A SCORE TO SETTLE: JAWS 2 and deep cuts: John Williams in the late 1970's

I'd like to borrow from the parlance of pop music and talk about the concept of "deep cuts", specifically with regards to the music of John Williams. The term is often used to describe those songs nestled "deep" into an album, past the radio-friendly cuts kicking off Side One, and yet are as memorable, integral and important expressions from that artist or group. Some mights say that this is where you discover those hidden gems, the buried treasures that reward the devoted listeners whose fascination extends beyond the popular tracks presented to general audiences. Knowledge of the deep cuts is where you separate the casual fans from the fervent. Gleaning this knowledge creates the aficionado, the cognoscenti, or in simpler terms, the crazy people diligently seeking out bootlegs and B-sides by their favorite artists, at garage sales and second-hand stores across the States. It's the kind of person too ready and eager to make you a mix tape or playlist at the mere hint of curiosity about said artist.

On The Beatles' mega-popular, gotta-own-it album "Revolver", for each "Taxman" and "Eleanor Rigby", songs that seeped into our public consciousness, there is a "Doctor Robert" and an "I'm Only Sleeping" which are seldom heard. From The Smashing Pumpkins' "Siamese Dream", a staple of 90's rock, most everyone bought this record for the track "Today". For me it was the innermost tunes on the disc, "Soma" and "Geek U.S.A.", that I would repeatedly play and include on every pop mix tape I compiled. When talking movie music and "deep cuts", instead of referring to songs set far into grooves of a pop record, I think this term can apply to scores that wind up unfortunately unnoticed by both fans and the public. Even among soundtrack collectors, there are rare albums only a few own or scores for films that are best forgotten. There are even some composers whose entire career in the industry could be considered a deep cut (sorry, Roy Budd and Russell Garcia!). Meanwhile, the major names in film music - John Williams, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann - each have works that permeated our culture, like The Beatles, but their brilliance extends to all corners of their respective canons.

So, returning to my initial mention of Williams, during a recent binge listen of his scores from the late 1970's, including FAMILY PLOT (1976), BLACK SUNDAY (1977), JAWS 2 (1978) and THE FURY (1978), I noted that these would most certainly be considered "deep cuts" in the catalogue of his works. I remembered how when I was a young fan newly settling in to collecting his music, apprenticing in absentia to Mr. Williams if you may, so little of his output was known to me. As far as I knew then, that decade consisted of JAWS (1975), STAR WARS (1977), CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) and SUPERMAN (1978). I simply hadn't been exposed to much else by him at that time, outside of his dual themes for the 1960's TV series LOST IN SPACE. It stands to reason that even now, these four scores represent what most general audiences find familiar by Williams. They are the titles that ring the bell of remembrance for casual concert and movie-goers. And yet, despite how incredible these aforementioned works are, there is so much aural reward to be found in his other efforts in the latter years of 1970's.

With John Williams, his post-STAR WARS career, for good reason, became more well-represented on album than during the years prior. When I began collecting with purpose, I picked up the heavy-hitters, but soon learned about all those non-genre, non-blockbuster projects and wondered how much they might or might not sound like SUPERMAN. Early on, before I learned about "deep cuts", I compared this to charting the bridges that connect a long string of large islands. If JAWS, STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and SUPERMAN can be labeled as the "big island" scores for Williams in the late 70's, then the "bridges" spanning these sizable landmarks would be scores such as BLACK SUNDAY, THE FURY, DRACULA and JAWS 2, among others. For me, it was important to understand and absorb what preceded the big ticket scores as well as what the in-betweeners sounded like. Basically, what led into and out of the "islands".

