Ron Cobb with John Whitney Jr. and Kevin Rafferty, working together on The Last Star Fighter
One of Ron's Beautiful Bridge concepts for the Nostromos landing vehicle.
digital model of Ron's Gunship from Last Starfighter
Cantina aliens from Star War, the one on the bottom was always my favorite!
One of Cobb's political cartoons
what a dry, evil, and very funny sense of humor he has!!!
Ron on Back to the Future, Andy Probert was also a big part of the Delorian design team
what a smoke-n cool drawing!
Alien
leviathan
and total Recall, these are the Goldsmith and Cobb films
cachet art for the 25th of Goldsmith's STMP score
cachet art for Dark Star's 30th
cachet art for Starfighter's 20th
Today is Day three of Goldsmith and Cobb week and the two artists worked together on three films, I don’t know if they ever met but I am sure Ron has some of those magical moments watching his concepts come to life on the big screen with an awesome Jerry score laying a musical theme to Cobb’s imagery. The three movies are Alien, Leviathan, and Total Recall. Jerry’s score for Alien was landmark in it’s use of obscure sounds and bizzare instruments. Jerry had a way of creating frighting music with the higher end of the note scale… when you see a horror movie usually the bad guy or monster is addressed using low notes and heavy instrumentation. Goldsmith on the other hand went the other direction. if you have the complete Alien soundtrack tracks 4, the Terrain, 5, the Craft, 6,the Passage, 7, the Skeleton, 8, a new face, demonstrate that shrill and high range notes have an even more terrifying effect. On a side note Ridley Scott was using Jerry’s score to freud as a temp track while editing the movie, Some of the themes from freud actually were used in the final cut of Alien. In Jerry’s score for “Magic” a few notes drug across a Harmonica is the lead into evil. The Omen which was Jerry’s only Oscar winning score (which is in my eyes a grave injustice) he went the route of for everything good there is something evil. taking a church Choir as the main body of his theme, Jerry took the latin verses of Christian praise and changed them to Satanical lyrics. Mixed with heavy strings and an unsettling arrangement of obscure note patterns and tones, Mixed with Richard Donner’s incredible visuals this proved to be one of the most terrifying scores ever written for the screen. today in the gallery are some of Jerry’s Soundtrack covers, Illustrations from Ron Cobb’s, Alien, Back to the Future, and some aliens from Star Wars, followed by some cachets drawn to celebrate anniversaries from some of
these films. Enjoy!! Almost forgot!!! There is also a credit list of all of Jerry’s movie scores courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith on line. Go have a visit at Jason Needs awesome tribute page.
http://www.jerrygoldsmithonline.com/soundtracks.htm
images courtesy of Cinefex, Ron Cobb’s Colorvision, The Art of Star Wars, the book of Alien, and my own collection.
Soundtracks A to B Ace Eli And Rodger Of The Skies/Room 222(1973/1969) Alien (1979) Alien Nation (1988) Along Came A Spider (2001) Amazing Stories Volume 2 – Boo! (1985) Angie (1994) Air Force One (1997) Baby Secret Of The Lost Legend (1984) Bad Girls (1994) Ballad Of Cable Hogue (The) (1971) Bandolero! (1968) Basic Instinct (1992) Blue Max (The) (1966) Boys From Brazil (The) (1978) Breakout (1975) Breakheart Pass (1976) ‘Burbs (The) (1988) Soundtracks C to D Cabo Blanco (1980) Capricorn One (1978) Cassandra Crossing (The) (1977) Chain Reaction (1996) Challenge (The) (1982) Chairman (The) (1969) Chinatown (1973) Christus Apollo (concert work) (1974) City Hall (1996) City Of Fear And General With The Cockeyed ID (1961) Coma (1978) Congo (1995) Criminal Law (1988) Dennis The Menace (1993) Dr. Kildare (1961) Contract On Cherry Street (1977) Damien Omen II (original & re-recording)(1978) Deep Rising (1998) Disney’s California