John Williams: A Composer’s Legacy

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
You're listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz, the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

**Dallas Taylor** (0:10)
I'm Dallas Taylor.
In our last episode, we explored the early life and career of legendary film composer John Williams. John got his start as a session piano player, recording with orchestras and pop singers, and then started composing for film and TV. In the early 70s, he teamed up with a young Steven Spielberg and scored two of his early blockbusters, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Through Spielberg, John met George Lucas and created the iconic music for Star Wars. By the end of the 1970s, John was the hottest composer in Hollywood, scoring huge films like the 1978 Superman movie.
The star of Superman, the late Christopher Reeve, loved John's music, and even showed up for the recording sessions. In the liner notes for a Superman music compilation, John said, quote, he was kind of a fan. He would sit next to the podium or sit in the recording room. And also later films that I did, Chris would come around, sometimes even unannounced, and just sit and enjoy listening to the orchestra. In 1979, John was back with his friend, Steven Spielberg.

**Tim Greiving** (1:28)
And after two consecutive hits, Spielberg is on top of the world.

**Dallas Taylor** (1:32)
That's Tim Greiving, author of John Williams, A Composer's Life.

**Tim Greiving** (1:36)
He gets his proverbial blank check to make his next movie, which is 1941, which is a, in my opinion, horrible whiff of something attempting to be a comedy, set during World War II. It's a great score.

**Dallas Taylor** (1:53)
But as for the film itself, well, if you've never heard of Steven Spielberg's 1941, there's probably a reason for that. Here's Roger Ebert's take.

**Roger Ebert** (2:02)
With all his huge box office successes, even Steven Spielberg is human, and even Spielberg can make a stinker, and the big stinker of his career was a 1979 movie named 1941, a critical and box office disaster that was supposed to be a nonstop slapstick comedy but only really qualified in the nonstop department.

**Tim Greiving** (2:22)
So it's coming off that that he makes Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he does to prove himself and to prove that he can make a film on budget and on time that works, that's tight, that's fun.

**Dallas Taylor** (2:34)
The character of Indiana Jones was created by George Lucas and inspired by the action serials of the 1930s. George imagined him as an adventurer slash archaeologist who would explore exotic locations and fight evil villains. Spielberg loved the idea and the two of them developed the movie together.
Here's Lucas giving a toast to John Williams at an AFI award ceremony.

**George Lucas** (2:58)
Steve and I sat on the beach to talk about the story for Indy, and instantly, we both said at the same time, John has to write the music. Steve said, great, that's the most important part. Let's go have lunch and we can write the story later.

**Tim Greiving** (3:17)
On Raiders, John had two possible themes, and he played both of them for Spielberg, and Spielberg just said, can't we just use them both? So the Raiders March, which has kind of two parts, if you think about it, is the two alternate ideas that he demoed for Spielberg, which I like.

**Dallas Taylor** (3:34)
The first melody is one idea. Shortly after, we hear the second one.
Now, Indy isn't a soldier, so it's interesting that John composed a military-style march for the character.

**Tim Greiving** (4:03)
If you think about it, it's like, why does Indiana Jones have a march? I think what John Williams was tapping into was this nostalgia we have for past adventures. Like when we hear a march, it reminds us of something you might hear at a Fourth of July parade.

**Dallas Taylor** (4:19)
George Lucas jokingly compared Raiders music to Hogan's Heroes, a 60s sitcom set during World War II. Here's that show's credits theme.

**Tim Greiving** (4:32)
There's just something kind of subtly comforting and throwback about the sound of a march and a marching band that fit with that character and with that adventure.

**Dallas Taylor** (4:50)
The early 80s were a whirlwind for John. He married his second wife, Samantha Winslow, who he met through some of the work he did for a PBS station. And he had back-to-back hits with The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

**Tim Greiving** (5:03)
He's just sort of on fire as a composer and working with directors who are giving him these amazing canvases. On top of all that, an interesting and important thing that happens in 1980 is he becomes the conductor of the Boston Pops.