JAWS 2 and THE FURY, both composed in 1978, were the first deep cut/bridging scores of Williams that I purchased. It was sometime in 1991. I was bowled over by the excellence evident in both. When speaking of the former, one could be forgiven for assuming it only borrows heavily from its predecessor, the Oscar-winning score for JAWS. However, while the shark theme underpins much of the score's running time, it simultaneously is brimming with a freshness of melody and energy, from ebullient scherzos coloring the sailing sequences to frenetic and vicious music underscoring the copious shark attacks. Even the film's montage of beach-goers which echoes the first film's sequence of arriving vacationers is scored in an entirely different manner, while still robustly orchestral. Williams didn't rest on his laurels in the slightest, though it was the first occasion he scored a sequel to his own work and in addition, director Steven Spielberg wasn't involved. Over the years, I've found that both he and Jerry Goldsmith excelled at never settling to simply rehash material when hired to write music for a follow-up of theirs.

THE FURY is an unusual thriller about telekinetic young adults, starring an aged Kirk Douglas and directed by Brian DePalma, who has always laid bare in his movies his admiration of Alfred Hitchcock, this often extending to the musical direction. Williams's music here shares a few similarities with Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Hitchcock's house composer of choice and movie music titan in his own, bulldozing right. First, there is a shared brooding quality expressed by the low-range woodwinds. Secondly, a revolving motivic figure that opens the score and reoccurs throughout seems inspired by Herrmann's main theme from VERTIGO. Interestingly enough, Williams scored Hitchcock's final film, FAMILY PLOT, in the year preceding the game-changing STAR WARS. Beyond these elements, THE FURY remains inherently a score bearing the distinct stamp of Williams's music in late 1970's - all sections of the rich, full orchestra utilized effectively in a concert classical sense, with swelling horns and tutti exclamations join a balletic sense motion also present in SUPERMAN and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. If someone new to collecting soundtracks asked me to recommend titles in the same vein as his most well-known works, JAWS 2 and THE FURY would top that list.

As I discovered and delved into each deep cut, a more well-rounded understanding of Williams, or at least his music, emerged. I think that's what drives some fans, the need to collect all the pieces of a particular puzzle, that puzzle being an artist's work. How did they get from point A to point B in their writing or their composing? Of course, with film/TV composition, much of this is determined by the project itself, the genre in which it resides, as it charts what course the composer needs to follow. But for those listeners with a well-attuned ear you can track influences and interests that accompanied the composer in question on this course. With Williams' late 70's deep cuts, there is a complexity in orchestration and neo-Classical influence inherent throughout, but the brooding quality of THE FURY (and DRACULA, by extension) is unique, along with the savagery in much of his JAWS 2 score.

Only in recent years was I finally able to hear his work for BLACK SUNDAY and FAMILY PLOT, thanks to tenacious small soundtrack labels releasing limited edition albums. The former is a thriller concerned with home-grown terrorism, steeped in post-Vietnam disillusionment while the latter is director Alfred Hitchcock's final presentation of his light-hearted approach to criminal activities. Funny enough, both star Bruce Dern. Suspense and tension dominate both films and Williams responds in kind, although BLACK SUNDAY is a sparse and chilling approach while FAMILY PLOT is peppered with harpsichord and organ, enough to maintain a tongue-in-cheek quality. In addition, FAMILY PLOT's main theme is a catchy, airy almost alluring tune expressed by female choir, flutes, harp and the aforementioned harpsichord. The evocative choral work is continued on in his music for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, one year later. Meanwhile, over in BLACK SUNDAY, there are determined, odd-meter, persistent rhythms propelling its stern action music, leading the way towards SUPERMAN, yet with few of the bright flourishes that eventually accompany the Man of Steel's adventures.

There is a soul-shaking experience when the work of an artist reaches into your heart and mind and creates there an impression, an impact crater so to speak, which forever alters your emotional landscape. It's that song you chanced upon on the radio during a road trip or a mix tape compiled by an ex that winds up striking straight to your core, converting you into an ardent fan of that band or songwriter. Granted, the art in question could not only be music, but also theater, sculpture, the printed word, or the moving image. The impact can stir the affected to investigate more of what that specific artist has produced. While it's been said in song that "the first cut is the deepest", for the ardent fan I think the hope is that uncovered "deep cuts" prove to be just as memorable as the first.