Adventure -Soarin (2001) Soundtracks E to F Edge (The) (1997) Escape From The Planet Of The Apes And The Mephisto Waltz (1971) Executive Decision (1996) Explorers (1985) Extreme Prejudice (1987) Fierce Creatures (1995) Film Music Of Jerry Goldsmith (The) (SACD/DSD compilation) (2001) Final Conflict (The) (1981) First Blood (1982) First Knight (1997) Flim Flam Man (The)/A Girl Named Sooner (1967/1975) Forever Young (1992) Freud (1962) Frontiers (compilation) (1997) Soundtracks G to H Ghost And The Darkness (The) (1996) Great Train Robbery (The) (1979) Gremlins (1984) Gremlins 2 The New Batch (1990) Goldsmith Conducts Goldsmith (compilation) (2002) Haunting (The) (1999) Hawkins On Murder/Winter Kill/Babe (1973/74/75) High Velocity (1974) Hollow Man (2000) Hoosiers (aka Best Shot) (1986) Hour Of The Gun (1967) Soundtracks I to J Illustrated Man (The) (1969) Inchon (1982) In Harm’s Way (1965) Innerspace (1987) Islands In The Stream (re-recording) (1977) Jericho etc (1966) Jerry’s Recall (compilation) (1993) Jerry Goldsmith The Early Years Volume One (1960s) Jerry Goldsmith At 20th Century Fox (compilation) (2004) Jerry Goldsmith 40 Years Of Film Music (compilation) (2005) Justine (original & re-recording) (1969) Soundtracks K to L King Solomon’s Mines (1985) L.A. Confidential (1997) Last Castle (The) (2001) Last Run (The)/Crosscurrent (aka Cable Car Murders (The) (1971) Legend (1985) Leviathan (1989) Lilies Of The Field (1963) Link (1986) Lionheart The Epic Symphonic Score (1987) List Of Adrian Messenger/Challenge (The) (1963/1982) Logan’s Run (1976) Lonely Are The Brave (1962) Lonely Guy (1984) Looney Tunes Back In Action (2003) Love Field (1991) Soundtracks M to N MacArthur (1977) Magic (1978) Malice (1993) Man From U.N.C.L.E. (The) Volumes 1 to 3 (1964) Masada (re-recording) (1980) Matinee (1994) Medicine Man (1992) Mephisto Waltz And The Other (1972) Mom And Dad Save The World (1991) Morituri (1967) Mr Baseball (1992) Mulan (Oscar Promo) (1998) Mulan (1998) Mummy (The) (1999) Music Of Jerry Goldsmith (The) (compilation) (2001) Night Crossing (1981) Not Without My Daughter (1991) Soundtracks O to P Omen (The) (1976) One Little Indian (1973) 100 Rifles (1969) Our Man Flint And In Like Flint (1966/67) Outland (1981) Outland And Capricorn One (re-recording) (1981/1978) Papillon (1974) Patch Of Blue (A) (1965) Patton (1970) Patton And Tora! Tora! Tora! (re-recording) (1970) Prize (The) (1962) Planet Of The Apes (Expanded) /Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (suite) (1968/71) Police Story/Medical Story (1973) Poltergeist (1982) Poltergeist II The Other Side (1986) Powder (1995) Psycho II (1983) Soundtracks Q to R QBVII (1974) Red Pony (The) (1973) Raggedy Man (1981) Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) Rambo III (1988) Ransom (1975) Reincarnation Of Peter Proud (The) (1975) Rent-A-Cop (1988) Rio Conchos (1965) Rio Conchos And The Agony And The Ecstasy Prologue (re-recording) (1989) Rio Lobo (1973) River Wild (The) (1994) Rudy (1993) Runaway (1985) Russia House (The) (1990) Soundtracks S to T Sand Pebbles (The) (1965) Satan Bug (The) 1965 Sebastian (1968) Secret Of Nimh (The) (1982) Shadow (The) (1994) Six Degrees Of Separation (1993) Sleeping With The Enemy (1991) Small Soldiers (1998) Spiral Road (The) (1962) Stagecoach And The Loner (1966) Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979) Star Trek V The Final Frontier (1989) Star Trek First Contact (1996) Star Trek Insurrection (1998) Star Trek Nemesis (2002) Star Trek Voyager (1995) Stripper (The)/Nick Quarry (1963/1968) Suites And Themes (compilation) (1987) Sum Of All Fears (The) (2002) Supergirl (1984) Studs Lonigan (1962) Swarm (The) (1978) Take A Hard Ride (1975) 13th Warrior (1999) Timeline (2003) Tribute To Jerry Goldsmith (A) (compilation) (SPFM) (1993) Tora, Tora, Tora (1970) Total Recall (1990) Travelling Executioner (The) (1970) Trouble With Angels (The) And Stagecoach (re-recording) (1966) Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977) Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) Twilight Zone TV Series (box set) (1963) Two Days In The Valley (1996) Soundtracks U to Z Under Fire (1983) U.S. Marshals (1997) Vanishing (The) (1993) Von Ryan’s Express And Our Man Flint/In Like Flint (re-recordings) (1964) Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea – Jonah And The Whale (1965) Warlock (1989) Wild Rovers (1971) Wind And The Lion (The) (1975)
