The Goldsmith Odyssey

If your musical tastes are anything like ours, odds are you've been spinning the wonderful new recordings of Jerry Goldsmith's music for the TV movies Pursuit, Crawlspace, and The People Next Door quite frequently over the past few months. Now, we invite you to join us for a look at the creation of this terrific album. Before the main event gets underway, our show begins with a tribute to composer, orchestrator, and recon...

With the aid of their magic amulet, the good folks at Intrada Records have finally located the missing pieces of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH. In this new Soundtrack Spotlight, mastering engineer Chris Malone, liner notes writer Jeff Bond, and Intrada's own Roger Feigelson join your humble hosts Jens, Yavar, David, and Clark for an examination of the definitive new presentation of this ...

It's a long road 
when you're fixing First Blood 
And it hurts when 
you have to double dip 

But this new release 
Corrects some notable flaws 
In some crucial ways 
It really rights the ship 

It's a Spotlight 
Your hosts David and Jens, they'll tell ya 
They're here to inform ya 
And they brought some friends 

Roger Feigelson 
And Neil S. B...

It's another Soundtrack Spotlight! This time, your humble hosts Yavar and David are joined by liner notes writer Tim Greiving and mastering engineer Chris Malone for an examination of Jerry Goldsmith's alternately lyrical and chilling score for Robert Mulligan's 1972 horror film The Other. Previously only available on CD as a 22-minute suite, the complete score has been beautifully restored and reveals itself as...

Intrada's new release of Jerry Goldsmith’s original film tracks for Islands in the Stream gave us the opportunity to not only talk about a score the composer regarded as a personal favorite, but also to share memories of Intrada’s beloved founder, Douglass Fake. On this very special Soundtrack Spotlight, the complete Odyssey team — Jens, Yavar, David, and Clark — is joined by Intrada producer Roger Feigelson, shipping manager ...

Say, what's that great big thing, amidst this collection of freshly-lopped heads? Sacre bleu! I's a new regular episode! Longtime friend of the show (and Certified Thriller Expert) Leigh Phillips joins David, Yavar, and Clark to discuss Jerry Goldsmith's music for the Thriller installment "Guillotine," a score that is by turns ominous, slyly beautiful, and darkly playful. The guys examine the score's e...

In June of 2024, The Austin Symphony offered an evening of live Jerry Goldsmith music containing selections from Gremlins, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Total Recall, and other beloved scores. A few months later, Yavar and Clark — who were in attendance at the concert, along with Goldsmith Odyssey co-founder Jens — spoke to conductor Peter Bay and principal librarian Ali Verderber about the performance. You'll hear about Pete...

It's always a treat to hear from filmmakers who got to work directly with Jerry, and we're thrilled that director Jonathan Kaplan took the time to share his memories with us. In this wide-ranging Odyssey Interview, Jonathan tells David and Yavar about his father Sol Kaplan's career as a film composer, the thrill of watching Isaac Hayes perform the Truck Turner score, collaborating with Goldsmith on Love Field and Bad...

Our intermittent exploration of Jerry Goldsmith's early radio work continues with a 2-for-1 special: an episode of CBS Radio Workshop that offers brief dramatizations of the Ray Bradbury short stories "Season of Disbelief" and "Hail and Farewell" (both of which are introduced by Bradbury himself). Your humble hosts David, Yavar, and Clark explore the rich, sensitive small-scale scores Goldsmith created for ...

Jerry Goldsmith's music has been present in multiple Hollywood blockbusters this year, and his musical voice is particularly prominent in John Paesano's score for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. In this Odyssey Interview, Yavar and Goldsmith biographer Jeff Bond talk with Paesano about the challenges of finding a middle ground between Goldsmith's iconic original score and the more recent sound Michael Giacchino ha...

Returning guest Carlos Rafael Rivera joins us for our longest episode to date!

In the opening portion of the show, Carlos takes us on an in-depth guided tour of the history of Spanish classical guitar music, providing a brilliant framework through which to view the music we'll be covering.

After that, Carlos joins your humble hosts David, Yavar, and Clark for an exploration of three guitar-based Goldsmith rad...

Are you now, or have you ever been, a Jerry Goldsmith fan? If so, you won't want to miss our third and final production report on Leigh Phillips' marvelous Jerry Goldsmith at The General Electric Theater series. Your humble hosts David, Yavar, and Clark chat with Leigh about the three latest additions: the stark and grim "My Dark Days," the cheerfully Italian-flavored "The Committeeman," and the gorgeo...

We know what you’re thinking: "Wait… didn't you guys already do an Inchon Soundtrack Spotlight?" Indeed we did, back in 2020, when Intrada rereleased Jerry Goldsmith's memorable score for the otherwise largely forgotten 1981 Korean War drama. Now, Intrada has released the score yet again, with improved audio and a small handful of new extras. In this follow-up Spotlight, your humble hosts David and Clark chat wi...

Jerry Goldsmith's musical legacy lives on in the new animated series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, featuring a wonderful score by composer Sherri Chung. In this Odyssey Interview, your humble hosts David, Yavar, and Clark chat with Sherri about the score's large collection of memorable thematic ideas, the joy of being given the opportunity take a traditionally orchestral musical approach, the wide array of distinctive ...

Attention! Our final Soundtrack Spotlight of the year is here! 2023 hasn’t exactly been jam-packed with new Goldsmith releases, but it’s closing with a pretty special one: Intrada’s new 2-CD presentation of MacArthur, which offers both a restoration of the original LP re-recording and the premiere of the original film tracks. Your humble hosts Yavar and David are joined by Intrada’s Douglass Fake, liner notes writer Jeff Bond, and ...

Take shelter! Mariah is here! (No, not that one.) Your humble hosts David, Yavar, and Clark dig into the CBS Radio Workshop episode "Storm," a meteorologically-themed docudrama featuring striking narration from William Conrad and a tense, turbulent score from Jerry Goldsmith. You'll hear discussion of the unique nature of this experimental radio series, the effectiveness of Goldsmith's decision to use music to c...

We know what you're thinking: why is The Goldsmith Odyssey covering Leith Stevens? Well, for one thing, War of the Worlds (1953) is a personal favorite film and score of Odyssey co-host and editor W. David Lichty. For another, it's a good excuse to spend time with friends of the show Chris Malone (who co-produced the new expanded  album for La-La Land) and John Takis (who wrote the liner notes), both of whom once again ha...

Better late than never, we offer a detailed Soundtrack Spotlight on Varese Sarabande's definitive presentation of Jerry Goldsmith’s memorably noir-tinged score for Harold Becker's City Hall! First, your humble hosts David and Clark are joined by liner notes writer Tim Greiving for a discussion of the film's modest virtues, the score's central ideas, the real-life experiences that informed the film's screenp...