103: James Versus James

Melodic Treks: A Star Trek Music Podcast

James Horner's score for Aliens. Hot off the success of works such as Cocoon, Krull, Brainstorm, 48 HRS., and his two Star Trek sequels, James Horner was hired to score Aliens. Unfortunately, Horner’s experience on Aliens was one of the worst of his career. Thinking he had six weeks to write and record the score, Horner arrived on set to find Cameron still in the middle of editing, and pre-occupied with the film’s sound effects. The relationship between the two men deteriorated to such an extent that the two men would not reconcile for almost a decade, until they eventually came together to work on Titanic in 1997.

In this episode of Melodic Treks, host Brandon-Shea Mutala is joined by Carl Wonders to discuss James Horner's Academy Award nominated score to the 1986 film Aliens. We talk about working with director James Cameron, self plagiarism, chopping up the score, and Die Hard.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Welcome to Melodic Treks (00:01:00) Trouble on the Set (00:09:00) Chopping it Up (00:13:00) "Combat Drop" (00:21:07) James Cameron's Thoughts (00:25:55) "Bishop's Countdown" (00:30:14) Self Referencing (00:35:25) "Going After Newt" (00:39:51) Aram Khachaturian's "Gayane Ballet Suite (Adagio)" (00:45:01) "Main Title" (00:50:39) "Combat Drop (percussion only)" (00:56:52) "Resolution And Hyperspace" (01:04:56) Final Thoughts and Finding Carl (01:10:11) Closing (01:19:26) Host Brandon-Shea Mutala Guest Carl Wonders Production Brandon-Shea Mutala (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Tony Robinson (Associate Producer) Stephen Boyd (Associate Producer) Bobby Tucker (Associate Producer) Chris Tribuzio (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Tony Robinson (Show Art) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)