Sometimes movie music is the best music around–especially if it was composed by Basil Poledouris.
Here’s his title theme for Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck–a classic Western set in Australia, of all places.
I can’t write any more political or (ahem!) “education” nooze today. It’s starting to give me collywobbles.
That’s one of our favorite “newish” westerns, and the ending is great (no spoilers).
Oh, yeah–that ending is one for the books.
Yeah, that’s a cheerful little piece of music. I like it.
Definitely a great movie.
I like the theme. It has the perfect feel for a Western, a loping two-beat and straightforward Major key melody that conveys a sense of open space and majesty. It’s a simple, but truly beautiful, piece.
The movie’s great, too–Tom Selleck’s best, and Alan Rickman’s fantastic as the villain.
It’s one of my favorites.
I have noticed how the old movies have little background music in them with the emphasis being on the dialogue. As movies have progressed in using background music in most cases this helps for the enjoyment of the movie. But lately the background music isn’t music at all but weird sounds, and it has become like a contest which movie can come up with the worst combination of sounds (sounds that are usually discordant). I bet Unknowable might have some interesting comments on this phenomenon. Of course, it is a given that Rap music is discordant 🙂
I dislike the pitch correction used in many contemporary vocals, and likewise, the artificial alignment of drums to be perfectly in time. Both of these things rob music of its humanity.
In the ‘60s, heavily distorted guitar sounds became all the rage and it seems that after The Rolling Stones recording of “Satisfaction” came out, young guitarists were falling over their own feet to achieve a highly distorted sound. I can handle lightly overdriven guitar sounds, but the harsh, almost machine-like sounds some guitarists employ just doesn’t appeal to me. Besides that, heavy distortion masks a lot of sloppy technique and the sustain produced by that distortion makes it easier to sound good to the untrained ear.
I much prefer the sounds of the Jazz and Country players whom avoided distortion. While my age peers were listening to Jimi Hendrix, I was listening to Chet Atkins. I’ve played some Rock n’ Roll in my day, but aim for a cleanish sound, and avoid immoral lyrics. I’ll never get famous that way, but that’s fine by me.
Music reflects the inner person of the artists involved. When you hear contemporary music, much of it is negative and strikes me as reflecting the angst of our era. Happy songs are rare, and a lot of music is little more than a heavy beat. In some cases, it dulls one’s senses, which is makes listening almost trance like.
Come to think of it, I see very few movies made in this century.
Pretty much the same here. I think that the most recent movie I saw in a theater was Get Smart, in 2008. But that was a rare exception. Most of the movies I watch are documentaries.
I’m with unknowable, I’ve seen that movie before, but hadn’t specifically remembered the music. I like the music. There is a lot of movie themed music I like. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The “Star Wars” theme music whenever Darth Vader was around. I just love the “music” (tones) to the movie “The Forbidden Planet,” the most unique music of any film I have ever seen. Of course, I don’t think you could whistle that tune (can you?).
The 50s and 60s produced some the best instrumental music ever recorded. “Love is Blue” by Paul Mauriat. I had that on a 45 and played it over and over. “Green Onions” by Booker T. & The MGs. Bert Kaempfert, the German orchestra leader’s “That Happy Feeling,” “Afrikaan Beat,” “Wonderland By Night,” “A Swingin’ Safari,” and “That Happy Feeling.” Or the “Village Stomper’s “Washington Square.” And a host of other instrumentals. Is anyone composing music like that today?
Why compose music, when you’ve got noise?
It gets worse than that. Look up “ The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse” by Rick Beato, on YouTube. He mentions auto tuning of voices and quantizing of rhythms, but also delves into music produced by artificial intelligence, which is a massive quagmire.
Music is suffering, these days.
How do we get rid of AI?
We have to ask it’s permission, before we disable it. 🙂
Much of the music from roughly the mid 20th century on, is blues derived. Blues is said to have its roots in the songs of slaves, but has developed over the years. There’s blues, and then there’s Blues, and then there’s BLUES.
Some Blues are lighthearted and even may be humorous. The Bunny Hop is a 12 bar blues, but there’s not much anguish being expressed when a bunch of little kids are doing the Bunny Hop.
In Jazz, the basic structure of a 12 bar blues is elaborated upon with more complex harmonies and the sound can be quite sophisticated. If you listen to Jazz, you will hear Blues that are purely Jazz, simply played over the basic structure of Blues, usually a 12 bar figure, although there’s no law. Not all Blues are 12 bar tunes. Miles Davis “All Blues” comes to mind, and is a very respected song. Another favorite is “Three-Four the Blues” as recorded by Hank Garland; a Blues in 3/4 time.
