{"id":2312,"date":"2015-03-07T17:17:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T17:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2022-08-26T08:28:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T08:28:40","slug":"what-i-learned-from-geoff-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/what-i-learned-from-geoff-love\/","title":{"rendered":"What I learned from Geoff Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Geoff<\/a>A recent Facebook discussion made me all nostalgic for a classic of my childhood, Geoff Love\u2019s Star Wars and Other Space Themes<\/em>. I wondered if it was available on Amazon and, blow me down \u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably rare for a cheesy easy listening covers album to hold a special place in one\u2019s heart, but it does for me, and I can think of at least two friends in the sf community who have admitted similar feelings. Why? Well, because I learned a lot from this album.<\/p>\n

No prizes for guessing that my sole reason for buying it, at the age of 13, in 1978, was to get hold of the Star Wars<\/em> theme. As far as I was concerned this LP was a single with an A side and a lot of B sides. I had seen the movie once by this stage, and remembered the music as being quite good. For some reason I had it in my head that it was a bit like the theme to Born Free<\/em>. (At least, it goes up and down in an approximately similar way.)<\/p>\n

And I learned \u2026<\/p>\n

I began to learn new things just from the cover, which featured a montage of people and ships that were obviously based on the shows depicted on the album \u2026 but weren\u2019t. That wasn\u2019t Luke and Leia. (\u2018Luke\u2019 is more like a bizarre Luke\/Han hybrid.) That ship might be based on a Federation design but it\u2019s not the Enterprise<\/em>. There\u2019s a space station which may or may not be the one from 2001<\/em>, except that it seems to have part of a third ring which somehow gets lost.<\/p>\n

And there was a fairly straightforward rendition of Jane Fonda as Barbarella, which no 13 year old boy was ever going to complain about.<\/p>\n

So, I learned that artists can have fun riffing off other artist\u2019s work. I\u2019m sure all the rights were paid \u2013 no one was getting ripped off \u2013 but why confirm mindlessly to what is when you have your own idea of what could be?<\/p>\n

I also learned a few things from the track list, like the very existence of Things to Come<\/em>, the aforesaid Barbarella<\/em>, and Quatermass<\/em>. I decided I would seek these things out and find out more, and am glad I did.<\/p>\n

And then there was the music, which brings me back to the first point \u2013 artists having fun by being inspired. The title track is a straight orchestral rendition of the Star Wars<\/em> theme, and as that was what I bought it for, I can\u2019t really complain. Other straight orchestral pieces are Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War”, a thankfully abridged version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and the theme to Things to Come<\/em>. But the rest \u2026 Different versions of Star Trek<\/em> and Thunderbirds<\/em> and U.F.O.<\/em> and Space: 1999<\/em> and \u2026 and \u2026 With everything from orchestra to sax to 1970s wacka-wacka electric guitar, sometimes in the same track (and something else I didn\u2019t know and could not have appreciated at the time: the legendary Herbie Flowers on bass. I didn\u2019t know that bass existed, though could probably have worked out that something must be making those deep notes).<\/p>\n

And, what the hell was Princess Leia\u2019s theme, I wondered? I only knew the title music: I didn\u2019t recognise any others. But the next time I watched Star Wars,<\/em> now that I knew of its existence, I was able to pick it out of the background music. Since then I\u2019ve learned to listen to what is going on as well as watch it, and that has helped me enjoy movies on a different level to simple childlike reception.<\/p>\n

And an extremely boppy version of Doctor Who<\/em>, which at first irritated the hell out of me because I accepted no substitutes. But, you know, it grew on me \u2026 And I had no idea there would come a time when I would look back on it and wish we could have that one instead of the Bontempi drek that assaulted us during the 80s. Again, artists having fun, coming up with new ideas, fresh expressions, and why not?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t take my word for it.<\/p>\n