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
Cool, I had no idea he designed all those Cantina aliens. The Ithorian (hammerhead) sure is a cool and truly alien alien, I hope we’ll get some aliens like that in the new Star Trek movie(s). I used one of Cobb’s cartoons in school some weeks ago. The students were quite impressed when I told them that he had also done major design work on Alien. 🙂
I didn’t know either until the art of SW came out in the late 70’s
That is some very impressive work there.
The gunship from the last starfighter is one of my Fav, such a cool ship.
I never Andy Probert worked on Back to the Future. (My Favoirte Trilogy as a kid.)
I agree that drawing of inside the Delorian, Sweet!!
Very cool artwork. I always loved “The Last StarFighter” a very underrated movie, when it comes to design and effects!
I watch that one often and Tron too. my little daughter loves em both
Dude, you’re makin’ my day, these are awesome! This reminds my of workin’ back in the comic-book store and talkin’ geek-speak for hours with my customers and friend/boss.
The Last Starfighter. Ya know, that film was sO ahead of its time, and was such a monumental undertaking! Sure, today it might look a tad cheesy by comparison, but that film’s VFX were literally the dawn of VFX all over again! What they went through just to build Ron’s Gun-Ship. Plotting that thing point-by-point on a CAD-like system, with no visual interface at first! OMG! Makes today’s CG model buildin’ a cake-walk by comparison. IIRC, I believe Ron even had his hand at building CG models himself on that show. Amazing story, that production is.
And on a side note, Ron’s (sorta) unused Heli-Jet design for Alien ended up as a pretty cheesy full-scale prop in TLS, as the alien assassin’s ship. It did end up in Alien as well, only as a very striped-down version seen only in the shadows for a second. I loved the design so much (that I first glimpsed in Starlog as a matter of fact), that it stuck with me for over 30 years, to a point that I finally ended up building it in CG (it’s on my site).
And Jerry! I’ll tell ya, the first moment I heard the Klingon theme and then “the beam” at the beginning of ST: TMP, that was it. I went right to the record store (remember records! still have all of mine!). I wore that LP album out like 3 times! That and John’s Star Wars, and again <Alien. I used to just play those (and still do!) over and over and over again. Those were the first ones that started my life-long love and collecting of soundtracks, with Jerry being right up there. Capricorn One, Logan’s Run, Outland, Planet of the Apes, Patton, the Trek films, etc. Oh, and later, The 13th Warrior, what a perfect score! And Powder, sublimely beautiful and gentle themes. And his orchestration of Alex North’s original 2001: a space odyssey, what a gift to us to bring that in to the full light of appreciation!
I have what I call the “soundtrack of my life” and Jerry is a HUGE contributor to it. Him, and all the sci-fi soundtracks composers, as well as the bands, RUSH and YES.
Oh, and that’s Hammerhead, your fav cantina alien there John. Not his name of course, just what he was referred to as in production and later on the action-figure blister-packs cards.
Thanks dude, such a gas talkin’ geek with ya. Could go on for hours, eh. 😀
LLP,
deg
I believe we have lived the same life except I worked in a grocery store!
