Ennio Morricone, 1928-2020

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/06/ennio-morricone-1928-2020.html

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Wah Wah Waaaah

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This, from Once Upon A Time In The West was one of his most evocative. (But a harmonica will do half the work for you, every time.)

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Tracklist

  1. The Ecstasy of Gold (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) 0:00 - 3:22

  2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 3:22 - 6:04

  3. Once upon a Time in the West 6:05 - 9:15

  4. For a Few Dollars More 9:16 - 13:05

  5. A Fistful of Dynamite 13:06 - 17:43

  6. Cinema Paradiso - Main Theme 17:44 - 20:13

  7. Chi Mai (Maddalena & Le professionel) 20:14 - 23:48

  8. La Califfa - The Lady Caliph / The Queen 23:48 - 26:27

  9. My Name is Nobody 26:27 - 29:37

  10. L’arena (Il Mercenario - The Mercenary / A Professional Gun) 29:38 - 34:23

  11. Un Monumento (I Crudeli – The Hellbenders) 34:23 - 36:55

  12. Misterioso e Ostinato (Faccia a Faccia - Face to Face) 36:56 - 39:17

  13. Un Amico (Revolver) 39:18 - 41:55

  14. Love Theme for Nata (Cinema Paradiso) 41:55 - 46:03

  15. Romanzo (1900 - Novecento) 46:04 - 50:12

  16. Romanza Quartiere (Quartiere) 50:12 - 53:51

  17. Il Figlio e la Nostalgia (The Law of the Desert) 53:52

  18. Ninna Nanna per Adulteri (Cuore di Mamma) 57:41 - 01:00:45

  19. Watch Chimes - Carillon’s Theme (For a Few Dollars More) 01:00:45 - 01:01:57

  20. Tradimento Primo (Tepepa) 01:01:58 - 01:04:13 21. Run, Man, Run (The Big Gundown) 01:04:13

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I remember trying to watch “The Good The Bad and the Ugly” on VHS back in the 80s and the telecine was so awful, the colors were saturated and the sound was cracked and poor quality, it made me wonder why such an ugly movie was so beloved. Then I watched the cleaned up version on Netflix and a now a big fan. The soundtrack is the best part. I think Clint Eastwood is the only one alive from that production.

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No mention of The Mission!?

… wow … the soundtrack made a bigger splash than the movie if I recall.

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I know. And I actually liked the movie.

Blame the people compiling the album/Youtube uploader. I just linked the first tribute to Mr. Morricone that had some length to it.

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As a follow up I recommend A Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time in the West. The latter is a bit ponderous, but well worth it.

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I saw him play in what I believe was his only US performance at Radio City Music Hall on February 3rd, 2007. The hall was sold out, the performance was outstanding and when they ran out of encore material they re-played a few selections from the set list. Standing O’s all around. I am so happy to have been a part of that wonderful experience.

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I guess it is time to pick up my gun.

And here’s one of my favourite musical movie scenes.

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Always get a kick our of this one:

I love how seamlessly Westerns pivoted from (royalty-free) classical scores to experimental Italian pop.

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The original sheet music for “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” on display at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

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I happened to catch the original screening of the remastered version in the Castro Theater in SF. One of the restorers was there to talk about it beforehand, and they had a problem: a number of scenes were re-added to the remastered version, but they had to reach out to Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach (Lee Van Cleef was already dead) to dub voice for those scenes. Why? The movies were all originally shot in Italian.

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Which unfortunately has been picked up as a soundclip for Modelo beer, on heavy rotation. And every time I hear it, I see Tuco running in a graveyard.

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We’ll always have the ecstasy of Morricone. Thank you, sir.

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It’s already been said more or less but The Ecstasy of Gold really is a force of nature.

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Human League covered this.

Sound more like Wendy Carlos the way they did it…

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I saw an interview with Wallach about the filming; he said that all the actors spoke their native language. In particular, Wallach said he didn’t speak Italian. Perhaps the only available masters were the ones that had already had Wallach et al dubbed into Italian?

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No idea: my understanding is that the scenes never went through post production. It’s possible that the original audio was simply unsuitable.

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