morricone: s/d (again)

I like how enthusiastic he sounds about it. "Well we've got aaaaaaaaaaaaaanooooother Morricone compilation like y'all really need another one, sure."

Yeah nothing else sounds good on there. Haha well maybe "some big surprises" haha, but otherwise meh.

Morricone is the only good thing about Mission to Mars.

makes me crazy that i still can't get a decent Danger: Diabolik soundtrack

I'm having a 'Vergogna Schifosi' moment--playing it with all the windows open, for the birds in the garden to listen to. I forgot how gorgeous this record is, especially on a spring day like this.

Mildly bemused that Ennio Morricone got to #1 in the NZ album charts recently via (classical crossover/pop-soprano) Hayley Westenra!

Without really intending it, it's Morricone day at my work desk.

L'Avventuriero (a kind of big sky homage to Vivaldi)
Il Prato (one of his most achingly beautiful melodic inventions but with interludes of hyperactive baroque danserye)
La Resa Dei Conti aka The Big Gundown (has to be one of the all-time top 5 Morricones. Some of the extended CDs of his scores just have too many reprises of a core of three or four themes to support a straight-through listening, but this one you just can't put down)
Death Rides A Horse (Da Uomo A Uomo) (every Amon Duul II fan should hear this main title with its stomping strumming fury and flutes of madness)
The Return Of Ringo title song (an astonishing manifestation of Itlish enunciation)

Was listening to these last night - excellent, especially those flutes - but his facility in handling the shriek and then go to melody is mind-boggling.

in Death Rides A Horse, right? Yeah I wonder who that player is.

Yeah, tbf they could have been improvised, and Morricone would have known a few people around that scene who could play that range on request.

If I had to guess I would say improvised; the core of musicians he had around him in that era came largely from a 60s free music/new music ensemble iirc?

Yeah he played trumpet Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza with Rzewski (and a couple of other composers that did some ok things). I have the LP somewhere.

The 90 secs of Come Una Sentenza. The guitars are spiky, truly menacing.

The whole "Maddalena" soundtrack is staggering. "La Cosa Buffa" also. Harpsichords for days.

Yeah he has so many great baroque pop-psych tracks. That style tends to lend itself well to compilations, which is convenient.

Back on a Morricone kick at the moment. I think my tastes differ from a lot of other Morricone nuts. For instance, I don't like the loungey stuff he did in the early 70s all that much, I find that wordless sort of scatting that Edda Dell'Orso does on a lot of that material both silly and intensely annoying. Some of the giallo scores can be samey and I don't remember liking the work he did for Argento, tho I haven't listened to it in a while. Couple of good giallo scores are "La Tarantola dal Ventre Nero" and "Mio Caro Assassino" - there are more of course and there ARE good loungey scores! And I don't care what any Morricone snob says, the western scores are generally great.

I mostly agree with you insofar as I prefer my lounge/psych morricone a la carte, in compilation form. His avant/giallo style as well. The best albums qua albums come from his western, crime/suspense, drama, SFF, and romantic modes IMO.

Love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmc4vhaI8-I

I was just listening to that! The vocal version of "A Fistful of Dollars" is pure Scott Walker.

Death Rides A Horse (Da Uomo A Uomo) (every Amon Duul II fan should hear this main title with its stomping strumming fury and flutes of madness)

And every Residents fan should hear the track "Mistico e severo" from the same soundtrack

http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/front/0/5013929371309.jpg

http://thequietus.com/articles/11406-ennio-morricone-in-colour-review

Ah I see that album has music from "Anche Se Volessi Lavorare, Che Faccio?", I love that soundtrack. The film itself looks stupid mind you.

And I don't care what any Morricone snob says, the western scores are generally great.

Biggest problem w/Crime and Dissonance is that it seems to play up to this anti-Western attitude. otoh it is great and tries to keep a distinctive mood which a track like Death Rides A Horse might disrupt (too much of a tune! but those are abrasive flutes too!) but it shouldn't be forgotten the same guy made it.

His tastes for the avant-garde AND corny tunes AND 'lounge' AND his incredible ability to achieve the effects of all three - while somehow keeping it balanced and frankly listenable at all, never mind addictive - is the thing. Would be great to see a comp that encapsulates all tendencies and worked as a record. Bet one of the throaway, cheaper ones do it...

Also how good would this guy be as a starting point for a history of 20th century music? Amazed someone somewhere has not attempted this yet.

Everything apart from hip-hop is in there although so many of his tracks have this 'sample' like attitude, not sure it sticks though.

I haven't heard his score for Bulworth, but he may address hip-hop there...

The 'suite' I'm hearing wasn't good enough for the soundtrack album

Robert Hampson has said that Be Here Now from A Gilded Eternity was influenced by the gunfight at the end of The Good, The Bad & the Ugly. Not sure if that's more to do with Leone or whatever s/trk is on that scene.

Still overdosing on Morricone at the moment. Couple of recent finds are "Oceano" and "Trel Nel Mille", two scores that fit together somehow because they're sort of minimalist with a lot of acoustic instruments and folk elements but like folk music from some unknown country (I love that sort of thing).

Greatly enjoyed Nostromo yesterday, a later Morricone gem.

Didn't know Morricone did sound collage/musique concrete-ish stuff too. Awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2b-H0wVpnc

He did just about everything. So many incredible surprises and innovations tucked away in his scores. I've been starting to think he is the most encyclopedic composer. (Been listening to shot tons of morricone the last couple weeks as it happens)

Xposts lol I have now heard Oceano myself it is amaaazing avant exotica

He gave an interview in one of the papers as he stopped over to do one of his classical gigs. A bit sad really.

"Sacco and Vanzetti" is musically so good but, sweet Jesus, Joan Baez, talk about nails down a blackboard, her voice is possibly my least favourite sound in the history of music.

There should be threads no one should be allowed to revive for fear of scaring the shit out of everyone.

Oops, yes, should have realized!

One time someone suggested that before bumping the Old Dogs thread one should bump the Note: Old Dogs Are OK thread

oh shit i was so scared that morricone had died i peed my pants haha false alarm sheesh zomg