THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984)

With 1984's THE LAST STARFIGHTER, I finally understood that I could purposefully seek out and purchase soundtracks made available from select films.  With luck, this included movies whose music I really loved.  This was the first album that I searched through local record stores for and, following empty-handed results, wound up special ordering it from one establishment.  I believe the store was called Tracks, but it might also have been Cassette World.  It now seems utterly amazing that there was a chain of music stores solely focused so intently on cassette tapes.  Did the owners not see the writing on the wall when 8-track tapes went extinct?

The LP was listed in their onsite catalog, which at that time exceeded the bulk of a phone book by at least six times and was held together in giant, finger-pinching three-ring binders (wow, shout-outs for 8-tracks, cassettes and phone books means this entry is solely for the over-30 crowd).  What was fantastic, and really added to the heft of these catalogs, was that track titles were listed for each album.  This allowed me to form an idea of what music from the movie was included, so my imagination certainly could get fired up. I spent hours perusing those catalogs, it's a wonder other store patrons didn't confuse me with the staff.

It took about 6 weeks for the album to arrive and I was notified by a simple postcard from the record store.  It was amazing to finally own it, peel off the cellophane and slap that LP onto my turntable.  It featured most of the best cues of the score, but I knew from having watched it repeatedly on HBO that there was much more great music heard in the film that didn't make the cut.   I learned that this was par for the course back then, due to the limitations of the LP medium (around 20-23 minutes per side) and the cost for any record label to produce a soundtrack (double orchestra fees).  Regardless, I loved every minute imprinted on that vinyl.

Composer Craig Safan's score was brimming with melody, excitement, bubbling electronics and powerful brass passages.  In his liner notes on the back of the album, Safan mentioned that classical composer Jean Sibelius was his inspiration on THE LAST STARFIGHTER, more so than Gustav Holst, who's concert work entitled "The Planets" had become a favorite temporary track for science fiction cinema.  Safan's comments spurred me on to investigate the music of Sibelius, soon listening for his works on the local classical radio station.  During those years, I frequently recorded classical radio broadcasts, learning more about the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky and their respective influences on the world of film scores.

By this time in 1984, my family and I had moved from Odessa, Texas to Durham, North Carolina.  It actually occurred during the previous Summer, that great big cinematic season of RETURN OF THE JEDI, WARGAMES and competing James Bond installments.  All five of us initially lived in a 2-bedroom apartment for six months before finally landing in a 4-bedroom house.  Imagine three kids, ages 5 to 10, all crammed into one room, each in a twin bed, somehow finding room for our respective toys and games.   Maybe surprisingly, the number of blow-ups and spats between us were few, but I like to believe that our family's frequent moves really helped bond my sisters and I together as friends, our main constant companions when everything else around kept shifting.

Inexplicably, it was in this same small space the three of us shared that I decided to build a life-size (read: kid-size) X-wing fighter from STAR WARS, utilizing cardboard boxes and large colored paper.  I was obsessed with building things from cardboard at that time, sometimes trolling for boxes in the neighborhood, probably looking like a pint-size hobo.  Often the subjects were playsets which my parents could never afford to purchase me, such as those pricey and popular accommodations for action figures, the Ewok village and Castle Grayskull.  Bizarrely, I even attempted a life-size tank a few years later.  Of course, I never achieved much beyond the cockpit and with this particular endeavor, my X-wing craft had no "wings", no nose and no engines.  Thank goodness there was at least enough ship constructed for my cardboard R2 unit.  It really speaks to both my sisters' patience and tolerance that neither of them tore it apart with their bare hands.

Around three years ago, composer Craig Safan attended a CD signing at a local store in Burbank.  I was able to attend and it was amazing to bring with me this LP of his LAST STARFIGHTER score, have him sign it and relay my story to him.  It's a special time capsule of my 1984, now having been ferried across several state lines and into Los Angeles.  On a final note, I was overjoyed when an expanded edition was released by Intrada Records so that fans could enjoy even more of the music on disc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lN4Pcl_iEY