Oh, and AWESOME cachets, dude. Just awesome! 😀
PLL,
deg
Thanks,, making those cachets is a kinda cheat way to be a part of something your a fan of,,, You should give it a go!
Wow! Appreciation is growing with knowledge of Ron Cobb’s body of work. Always liked The Last Starfighter ship a lot. The DeLorean drawing – definitely awesome! The SW aliens?! Very cool!
I’ve enjoyed Jerry’s music for a long time, but didn’t realize the scope of his influence on me. I remember vividly hearing the Twilight Zone music when I was about 3 years old and stopping to stare at the TV, mesmermized by the tones. Love the insight into his revolution of the “evil” music…it’s certainly a recognizable trait.
Those are your cachet art productions, right? What an honor and joy to be able to do that work, you must have really enjoyed it.
yeah and it’s time to up those to 25th and 35th’s this Summer, I have most of Jerry’s work as complete scores. The tracks that get cut when the Companies make the CD’s are by far the best musical pieces!
This is some quality stuff you’re posting about these two. I already knew Jerry was da man, but I didn’t know much about Ron Cobb until you started posting all this awesome concept work he did. I love Back to the Future, Alien, Total Recall and Star Wars.
I was noticing on the Star Wars Cantina Aliens sheet that the blue one at the top kind looks like the race we’d come to know in the prequel movies as a Neimoidian. And, I’m with you, I’ve always liked the alien on the bottom (an Ithorian) ever since I first saw the movie as a kid. The Cantina scene has always been my favorite scene from that movie.
And speaking of Alien, this year marks the 30th anniversary (easy for me to remember, ’cause it’s as old as I am ;)) does anybody know if Fox has anything special planned? I Googled it but mostly got forums with people asking the same question.
http://www.wonderfest.com/flyer.html
this is the only thing I know of!!! If you can make it here, GO!!! Wonderfest is one awesome event and once you go you’ll be a regular!!!
Saddly as I am in the UK am not able to attend these things in the States.
If I could I would be doing the SFM Meet and Greet USA. there are a bunch of guys from that site, meeting up at Niagara Falls, for the New Trek movie.
Getting Back to Wonderfest, do you do these sort of event in the UK?
Damn, I wish I could afford to take the time off and stay in a hotel ’cause I live just a few hours from Louisville. (too long to make it a day trip)
There was a time I could remember every film I’d ever been to watch at an actual cinema. Now I need to see the poster for Leviathan to remind me that I went to see it, in, what, 1990 I think. I can even remember WHO I saw it with. . . but can’t remember anything about the film itself. Apart from it starred Amanda Pays, with her English accent that no-one else in the entire country has! To paraphrase Cary Grant, we don’t talk like that!
Great article about two of my favorite artists, though I think you made a slight Freudian slip. Sir Ridley Scott temp tracked “Alien” with portions of Goldsmith’s score to “Freud,” a figure whom many consider a fraud.
By the way, I have a tenuous connection to Mr. Cobb: he provided one of his acid cartoons for a newspaper (of a political bent) that my father edited in his college years. I think I have a scan somewhere, if you should like to add it to your Cobb-collection.
Thanks and I’ll go fix my Fraud-ian slip!!! HAA! and yes I would love to see your dad’s cartoon!
Sure thing! I’m not sure if it can be attached to one of these replies, and I haven’t any web-hosting services, but my e-mail is entered on all of my comments, so feel free to shoot me a message and I can reply with el cartoon. Oh, and feel free to delete this extraneous post once read.
I realized I could just upload the cartoon to my Flickr account. Et voilà:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/profksergeev/3469441230/
johneaves: I believe we have lived the same life except I worked in a grocery store!
Yep, did that gig too eh, stock-boy, and later on cashier. John and deg, sep’ed at birth. We would have been fast friends if we lived on the same block, eh. Ah, me G.I. Joe collection, and all that other stuff yu mention over at Doug’s. I had ’em all, eh. We’d been going’ at it non-stop! A-Team! I blew up a lot of my stuff on Super 8mm eh. The early daze of filmmaking, LOL. At least it all gave it’s life for a good cause. I still have my Gemini G.I. Joe capsule though! 😀
johneaves: Thanks,, making those cachets is a kinda cheat way to be a part of something your a fan of,,, You should give it a go!
