Forever Young

I remember going to a concert at the Madia vale studios in London and Jerry Goldsmith who was about to conduct a suite from ISLANDS IN THE STREAM said that the director of the movie (Franklin J Schaffner) on listening to the score remarked, “Well you finally wrote a tune” meaning I suppose that Goldsmith had written a beautiful and haunting piece for the movie. This was a remark that I recalled when listening to FOREVER YOUNG for the first time some years after the concert, thinking I suppose about how lush and sweeping Goldsmith’s score was, and now we have the entire or near damn it complete score courtesy of those lovely people at LA LA LAND Records. FOREVER YOUNG has always been and I believe will always remain one of my favourite Jerry Goldsmith scores from the 1990,s and that is saying something as the composer produced a lot of excellent works at this time, RUDY, SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY, BASIC INSTINCT, MALICE and THE RUSSIA HOUSE. It was during this period of his career that I felt the composer mellowed a little and created some of his most appealing themes and scores, by this I mean he began to score movies that had more sensitive storylines and he seemed to excel if that is at all possible when scoring more intimate and tender ventures plus he created alluring and enticing compositions that were haunting and charming. The 1990,s was the fourth decade that the composer had worked in Hollywood and he had come such a long way since the early days of television back in the late 1950,s his technique had developed over the years and he was by the early part of the 1990,s one of, if not the most important film music composer in the world with a following of thousands. In FOREVER YOUNG we hear small snatches of the composers styles that have been employed in past triumphs such as wistful and soaring atmospheres that are akin to those he created for THE BLUE MAX in the invigorating and gloriously driving but also emotive cue REUNITED, with its surging strings and lush sound. Plus the delicate, intimate and intricate tone poems that were so touching and emotive in A PATCH OF BLUE etc in cues such as WILL YOU MARRY ME ?/NEVER LEAVE ME, TIME TO LEAVE and I WAS WRONG. The composers subtle and charming touch not only enhancing the images but becoming an important and integral part of the movie itself. The absorbing LOVE THEME too is one of the composers most appealing and the use of alto sax carried along by strings that are augmented by melancholy sounding horns and further enhanced and punctuated by piano is stunning.



FOREVER YOUNG is a stand out score in a career and also in a long list of musical magnificence that Goldsmith put together during his long and illustrious career. This edition of the soundtrack contains a staggering 21 previously unreleased cues and is in my opinion a must have soundtrack, and an essential purchase for any Goldsmith devotee or indeed any discerning fan of movie scores. Packaged wonderfully by LA LA LAND RECORDS. A must have……