There was a period of several years when I nearly constantly listened to this Morricone sampler that Virgin put out called “Film Music vol. 1” that was a flawless “best of” collection (I think the cd version has extra songs now too.) At the time is was the only decent collection you could find in the USA.
Memorable themes, interesting arrangements, use of electric guitar in a classical setting that didn’t sound forced, it was all so entrancing, still is.
Perhaps the most visceral memory of a Morricone piece to me is the thum-thum … thum-thum … of the opening of John Carpenter’s The Thing. The track is entitled Humanity, Part 2:
Please also keep in mind that Carpenter wrote much of the music for The Thing (as he did for many of his early works) and Morricone collaborated with him for it even though he gets the full credit. Compared to his other works the thum-thum you like is probably all Carpenter.
Oh, absolutely - I adore all of his awesome soundtracks (did you ever hear the Resident Advisor podcast with Alan Howarth? It’s an hour or so of just pure Carpenter/Howarth goodness: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=230).
I think I had read somewhere that the thum-thum was very much Morricone attempting to emulate some of Carpenters feelings from prior works ( http://www.mfiles.co.uk/reviews/ennio-morricone-the-thing.htm is the closest thing I can find that sort of references this).
I like to chalk it up to Carpenter pulled a casio in front of Morricone and said “make this kind of thing shine in that way you do”
I’m not sure how I feel about Morricone being recycled by other directors (and it’s not just Tarantino, hearing the title theme from “Sacco and Vanzetti” in the middle of Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic” was. . . kinda weird, though I did enjoy hearing it.)
His music is so great that when a director taps that huge resource of previous themes it just seems like cheating, or laziness.
If John Williams can make a career out of ripping off Beethoven and Holst (among others) the surely some other composer can rip off Morricone to satisfy the needs of Tarantino, et al.
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