No prob. And sure sure, I have done graphic design fan stuff for fun in the past, eh. 😉
LLP,
deg
I think the Last Starfighter was one of my favorite movies of all time. I always wanted to fly a Gunstar! Back in the day when cable had like 10 channels and you had that little box on top of your TV with the switches to change the channel, the Disney Channel used to show this movie many times over. I never tired of it and love it to this day! Guess I was enjoying Ron’s work and didn’t even know it! 🙂
Jerry’s Alien score was definitely creepy-tastic! Alien… :: shudder :: man do those things give me the creeps. My exposure to them was when I was 10. It was a Sunday night and I was waiting to watch The Flash on CBS, which was usually on at 8:00. Instead, CBS was playing a Sunday night movie and that particular night it was Aliens. I watched for a bit thinking maybe it would be over soon and The Flash would be on soon. Needless to say, that didn’t happen and that night I had nightmares about Bishop crawling through that duct and aliens chasing me.
A few years down the road, TNT would play Alien a lot on Saturday (loved Sci-fi Saturdays!) and I remember thinking that the score to the movie really added a lot of ambiance to it. Later when I found out it was a Goldsmith score, I just smiled and said to myself, “That would be why!”
It is amazing how similar all of our life stories are!!!!! Utterly amazing
deg and John – I used to work at a grocery store when I was in high school as a bagger. Good ol’ IGA. “Would you like paper or plastic.” Builds character, right? 😉
HAAAA! that’s for sure!
I buy groceries at an IGA every Friday or Saturday 🙂
Actually Matt, I do think the customer-service jobs are a great opportunity to build good character traits, if you perform them in the right spirit and with the right attitude of providing efficient service with a smile. I still hold that same work-ethic 30 years later.
And I find it so refreshing when I come across a kid with that same type of work-ethic. Reminds me of myself when I was a kid workin’. I always enjoyed being of friendly service to others, and folks used to line up in my check-out aisle to check-out because of my smile and my friendly and efficient nature (and told me so on many an occasions, as I do when I meet like-minded kids these days), or always went out of their way to find me in the stores aisles (and told me so) to ask me where stuff was when I was a stock-boy, of which I knew where EVERY SINGLE ITEM was EXACTLY located in that store, and would take the customer right to that place, cheerfully. Rare when I find a kid with that level of store knowledge these days, but nice when I do. 😀
Heck, I even liked the “grumpy” customers. I would always just “kill ’em with kindness,” and they liked me for it. Everyone needs a kind turn eh, esp. grumpy bitter folks that live to bitch at and try to upset stock-boys. Never worked with me though, as I’d have them smiling instead. 😀
So yeah, it does builds good character dude. Or at least it can, if you have the right heart in it, for customer-service jobs. 🙂
LLP,
deg
this is very crazy, This was EXACTLY the same experience working in the store,,, We are the same,,,
MY BROTHER,,, OR IS IT,,,,,,,CLOAN!!!
CLONE!!! Soory!
Hahaha! So true! Wow, talk about a flood of memories coming back to me. One of the jobs of the baggers at our store was to “face” the store (bring all the product up to the front of the shelves and make it look pretty) when we weren’t bagging groceries. I got to the point where I could tell people exactly where to find a particular item.
Now, I answer emails in the E-Commerce department at a credit union. I particularly like the crusty members and make it a personal challenge to make that person smile (as much as they can through email). I’ve definitely learned some tact in telling people no but not making it sound like such a bad thing!
This is for both you and Deg,,, Did you have Skippy dog food in a can???? we did and they had a problem with the canning process where on any given day in the summer, the contents would go bad and build up pressure until the evil inside would find a weakness in the can,,, usually just a pin hole size and you would hear that kind of high pitched whistle like when you bite a tiny hole in the corner of a balloon, Then that smell would hit you in the face like you fell into the sewer plant!!! Oh yeah and what about Whole chicken in a can,, i would occasionally throw those in shoppers carts and when i would ring them up later ask what they did with this canned yard fowl??? the answers were always hysterical.
