1) John Towner Willi… Read Full Bio ↴There are at least five artists with this name;
1) John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. The classical music critic Marcus Paus argues that Williams' "satisfying way of embodying complex dissonances and avant-garde techniques within a larger tonal framework" makes him "one of the great composers of any century".
Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops's principal conductor from 1980 to 1993, and is currently the orchestra's laureate conductor.
Williams has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Williams composed the score for eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (adjusted for inflation).
John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. Williams has said of his lineage, "My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker. [...] People with those roots are not inclined to be lazy."
Williams married Barbara Ruick, an American actress and singer, in 1956. Together they had three children: Jennifer (b. 1956), Mark Towner Williams (b. 1958), and Joseph (b. 1960), who is the lead singer of Toto. The two remained married until her death in 1974. In 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer.
2) John Christopher Williams is a classical guitar player.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, on 24 April 1941, to an English father (Len Williams) and an Australian-Chinese mother, Williams was taught initially by his father. At the age of twelve he went to Italy to study under "The Maestro," Andrés Segovia. Later, he attended the Royal College of Music in London, studying piano because the school did not have a guitar department at the time. Upon graduation, he was offered the opportunity to create such a department. He seized the opportunity and ran it for the first two years. Williams has maintained links with the College (and with the Northern College in Manchester) ever since.
Williams is best known as a classical guitarist, but has explored many different musical traditions. He has collaborated with Julian Bream and Paco Peña and was a member of the fusion group Sky. He is also a composer and arranger.
Williams has commissioned guitar concertos from composers such as Stephen Dodgson, André Previn, Patrick Gowers, Richard Harvey, and Steve Gray. He has also worked with composers from his native Australia, including Phillip Houghton, Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards (composer), and Nigel Westlake, to produce guitar works that capture the spirit of his homeland.
He enjoyed a worldwide hit single with his recording of Cavatina by Stanley Myers, used as the theme tune to the Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter (1979). The piece had originally been written for piano, for another film ten years earlier, The Walking Stick (1970) but re-written for guitar and expanded by Myers at Williams' invitation. In 1973, Cleo Laine wrote lyrics and recorded the song "He Was Beautiful" accompanied by John Williams. A year later, it was a top-five UK hit single for Iris Williams (no relation).
At the invitation of producer Martin Lewis he created a highly acclaimed classical-rock fusion duet with celebrated rock guitarist Pete Townshend of Townshend's anthemic "Won't Get Fooled Again" for the 1979 Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. The duet was featured on the resulting album and the film version of the show – bringing Williams to the broader attention of the rock audience.
The relationship with Lewis led to Williams' classical-rock fusion band Sky being invited to give the first-ever rock concert to be held at Westminster Abbey – a benefit concert for Amnesty that Lewis produced in February 1981.
He is visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Williams and his artist wife Kathy Panama reside in London and Australia.
3) John Williams
John Williams is internationally regarded as one of the foremost players of Irish music today. With five All-Ireland titles to his credit, John is the only American-born competitor ever to win first place in the "senior concertina" category. His additional talents on flute, button accordion, bodhran, and piano distinguish him as a much sought after multi-instrumentalist in the acoustic scene around the world.
Born and raised on the Southwest Side of Chicago, John spent his summers during college on the Southwest coast of Ireland in his father’s village of Doolin, Co. Clare. Like Chicago, Doolin became a major musical crossroads for John and countless other local and international musicians to meet and exchange music. Gigging every night in the pubs of Doolin and Lisdoonvarna soon led to performances in Galway, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Britanny, Zurich, and New York City (bio http://www.johnwilliamsmusic.com/bio.htm).
3) John Williams
A blues/jazz guitarist in Seattle, Washington, whose music is available at Magnatune.com (bio http://magnatune.com/artists/john_williams).
3) John Knowles Williams
An experimental/indie musician. Music is available at sweetnuthin.letsneverdie.net/Music/My_Recordings/ or www.myspace.com/JohnKWilliams.
Here They Come
John Williams Lyrics
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just when I've begun to get myself together,
you waltz right in the door,
just like you've done before
and wrap my heart 'round your little finger.
Here you come again,
just when I'm about to make it work without you,
and pretty soon I'm wond'rin how I came to doubt you.
All you gotta do is smile that smile
and there go all my defenses.
Just leave it up to you and in a little while
you're messin' up my mind and fillin' up my senses.
Here you come again lookin' better than a body has a right to;
and shakin' me up so that all I really know
is here you come again and here I go.
All you gotta do is smile that smile
and there got all my defenses.
Just leave it up to you and in a little while
you're messin' up my mind and fillin' up my senses.
Here you come again lookin' better than a body has a right to;
and shakin' me up so that all I really know
is here you come again and here I go and here I go
The above lyrics are from the song "Here They Come!" by John Williams and Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. The song speaks to the pull of an ex-lover on the singer's emotions. The singer speaks of their struggle to move on from their former flame, only to have them reappear and effortlessly captivate them once again with their charm and lies.
The lyrics convey the helplessness of the singer, who seems unable to resist the pull of their former lover. They express the frustration and confusion that arise when the singer's resolve to move on is tested. The lines "just when I'm about to make it work without you, you look into my eyes and lie those pretty lies" exemplifies this, highlighting the fact that the singer's efforts to let go are thwarted by the return of their ex.
The lyrics' repetitive nature lends itself to the song's overall mood, which is one of cyclical motions and the futility of attempting to break free. The song's crescendo captures the sense of spiraling that is often associated with toxic relationships, where the singer is repeatedly drawn back in, caught up in a cycle of highs and lows.
Line by Line Meaning
Here you come again,
You've returned once more when I thought I had moved on
just when I've begun to get myself together,
Just as I started to feel whole and complete without you
you waltz right in the door,
You enter effortlessly, with the grace of a dancer
just like you've done before
Repeating the same familiar pattern as in the past
and wrap my heart 'round your little finger.
Your charming ways ensnare my heart and make it yours
just when I'm about to make it work without you,
When I'm close to making life without you a success
you look into my eyes and lie those pretty lies
With your gaze, you deceive me with your attractive falsehoods
and pretty soon I'm wond'rin how I came to doubt you.
Before long, I'm left pondering how I could have ever mistrusted you
All you gotta do is smile that smile
A single smile from you is all it takes
and there go all my defenses.
My guard is instantly lowered, leaving me vulnerable to you
Just leave it up to you and in a little while
In no time at all, you'll have control over me
you're messin' up my mind and fillin' up my senses.
You're causing mental chaos and flooding my senses with your presence
Here you come again lookin' better than a body has a right to;
You're returning with a charm and beauty that seems almost unfair
and shakin' me up so that all I really know
You're so powerful that all I can feel is your impact on me
is here you come again and here I go.
All I can think is that you've returned, and I'll be pulled back into your grasp
Here you come again and here I go and here I go.
Once again, you've returned, and once again, I'm being controlled by you
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind