morricone

Ennio Morricone, Italian composer who wrote ‘ah-ee-ah-ee-ah’ theme of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ dies at 91 https://t.co/2A2UzG1eyZ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 6, 2020

The Jimmy Saville theme of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

Oh man this hurts even though it's not a major surprise. Greatest film composer of all time. As iconic as his western soundtracks are, his scores in all genres from roughly 1968 through 74 are virtually inexhaustible wells of ideal music (see, e.g., Maddalena, Veruschka, La Donna Invisible, Metti Una Sera a Cena, La Cosa Buffa, Giù la Testa, etc, etc.)

I've got the title theme of Veruschka on repeat rn; it sums up his greatness pretty well: gorgeous chord progression; hauntingly catchy melody; sensual wordless vocals from Edda Dell'Orso; lightly funky psychedelic production (see 00:42 for the gentlest, wooziest beat drop) and lush harpsichord-laden arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v81dgyeIlJI

Hell of a run!

For a short while I was collecting some of his scores but in the long run I largely stuck with anthologies (the Mondo Morricone set especially). Still, one of my favorite scores is a relatively obscure one I found in a discount bin, Che C'Entriamo Noi Con La Rivoluzione (wistful, spacious, comical, melancholy).

RIP

An absolute giant.

Just listening to some of the music from "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" which has some guy screaming wordless gibberish over some random sloppy jamming and seems to be Morricone's approximation (and impression) of rock music - wicked sense of humour he had.

Come for the king, don't miss. And ask shorter questions:

Donald Fagen interviews Ennio Morricone (Premiere mag, 1989) pic.twitter.com/jJaEYkQEe9

— Kurt Loder (@kurt_loder) August 1, 2018

RIP to a true genius

my fave is the Gruppo Nuova material but "Il Gatto" is a favorite OST.

The Crime And Dissonance 2xCD on Ipecac is a pretty essential overview of the weirder stuff

what can you fucking say man
probably the most protean composer who ever lived
from the maddest noise improv to the most propulsive and catchy psych-rock to the pocket universe of the westerns to the most heart-easing bel canto

RIP, OPXX

The Thing
Two Mules for Sister Sara
Exorcist II: The Heretic
Death Rides a Horse
Oceano
A Fistful of Dollars
Copkiller
Ad Ogni Costo
Il Prato
My Name Is Nobody
Slalom
Nostromo
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
I Magi Randagi
Chi L'Ha Vista Morire
Red Sonja
Once Upon a Time in the West
White Dog
'Tis Pity She's A Whore
Sahara

The Crime And Dissonance 2xCD on Ipecac is a pretty essential overview of the weirder stuff

Available on Bandcamp

a great comp but for any first time dabblers just be aware this is a very narrow cross-section of the morricone cosmos

complied by Alan Bishop iirc?

once i got to a certain breadth of morricone it to some extent made scg redundant for me, i mean i still love them but

RIP to the Maestro! It's amazing how many great soundtracks he composed for forgettable films. He scored 23 films in 1968 alone!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Ennio_Morricone

Most English-speakers have never heard Ennio Morricone's extraordinary 1966 Italian pop song 'Se Telefonando.'

I URGE YOU TO LISTEN. He has you surrounded before you even realise it, & then you're soaring into its 8(!) key changes.

One of the best, most dramatic pop songs ever pic.twitter.com/wnzc9RPoYH

— Colin Walsh (@Clnwlsh) July 6, 2020

Lol

Morricone bringing the Oscars to a screeching halt to give his acceptance speech in Italian with a halting Eastwood live translation is the last and perhaps only time that I have enjoyed that ceremony. https://t.co/Vzoak6HJn6

— 💜💜🇺🇸ƈօɛɖ ռǟӄɛɖ ƈɨռɛքɦɨʟɨǟ🇺🇸💜💜 (@NickPinkerton) July 6, 2020

He must have missed Satyajit Ray satelliting in from his sickbed.

xpost yeah the songs-only Canto Morricone 4CD box (bear family) is well worth pirating

Morricone was a genius, but not enough of one to get me to listen to Italian pop.

