Book Excerpt of the Day

The film of Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man (’69) was considered an interesting failure upon release. Undoubtedly, Jerry Goldsmith’s score is the interesting part. Even Bradbury thought it outshined the film. Because the film is episodic, the score shows some stylistic range. At times it is melancholy and lyrical, and at other times sterile and electronic. It goes from tunefully impressionistic (“Theme”) to chillingly atonal (“Angry Child”). Goldsmith excels at atonality being a self-described serial composer. But his themes aren’t so much austere as they are formal and frequently haunting. The electronic bits are often subtle (like the use of an Echoplex on woodwinds), but on tracks like “21st Century House” the electronics branch out to constitute most of the sound. In fact, his use of electronics anticipates his work on Logan’s Run.

– from Chapter 5: Sci-fidelity and the Superhero Spectrum of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Jerry Goldsmith’s outstanding score for 100 Rifles (’69) is very experimental and dynamic, and doesn’t seem to have much in common with Hollywood’s Golden Age westerns or Ennio Morricone’s re-imaging of the sagebrush sound. As is his wonderful habit, Goldsmith pits cacophonous brass against clamorous percussion on the riveting “Escape and Pursuit”. And who else but Goldsmith would use detuned guitar and bass along with prepared piano in a western? The effect is strangely sinister and mysterious (“The Church”), and highly suggestive of mounting danger (“Ready for Ambush”). It’s an awesome display of the composer’s ability to re-imagine the western sound in Morricone’s wake. If one must limit their western soundtrack collection to a single Goldsmith score 100 Rifles should be the one.

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (’59) is a breezy entertainment compared to the obsessive moods of Vertigo and shocking horror of Psycho, but it’s still a masterpiece of suspense with a riveting score by Herrmann. The composer started work on it right after scoring the pilot episode of TV’s The Twilight Zone. As was his practice, he wrote the score by hand, from beginning to end based on roughly sketched motifs. The sinister fandango theme music that opens the film, and ends without resolution, is melodically memorable and rhythmically invigorating. According to musicologist Christopher Husted, who wrote the booklet notes for the Rhino Records edition of the soundtrack, Herrmann claimed to have been inspired to use Latin American rhythms by star Cary Grant’s “Astaire-like agility.” Elsewhere, Herrmann uses popular melodies (“In the Still of the Night” and “It’s a Most Unusual Day”) to reinforce the romantic under current. The film’s love theme — a lyrical duet between clarinet and oboe — uses propulsive rhythms played on strings to suggest the steady forward momentum of train carrying Grant and Eva Marie Saint toward their shared destiny. The score has its share of ominous (“Kidnapped”) and thrilling sections (“On the Rocks”) wherein Herrmann combines swirling strings, stabbing winds and brass, and pulse-pounding percussion.

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Considering Johnny Mandel’s prolific big band credentials one might expect a straight jazz score from him for Point Blank (’67), based on a Donald Westlake novel. But the soundtrack ambitiously explores 12-tone serialism — a style not so much hard-boiled as it is scrambled. Soundtrack collectors who associate Mandel with his warm, sensuous Oscar®-winning song “The Shadow of Your Smile” (’65) will be surprised by the cold modernity of the composer’s work on this crime thriller. Ponderous, dissonant orchestration with intermittent percussion accents and subtle use of the genre’s standby keyboard, the harpsichord, cast an icy disposition over the proceedings, rarely offering reassurance through crime jazz conventions. However, there are smooth lounge jazz source cues such as “This Way to Heaven” and most enticingly “I’ll Slip Out of Something Comfortable” that are almost jarringly accessible next to such disquieting tracks as “Nightmare” and “Unquestioned Answers.”

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Lalo Schifrin came closest to blaxploitation with his excellent Enter the Dragon (’73) the Bruce Lee blockbuster directed by Robert Clouse. By then, the blaxploitation sound was enjoying great success with audiences regardless of skin tone. The evidence of comfortable assimilation was on the screen — as the movie’s Chinese hero (Lee) teams up with an African-American (Jim Kelly) and a Caucasian (John Saxon) — as well as on the soundtrack. The theme, with its chugging wah guitar rhythms, “Shaft”-like rhythm and ultra funky keyboard and brass lines, make it a classic of the blaxploitation genre. Elsewhere in the score, the mellow groover “Headset Jazz,” lean creepers “Into the Night” and “The Human Fly” also have funky appeal. The score remains a touchstone for fans of Schifrin, blaxploitation and classic kung fu. Rap group Wu Tang Clan paid homage to it with its debut album, Enter the Wu Tang (’93). And Rush Hour (’98) director Brett Ratner requested a Dragon-style score from Schifrin to accompany the high kicking, crime fighting, comic antics of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Simply put, Dragon is a notable and influential entry into the blaxploitation soundtrack genre, even if the movie barely qualifies.