Yes!! Hahaha! Oh man! Spent many a shift cleaning up the Skippy dog food. Bleh!! And the whole chicken in a can – that had me on the floor laughing! We had one can of that stuff that sat on the shelf for the entire 4 1/2 years that I worked at that store. The shelf life of that thing was rediculous. We (the baggers) used to try so many different ways to get someone to buy it. We’d make fancy little signs, set it out on it’s own display table, the whole works. Nobody ever gave it a second glance. Finally, on my last day, I convinced my manager to let me open it up. What was inside was I believe part of Armus from “Skin of Evil.” So gross! Of course, after a few gagging moments, we laughed our backsides off!
HAAAAAAAA! I bought one and opened it too and almost died looking at what was inside,,, once you got thru that stinky broth there was that pile of soft indescribable, unidentifiable chick mung caked at the bottom. It looked like the can was put in one of those paint mixers at home depot before they went to the markets.In the 7 years there the only one we ever sold was the one I bought.
HA, The Flash, I used to love that show! And Alien, my bud and I had to sneak in to see it, as the lady carded us at the box-office and we didn’t have IDs. Hey, we just rode an hour and a half on three buses to get here, you aren’t gonna stop us now lady! We would have been happy to pay, but no. She was just doin’ her job though. But we weren’t ridin” an hour and a half on three buses back home without seeing what looked to be the best monster movie ever! And it was! So sorry movie theater, we owe ya two, eh.
And John, from before a while back; yeah summer of ’82 was thee best summer of movies, EVER!
LLP,
deg
Like I said Johnny-boy, sep’d at birth it seems! Or test-tube, LOL! 😉
LLP,
deg
johneaves: It is amazing how similar all of our life stories are!!!!! Utterly amazing
We are indeed the picture of sci-fi geek brethren, eh. 😀
LLP,
deg
You mean all this time there were TWO?! Oh man, good thing I didn’t know or I would have had to go into hiding expecting the end of the world! Well, now at least we’re all friends and the world survived!! 🙂
Now I know why I lack character and am such a mean person…I starting my working career as a clerk in a medical office. It’s really hard to make a file smile, so I stopped trying!
I stand corrected THREE!! Wow, with Matt in there, the Geek Stooges are complete. Although somehow I get the feeling I’m surrounded by many more in this community.
If I’d been surrounded by more than just John in my impressionable teen years, I would have missed a lot less of the great stuff I did…now I’m playing catch up!
do you remember Darcie’s Discoveries???
I love that Mr. Cobb’s realism shows up even in the cantina aliens, in their body language leaning on a bar, and in their facial expressions. They were design sketches, yes, but they told a story and put some ‘character’ into the characters.
And something I have observed before – rightly or wrongly – when I have looked at Jerry Goldsmith’s long, long career: many times, he was far better, and the scores he produced were far better, than the films they went into. I don’t think John Williams has an “Inchon” on his resumè 🙂 I am hugely admiring of people like Jerry, though, who have an amazing work ethic and just work and work and work. The more you work your craft, the better at it you get, and Goldsmith was one of the very best.
You aren’t kidding many of these films are unwatchable yet the score soars high above what it was meant for!! Supergirl is one of those and the thing I just don’t get are how many of his scores were rejected only to be replaced with contemporary music, Legend for example is unbelievable and it got tossed, That to me would be like filming a movie and when it’s all cut and edited deciding to cut out the scenes with the main star in it and replace him with someone secondary. I still can’t figure this one out!!!!! After I have seen the movies where this has happened I stand by the conclusion that final would have played better with Goldsmith!!! Although with Legend I do like it with both Scores, Jerry’s would get the most votes though!
johneaves: Legend for example is unbelievable and it got tossed,…
Oh don’t even get me started on that one! Big pet-peeve of mine is anachronistic music in films. Ladyhawk is another that killed me. It so dates a film and turns greatness into bilge-tripe. The 80s were big on that non-sense.
LLP,
deg