Been listening to (a tiny selection of) his music all day, in ridiculously wide and varied styles, and intend continuing for the next few days, I'd kind of lost touch with him for a while there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEwOc6Uo6mk

so many i've never heard, including that ^

xpost yeah the songs-only Canto Morricone 4CD box (bear family) is well worth pirating

― gnarled and turbid sinuses (Jon not Jon), Monday, 6 July 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Sounds good. I've heard a couple of his pop songs today (had heard the one I posted before but without that video)

Drove back home yesterday from Chiricahua Mountains and had to throw on a Morricone westerns playlist. Obv fit the scenery perfectly.
RIP dude.

apparently he prepared his own announcement ahead of time and it has appeared in some of the Italian newspapers now. Translation (not mine obv):

"I, Ennio Morricone, am dead. So I announce it to all the close friends that always supported me, and also to the faraway friends, which I salute with great affection.
There's only one reason that brings me to say goodbye in this way, and also to require a strictly private funeral: I do not want to bother anybody."

<3

xposts OPXX, sure why not?

Maddalena
La Donna Invisible
Veruschka
Queimada
Giù la Testa
Le due stagioni della vita
Il sorriso del grande tentatore
Quattro mosche di velluto grigio
Metti, una sera a cena
Il Grande Silenzio
L'assoluto Naturale
Senza sapere niente di lei
Vergogna Schifosi
Le Casse
Il diavolo nel cervello
Il Gatto a Nove Code
La Cosa Buffa
Anche se volessi lavorare, che faccio?
Teorema
Per un pugno di samba (Collab w/ Chico Buarque)

heh and your 20 and my 20 have zero overlap!

btw i see that Two Mules for Sister Sara is getting its first-ever legit CD release next week from LaLaLand. It is kind of my all time favorite morricone so fyi

Gratified by how much in-depth coverage his death is getting on UK TV, just watching Jean-Michel Jarre getting interviewed about him on the BBC right now - still looking 20 years younger than his age.

https://youtu.be/efdswXXjnBA

Wow I'd never seen his music performed. Whole new appreciation for his genius.

re Mina singing "Se Telefonando" linked upthread - I always loved that recording, she gets to the chorus in 53 seconds and the whole rest of the song is chorus, ever-shifting, ever-building until the song fades out at 2:58

heh and your 20 and my 20 have zero overlap!

Hahah that is outrageous. Chi L'ha Vista Morire was literally the last one to miss the cut for my list, so that would have been one we had in common

re Mina singing "Se Telefonando" linked upthread - I always loved that recording, she gets to the chorus in 53 seconds and the whole rest of the song is chorus, ever-shifting, ever-building until the song fades out at 2:58

Wait, there is also a French version by Françoise Hardy that’s pretty nice.

From Rolling Reissues---haven't listened to this yet:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0749207697_10.jpg

Uccidete il vitello grasso e arrostitelo
by Ennio Morricone
For the first time on LP, Maestro Morricone's full score for "Uccidete il vitello grasso e arrostitelo". A 1969 giallo-noir, full of cruel twists, directed by Salvatore Samperi, .

This almost unknown soundtrack wasn't released at the time and the original master tapes were carefully archived in the vault of legendary C.A.M. label.

Conducted by Bruno Nicolai and featuring voices by Edda Dell'Orso.The maestro delivers one his best scores from the late 60's. A psych-baroque journey with typical beat arrangements, crazy organs solos, wah-wah guitars and tense harpsichord phrases.

Including the previously unreleased "Shake introspettivo".

REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES
LIMITED EDITION
credits
released May 22, 2020

Music composed and orchestrated by Ennio Morricone.
Conducted by Bruno Nicolai.
Solo voices : Edda Dell'Orso.
* Previously unreleased.

This reissue : 2020 Transversales Disques.
Executive production by Sébastien Rosat & Jonathan Fitoussi.
Edited by Sébastien Rosat & Romain Turzi.
Mastering : Benjamin Joubert at Biduloscope.
Graphic design : Jean-Philippe Talaga.
(p) & (c) 1969 Creazioni Artistiche Musicali C.A.M. Srl, una società del Gruppo Sugar
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/uccidete-il-vitello-grasso-e-arrostitelo

― dow, Monday, June 22, 2020 3:19 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Previous years' reissues on this label: more Morricone, also Luc Ferrari, François Bayle, others:
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/

― dow, Monday, June 22, 2020

Which film is streaming on Criterion until the end of the month

Oh no, wrong film, sorry

I was thinking of Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto.