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Another Motown soundtrack from ’73 was Edwin Starr’s Hell Up in Harlem, the sequel to Black Caesar. James Brown, who scored Caesar, was originally asked to do Harlem as well, but the film’s director Larry Cohen rejected his efforts in favor of the Starr vehicle, featuring songs written by Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell (who along with Berry Gordy and Deke Richards formed the Corporation, the production team behind the Jackson 5). Harlem’s outstanding tracks include the rousing, electrically charged theme song and “Easin’ In,” which boasts an often-sampled, finger-snapping intro. The song could have been a hit, but Motown neglected to promote the score — a mere contract fulfiller for Starr.

After Cohen rejected Brown’s Harlem, the “godfather of soul” released the music separately on a double album, The Payback, which is generally regarded as one of his best efforts; some fans insist it’s better than his actual soundtracks.

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

Coffy, the lively vigilante picture starring blaxploitation queen Pam Grier, features an outstanding Latin jazz-funk score by vibraphonist Roy Ayers. Tracks like “Coffy is the Color,” “Priscilla’s Groove” and “Aragon” percolate with irrepressible rhythms, dynamic keyboard figures and a relentless groove. One would be hard pressed to name a more high-energy blaxploitation score. “King George,” with its lowdown funk and two-channel “dialogue” celebrating a certain pimp’s powers of persuasion, may be the coolest mack daddy theme ever. There is even a bit of psychedelia mixed in (“End of Sugarman”).

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

The arrival of the ’50s brought two space exploration pictures of note. With a tagline that stated: “The Future is Here” Rocketship X-M was rushed through production and into release to beat the higher budget Destination Moon in ’50. Ferde Grofé Sr., who is best known for his “Grand Canyon Suite,” scored X-M using a Theremin for the eerie scenes on Mars. Before X-M actually arrives on Mars, however, one gets pure Golden Age orchestration with sweeping strings, boisterous brass and crashing cymbals. Although he rarely scored pictures, Grofé displays a knack for dramatic build-ups and atmospheric tension. The juxtaposition between the familiar, earthly sonorities of strings, brass and woodwinds and the otherworldly warble of the theremin echoes the scenes that find man in an ominous alien environment.

Comparatively, Leith Stevens’ Destination Moon is firmly rooted in the modern classical tradition and does not feature electronics. The music still calls to mind the mysterious reaches of outer space particularly during “In Outer Space” when Stevens uses vibes for a suspenseful tick-tock tactic, which Goldsmith later mimicked with woodwinds on the Alien (’79) soundtrack.

– from Chapter 5: Sci-Fidelity and the Superhero Spectrum of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

The Girl Can’t Help It (’56), starring one of Marilyn Monroe’s blonde bombshell rivals, Jayne Mansfield, is a giddy rock ‘n’ roll musical satire features a score by Lionel Newman and songs by Bobby Troup, who contributed similarly to Mansfield’s next comedy, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (’57), which is another classic sex comedy of the era. Girl features cameos by early rock ‘n’ roll legends such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent; legend has it that Elvis Presley was courted to make an appearance, but he allegedly asked for too much money. The theme song was a smash for Little Richard. Film auteur John Waters later used it on the soundtrack of his notorious trash classic Pink Flamingos (’72).

– from Chapter 3: Sexploitation Serenade of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

During the ’50s, certain filmmakers pushed the boundaries of subject matter. Elia Kazan transplanted Tennessee Williams’ melodrama A Streetcar Named Desire (’51) from Broadway, complete with its original cast. The film’s hothouse atmosphere of sexual frustration is made all the more palpable by Alex North’s influential jazz-tinged score.

