We lost composer Mark Snow on July 4th. He was 78 years old. When I was young, I can perfectly recall the disgust and uneasiness that my dad would project whenever a favorite Hollywood figure or big band composer would pass away. He would yell into the other room where my mother was and say something like "Betty! James Cagney died! I remember when he was a young man! Everybody's dying!"
I never gave it much thought back then, as those people seemed to be some kind of relic or fossil. My dad would add later "Never get old, boys!" (Though he'd also often say "Never get married!...and if you DO get married, never have kids!")
I feel like everyone who reads this blog probably has a deep love for The X-Files. And if you feel that love, you probably know the show's composer by name. His music was as much a part of that show as the two main characters. I wonder if the show would have been as popular had he not scored every episode. Would the aliens have been as horrifying? Would those wonderful moments between Scully and Mulder have been as touching?
Absolutely not.
Here's to a man who made an enormous impact on this guy.
It's rough getting old and seeing your favorites pass on.
Everybody's dying.
Click below for the absolute perfect example of Mr. Snow's talents...
5 comments:
The X-Files was one of the last things that I would have considered ‘appointment viewing’. We were ALWAYS seated and ready for the creepy opening strains of that iconic theme.
Personally, I believe that Snow’s musical contributions to that show were as much of a character as anything that appeared on the screen.
I’ve definitely noticed that I’ve advanced to the stage where deaths like these conjure reminiscence from decades gone by.
I also have similar childhood recollections of my father announcing these types of milestones.
I’m sure there were others, but I distinctly remember him announcing the deaths of both Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner to the entire house as though they were Earth-shattering events and he was the town crier. (followed by “I remember when….”)
Of course, for the three young boys, it didn’t merit so much as a shrug…after all, those were old people, right? Isn’t that just what old people do?
At the time, it wasn’t at all clear to me that he wasn’t exclusively announcing their passing. On some level, he was also recognizing the personal implications of time’s passage.
It’s safe to say that the picture has become just a wee bit clearer these days.
With the recent loss of folks like Mark Snow and David Lynch, and with people like John Williams at 93 and even Danny Elfman in his 70s (!), etc., I don’t think it’s entirely melodramatic to say that an artistic era is coming to an end.
Can’t say I’m a big fan of it.
The X-Files is an all time favorite series of mine. Everyone has to go sometime.
I loved his musical talent - defintely took the show to another level. As they say, "It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in."
Mr. Haunted Eve here...
As others have commented, as famous people closer to our own age and era pass, it does really start to hit close to home. Having grown up watching all sorts of old movies and TV shows from the 1940s through the 1960s, a lot of the old time movie and TV stars were "already old" in my mind or already had passed away by my time. Just recently we watched an old time favorite, "Murder By Death" and the sad reality was "Who from this movie isn't dead?" And the results were a grim reminder. But even worse, a plethora of stars have passed away recently that were etched in my mind as forever youthful (e.g. Val Kilmer in Real Genius). There's a series of lines in the 1984 movie Spinal Tap when the main band members are visiting Elvis's grave and the conversation goes:
"Well, this is thoroughly depressing."
"It really puts perspective on things, though, doesn't it?"
"Too much f'ing perspective!"
I am in that "too much perspective" category now!
The inexorable passage of time. You may notice it more when you get to my age (73).
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