Son of Jaws

You must surely remember the theme from Jaws, which remains in the opinion of this very occasional film viewer one of the best films of all time. It went something like this: “Duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn.” Classic stuff.

It’s a classic piece of music written by John Williams who is surely, unarguably the greatest movie score composer of them all. Think of a great movie and there is a real chance he wrote the music. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, Superman and that’s just scratching the surface of this incredible man’s CV.

I know next to nothing about Williams other than his amazing work until I was reading an interview with – and sorry to go on about this – Toto’s genius of a guitar player Steve Lukather. ‘Luke’ as us Toto fans call him was explaining how he used to go to practice music at his friend’s house, upsetting his father who was downstairs creating some of the greatest cinematic music ever. And then I put two and two together and thought – Hmm! Toto’s lead singer is Joseph Williams. Could they be in any way related? Well, of course they could be because John obviously was Joseph’s dad and the embryonic Toto, barely out of short trousers, was disturbing him whilst he prepared, “Duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn” or some other memorable piece of genius that made the movies even more special.

And then I went to Facebook two days ago and, yes, to one of the Toto Facebook groups, and there were some pictures of the band in Scandinavia posing for a photograph with a man wearing an HH coat and there, on the left, was Joseph Williams. I should emphasise that I have known for a few years that Joseph was John’s son, but what made me smile was the T shirt he was wearing: it was a picture of Bruce the shark, the mechanical anti-hero from Jaws. Apropos nothing, I have attached the photograph to go with this blogpost.

Toto often play a snatch from Jaws in between songs and I suspect, given the types of anorak (like me) who attend Toto shows they all know the significance. I am struggling to get over the truly wonderful show I saw in Hammersmith last May and I am playing their albums more than ever. I appreciate they do not represent the hippest of hipsters but I am too old to care. At least they are making new music to go with the old and that means they are not yet totally a heritage band. But even if they were, I’d still go and see the son of Jaws.