Wait, there is also a French version by Françoise Hardy that’s pretty nice.

Ennio Morricone didn’t just have an impact in the Western world. He had a huge impact on Bollywood. India’s closest equivalent to Morricone was the late genius RD Burman. Listen to the immortal theme music for “Sholay” (1975). A clear Morricone connection. https://t.co/ve44z4GsEA

— Geeta Dayal (@geetadayal) July 6, 2020

lol, like 250 other EM-scored films, i'd rather listen to than watch Kill the Fatted Calf and Roast It.

"giallo-noir" seals the deal

@dow, HELL yeah that's the good stuff right there. Hopefully there are more forgotten soundtracks from that era languishing in that and/or other vaults...

(xxp) Geeta!

I've almost certainly listened to more hours of his music than any other music in history

Me too, and by a very wide margin. I sometimes think I could quite happily listen to nothing but Morricone for the rest of my life. You need two lifetimes for his work.

I'm not big on lists on rankings but several of J Sam's picks are among my faborites (VS, Giu La Testa, Che Faccio?, L' Assoluto Naturale, that Buarque collab etc). The one I listen to most is prob this Japanese comp called Eviva! Morricone which collects a bunch of that stuff. I've played it a couple times lately as it's one of my periennial summer records. He's never far away.

When I heard the news this song, which was criminally and inexplicably omitted from the Austin Powers soundtrack, was the first thing I went for (but Sonny is a much better choice).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?ebc=ANyPxKogC5QpaKR8qxJMGUd_kvSsiL9Lva2vxSDfshgp6z6LcEhpvdmyiDmMOd4yp-Ix7yDElZewRj8Uum7mpxprZ0D_oeA-4Q&feature=emb_logo&v=EccgBS2tO5E&time_continue=41

the diabolik soundtrack, what a tragedy! it's brilliant, but the tapes of morricone's music were destroyed... only copies are taken from the audio print of the film itself. i still used to have "driving decoys" as my ringtone.

i seriously am gonna have to check out the ones from j. sam's list that i don't know, because the ones i do know kill

i'd also say, uh... un tranquillo posto di campagna is good. the first track to "controfase". "altri, dopo di noi" from "la tenda rossa", the full 22 minute version. idk, he's got too much for me to have any idea of most of his stuff

exactly, it's almost bottomless, even more so than e.g. the Sun Ra catalog

Xp Yeah, it's heartbreaking but the many hours I've searched in vain for a better copy of danger: diabolik would have been better spent listening to the bootleg. There's a 2014 rerecording but I prefer the audio rips from the movie. I'm very happy with whatever it is, at this point.

There's been a gaping Kate-shaped hole on ILM lately. You might like Piccioni's Il Dio Sotto la pelle if you don't already know it. Which you probably do. The vibe is somewherre between Veruschka and Pink Floyd.

ooh, i didn't know about this re-recording. ok, yeah, it doesn't quite have the elan of the soundtrack recordings, but speaking as someone who's been trying for years to get someone to cover "seabirds" in the rough style of the "more" soundtrack i am very on-board with this. i will check out the piccioni as well, thanks :)

these days i mostly make long rambling posts to the blog, which has moved to www . alanauch . org /wtob/ (hoping that will keep the crawlers from finding it). much love to y'all tho :)

One peak-era soundtrack that could use some more attention is 1972's Le Due Stagioni Della Vita, mainly for the 18-minute-long title suite of variations on this ultra-hypnotic, cyclical waltzy theme--the kind of chord progression and melody that gives the illusion of falling and falling (like Aguas de Março), seeming to never end, propelled forward on inexhaustible inertia while Edda Dell'Orso and some choirs fly in and out of the ever-changing sonic millieu... It's a trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4lUF12pIk0

Yes I love that album

Today I learned he and Leone were childhood classmates!

Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone pose together in the primary school year book, 1937 pic.twitter.com/8ArJOrpzns

— Diane Doniol-Valcroze (@ddoniolvalcroze) July 6, 2020

Yeah, it's a weird one that, I can't remember if they were actually friends though.