song]

The rest of the score feels like a collection of ideas Goldsmith would explore more fully later that decade. The occasional off-kilter string rhythms foreshadow his later score for Contract on Cherry Street. The brief, berserker orchestral rage in ‘The Beating’ would be revisited in Alien and Logan’s Run. I’m sure I could pull up more examples with a few more listens.

It’s to Jerry’s mid-career drama/thriller works what U.S. Marhsals was to his late-career action works - functional, but perhaps best left for Goldsmith completists only.

Rating: ***

Up next: television!

(Message edited on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, at 11:50 a.m.)

Thanks for this mini-review of "The Don is Dead". I'm on the fence still on this. I usually don't mind his electronics, even ones folks find grating (I love "Logan's Run"). The completioist in me knows I'll probably regret it if I don't pick it up. But I really wonder how often I'll listen to this score. They covered a bit of the album on "The Goldsmith Odyssey" a few weeks back and that intrigued me... hmmmm.

> After completing my rundown of my entire Goldsmith collection earlier in
> the year, I figured it was time to fill some gaps. A few I acquired
> mid-rundown and decided to save for later. Most I purchased in the last
> two weeks, with some of those out-of-print though still (with one notable
> exception) reasonably priced on the secondary market.

> Up first though...it’s the forgotten music for 1973’s forgotten crime
> drama The Don is Dead, recently released for the first time by
> Intrada.

> I’ve seen some commentary focus on the work’s electronics, and, gosh, they
> certainly don’t do the album a lot of favors. Even in the context of
> Goldsmith’s experimental stuff in the 70s and 80s, the usage here is
> particularly grating, as if someone recorded a dripping drain, processed
> the noise through a guitar amp, and then played those sounds on a keyboard
> at a single pitch in an echo chamber. Listeners who hate this type of
> material might give up after the first track which has a few moments of
> JUST. THIS. SOUND.

> And that would be a shame, as that isn’t all there is to the score. The
> love theme and the “old country” theme are decent, though rather
> understated. There’s no one moment where Goldsmith really lets one of them
> rip, which seems to be a function of the film and perhaps a smaller budget
> for the recording as well. Still, they’re pleasant examples of Goldsmith’s
> warmer tones from the period, and it’s nice to have another instance of
> Jerry’s wife singing (she’s good!). [EDIT: whoops, she only wrote the
> song]

> The rest of the score feels like a collection of ideas Goldsmith would
> explore more fully later that decade. The occasional off-kilter string
> rhythms foreshadow his later score for Contract on Cherry Street. The
> brief, berserker orchestral rage in ‘The Beating’ would be revisited in
> Alien and Logan’s Run. I’m sure I could pull up more examples with a few
> more listens.

> It’s to Jerry’s mid-career drama/thriller works what U.S. Marhsals was to
> his late-career action works - functional, but perhaps best left for
> Goldsmith completists only.

> Rating: ***

> Up next: television!

Listened to that one a few weeks ago and... rather liked it. Its by no means Prime Goldsmith, I wouldn't even count this as a hidden gem. I can understand why it hasn't been released until now- That said, between the performances of the Love Theme and its Song-version and the stronger Suspense- and Action-Stuff, there is enough to go around to recommend this to completists, despite a lot of dead air in other cues. And hearing 'new', previously-unheard music from Goldsmith is always a plus at this point.

I may be a bit biased because Goldsmith is one of my favourite Composers but I find "Don is Dead" to be a good example of an Score that is average at best by his standards... but still has that certain 'something', that certain sound, that automatically makes it more appealing and compelling to me than similar works from other composers.