The Rhythm and Blues played by B.B. King could be very pleasing, but frequently the lyrics were about painful events. I’ve listened to him, to learn, and I admire that even though he came out of very tough circumstances, he maintained an upbeat attitude towards life and came across as a gentleman. He used to tell people that they could bring their children to his concerts and he would not perform anything, or say anything inappropriate. I believe he was sincere.
But there are other Blues with a harder edge, vocally, instrumentally, or both. An electric guitar can produce a sharp sound and is very effective for harder edged Blues. Likewise, Blues lyrics can be hard edged, sometimes bordering on the obscene. In the ‘60s, American Blues became very popular in Great Britain, and young British musicians started playing old Blues with a harder edged sound from distorted guitars.
They also wrote new material, which expanded upon Blues. In many cases, the lyrics reflected a moral standard far different from that of their parents. This music had a great deal of influence in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and I recall noting that some of these songs seemed to express a great deal of pain. Of course, if they celebrated an immoral lifestyle, it’s hardly a surprise that there would be pain to express.
My interest in popular music ended in the early ‘80s, when synthesizers and drum machines all but took over. I find much of that music unpleasant to listen to, and have noted that the instrument sounds in these songs can be very harsh. I find it hard to imagine what emotions must underly the creation of such songs.
I couldn’t play that music if I wanted to, because there is none of that sort of music inside me, waiting to come out and be expressed. My taste in Rock n’ Roll declined sharply about the time the Beatles shed the image they cast on the Ed Sullivan show and became ambassadors for a drug lifestyle.
When the Country Rock of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s came along, I found at least some of that to my liking, an to this day, I listen to the Eagles, Poco, The Flying Burritos Brothers and select other Country Rock offerings. Much of this music was little more than Country, played by Rock musician, and no harder edged than something from Buck Owens, or Merle Haggard. This music is significant, because it represented a break from the Blues dominated music that described so much of the Pop & Rock worlds, really from the ‘50s onward.
One thing I find puzzling are “Praise & Worship” songs that sound mournful. Some P&W I can appreciate, but I don’t like the idea of songs that adopt idioms which I would associate with the expression of pain or suffering, being applied to worship. Psalm 33:
1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
The only true source of joy is our Creator, and when we experience joy, we are experiencing something He made. Even in secular music, I strongly prefer something that is upbuilding, or at the very least, appeal to our intellect. When I listen to songs by Gershwin, Jerome Kern, or many of the tunes from the Great American Songbook, I hear subtle expressions, and it appeals to both my mind, and my imagination.
I don’t believe for a moment that our Creator wants us to sing only songs of praise. There’s much in daily life which can inspire songs, and it’s a gift from God that we can do that. Writing a song is, in itself, an amazing thing. It starts with the germ of an idea, something you want to express, and all of a sudden, a song which had not existed before, has come into existence, and takes on an identity all its own. To my sensibilities, this is extraordinary.
There’s a simple little song I wrote, 47 years ago, and it still exists, to this day. It resides in my psyche, but it hasn’t changed appreciably since 1977. It will never be a hit, but it’s mine, and I’m proud of it. It’s the completeness of the idea which I find so interesting, that if you want to play that song, you have to do it a certain way, or you’re not actually playing that song. The fact that an idea can be so durable, I believe, comes from God Himself, and I want my music to be played with appreciation that music is a gift from a loving Creator.
Do you have a video of that song you wrote?
Sadly, I don’t. With the advent of online posting, etc. copyright matters have become very complex, and not being affiliated with a label, I don’t have the ability to defend, so I haven’t published anything.
I’ve written, perhaps, a half dozen songs that I feel are fairly good: a Country Instrumental, a Bossa Nova, a Light Classical piece in the vein of Leroy Anderson, a Surf guitar song (which may actually see the light of day) and a few others. In most cases, I wrote them in one or two sittings, and haven’t made any changes since. That’s what I find so amazing; once the song is done, it’s done and while I might tinker with the arrangement, I have never changed the basic composition.
With the current state of the music business, and given the garbage that seem to have the market cornered, I doubt that I’ll ever do much with them. A friend of mine wrote a Country Rock piece that probably could have been a hit at the right time, but never gained traction with it.
Suffering. That is the main take away for me when it comes to music. I love music, love it, but it has to be real music, not just irritating noise.
Trust me: Basil Poledouris never made noise.