John Williams – Theme from Jaws
An evening pause: Performed by the Boston Pops orchestra.
Hat tip to Phil Berardelli, author of Phil’s Favorite 500: Loves of a Moviegoing Lifetime. As Phil noted to me, “The audience seems to love it.” I think many of them had seen the film, and when they heard that first note couldn’t help feeling a deep down bit of squeamish nervousness about what it signified.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
As Jack Black’s character noted in the movie “The Holliday”:
“Two notes, and you’ve got a villain.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSHuVnL-ghw#t=86
Thanks, Bob. Spielberg has told two stories about the creation of the “Jaws” theme. In the first, he described the first conference he had with Williams about the possible music for the movie. He said he had in mind something sinister and creepy, such as the score Williams had composed for Robert Altman’s “Images” in 1972 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBTp56cdBY). Williams reacted to the suggestion by saying, “No, no, no, dear boy! This is a pirate movie!” He meant that his concept for “Jaws” would convey a sense of high adventure, particularly in the second half of the movie, where it’s three men in a boat against the shark. Spielberg’s second story was about the day Williams invited him to hear what he had composed. Sitting in Williams’s living room, Spielberg heard Williams play the now-famous shark theme with two fingers on the piano, including the pauses. When Williams finished, Spielberg said he laughed and thought it was a joke. “No, no,” Williams said, again, “this is it.” I think we can safely say Williams was right on both counts. And as Spielberg eventually wrote about Williams for the movie score’s album cover, “He has made our movie more adventurous, gripping and phobic than I ever thought possible.” Indeed!