A few years later, Kazan made a film that was even more brazen in its suggestive sexuality as one of its characters is a “child bride.” Baby Doll (’56) concerns a cotton gin owner married to a Lolita-esque teenager who is holding out on her hubby sexually until she turns 20. Another man attempts to seduce the girl and steal her husband’s business. Kenyon Hopkins’ sultry score, as orchestrated by Ray Heindorf, lends Baby Doll an atmosphere of decadent Southern charm. The lush score is like a jazz symphony, with occasional lapses into small group jazz and blues, featuring soloists on harmonica, saxophone, trumpet and guitar. The only break in musical character comes when Smiley Lewis, the legendary New Orleans R&B artist, is featured on the rollicking “Shame, Shame, Shame.” The Legion of Decency condemned the film, though that hardly hurt its box office.

– from Chapter 3: Sexploitation Serenade of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"For Satan's Sadists, Harley Hatcher delivers one of the most memorable themes in the biker flick genre, simply called 'Satan.' The singer describes how he was 'born mean' and even at the tender age of two had earned the nickname of 'Satan.' The lyrics describe a troubled childhood against a backdrop of stately soul. Other tracks, like the brassy and irrepressibly poppy 'Gotta Stop That Feeling' and 'Is it Better to Have Loved and Lost,' make life with a biker gang sound pretty tame -- even one led by a guy named Satan."

– from Chapter 7: Rockin' Revolution of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"High School Confidential features opening and closing onscreen performances by Jerry Lee Lewis of the title track, which the fiery piano-banging rocker composed. The single reached 21 on the chart, but took a nosedive when Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin."

– from Chapter 7: Rockin' Revolution of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"In scoring Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which is generally considered the original 'slasher' movie, Bernard Herrmann provided not only gripping cues for psychological and physical terror, but also deeply emotional underscoring for plights facing Janet Leigh's character. Herrmann's score identifies with Leigh's character while commenting on her situation as a detached observer. This is hardly surprising, given Herrmann's gift for suggesting character traits of an almost subliminal nature. Unlike on his other work for Hitchcock, Herrmann works with an all-strings orchestra, as if to call attention to the horrible, almost incestuous intimacy of the story as well as its stark black and white cinematography."

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"For I Bury the Living, composer Gerald Fried takes advantage of the sinister sound of manic harpsichord trills alongside worried woodwinds and low strings that quote from a grim Volga Boatman folk song. For the remake of The Cabinet of Caligari, Fried's sweeping strings nauseatingly vacillate between sweetly romantic and suspenseful. More manic moments can be heard on 'The Rorshach Test,' on which argumentative brass jostle alongside panicked piano, and on 'House of Horrors' where frantic keys, woodwinds and brass feverishly repeat a hypnotic figure until dissipating into nervous strings."

– from Chapter 6: A Fearful Earful of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Logan's Run is a classic dystopian sci-fi film that was quickly forgotten when Star Wars arrived in theaters a year later. Set in a far-off future of domed cities, holographic entertainments and sex without love, it's a chilling morality tale with disco-era fashions and feathered hair. Jerry Goldsmith's score is among the most electronic soundtracks to accompany a major movie of that era. For scenes inside The City, Goldsmith employs synths that gurgle, squeak and whoosh with atonal abandon. Elsewhere, particularly for scenes outside The City, Goldsmith uses acoustic orchestration (strings, piano, woodwinds) to represent the natural world."

– from Chapter 5: Sci-Fidelity and the Superhero Spectrum of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"West Germans weren't alone in their fascination with the Old West. The East German state-supervised film industry (DEFA) also produced its fair share of sagebrush sagas. The DEFA westerns made in the '60s and '70s mimicked West Germany's Winnetou films in so far as depicting Indians as noble (i.e. quasi socialist) victims of the white man's colonial (i.e. quasi-capitalist) barbarism. Such movies as White Wolf, Deadly Error and Kit & Co. were shot in Yugoslavia or Georgia, with Caucasians cast as Native American."

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Perhaps Elmer Bernstein's greatest contribution to the western genre is the best example of how the era's younger composers brought a relatively fresh, thoroughly American approach to a genre previously dominated by European-born composers. More than any other American western score of the Silver Age, The Magnificent Seven captures the best aspects of the genre's golden past, as well as the compositional trends of the 20th century. The marvelously rousing main theme is exuberantly heroic, and serves the score well through a variety of moods and orchestral treatments... What makes Magnificent different from Golden Age westerns, which tend to have 'Hungarian' operatic scores, is its obvious debt to American folk music, particularly the influence of Aaron Copland."

– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979