I'm having a blast tonight listening to Varese S's new release of music from the comedy spy series CHUCK (Amazon Prime release-day delivery, baby!).
It's a great overview of the show's score, plays great as an album, and is a helluva lot of fun. Made me realize that I turn more and more to soundtracks for fun these days.
My most listened-to new albums in the past couple of years are more often than not pure fun....The Transformers Movie, David Newman's Firebirds, Batman The Brave And The Bold, the Flint suites come to mind....
I work in public radio, and I am around enough serious music every day that this hobby is becoming my happy time. And I've had enough real sadness and drama in my life that I don't look for those emotions as much in movie music lately.
For the last few months I haven't been able to place a single Japanese CD order without adding at least one score by Yasuharu Takanashi, mainly because most of his music is just too much fun to listen to. Kind of funny considering it was actually his horror scores that made me originally take notice of him.
I'll probably have to pick up that Chuck CD sometime too. I do remember liking the score back when the show was still on.
Oh yes, I think that "fun" listens are kind of swept under the carpet as not worthy of serious (ha!) consideration. I must admit, as a rather dour, grumpy old man, I tend to sway towards dark, intense scores, and then harp on about how my favourite scores are "inventive, intellectually stimulating and musically complex." That's actually true, but I've found some scores which can be that and "fun" too - not "fun" as in rolling around laughing, but at least hugely entertaining. I was listening just the other day to Intrada's release of HELLFIGHTERS (Lenny R) and thought "Hmm, that's GREAT, just like in the old days when soundtracks were fun AND full of inventive vitality".
Blaxploitation soundtracks are another genre which I enjoy immensely, without having to think about what the psychology is behind the writing. And I've had a great time over the years shimmying around to FSM's MAN FROM UNCLE releases, and many of Henry Mancini's breezier scores. There's too much talent and artistry behind all those things for them to be dismissed offhand, but there's a (probably understandable) tendency to categorize them as "minor". Well, thumbs up for those "minor" miracles, and thumbs up for "fun" (as in "good fun", as in "good quality fun").
Graham, I completely agree with your choices. I myself return to the UNCLE scores quite often, especially Grusin's Girl from U scores.
And Squiddy, I'm not familiar with Yasuharu Takanashi, so thanks for the recommend.
Speaking of fun, I've gotta do a shout out to Hans Zimmer of all people. We don't talk much about this aspect of the composer in all our polarized discussions about him, but one thing I love in some of his work is a sense of fun. His theme for the 90s animated show The Critic, the Duane Eddy theme for John Travolta in Broken Arrow, Captain Jack's theme in the Pirates movies, his great theme for the recent Sherlock Holmes movies. Just listened to his Lone Ranger score, and it's got a lotta fun along with the usual sturm und drang.
My other favorite recently is Goldsmith's insane score for LINK - which has kind of a circus-music-eighties-disco flavor that against all odds I love more than is right.
Especially the cues Bravo Link, with a crazy little violin solo out of TZ's The Invaders or the TZMovie Nightmare section. And my favorite: Helpful Link, which builds and builds to a strutting march rock beat that's just insane.
My other favorite recently is Goldsmith's insane score for LINK - which has kind of a circus-music-eighties-disco flavor that against all odds I love more than is right.
Especially the cues Bravo Link, with a crazy little violin solo out of TZ's The Invaders or the TZMovie Nightmare section. And my favorite: Helpful Link, which builds and builds to a strutting march rock beat that's just insane.
You should vote in the "PATTON vs. LINK" thread, Sean N!
This stuff is fun. I think another element that makes it fun is that it crosses over from music to movies to art to the personalities there in. This hobby can spark debate over issues great and inane. We sometimes take it way too seriously. But I attribute that to peoples passions.
Yikes! I had missed that thread or forgotten it. But I'm not gonna bite! I may listen to Link more, but I think Jerry is right about which is the better score.
It's not that I don't care for Italian soundtracks, just that I haven't been much exposed to them beyond Morricone, and hadn't made it a priority in collecting.
Spotify has helped me start to explore this wacky world without making a big investment, they have a good number of the digital albums of all the greats like Umiliani, Piccioni, etc. And speaking of Umiliani, I just love his Musicaelletronica albums, and Tra Scienza E Fantascienza, which are great and wacky fun. Also quite enjoy Il Corpo.
So I'm just getting started. Thanks for the reminder!
Oh, and I do love Barry Gray's UFO theme - I have this wonderful old Silva collection of Gray themes and suites (got some of the complete stuff too, but I have the most fun with this one.)
Firebirds is David Newman, not Shire, but I agree it's fun. Then there's a sub genre of 'fun' I'd call 'wacky' and into that would go stuff like Goldsmith's Looney Tunes, The Burbs, S*P*Y*S...and tons of stuff by John Powell of course, like Horron Hears a Who or the Adventures of Pluto Nash...
Thanks, Yavar - I fixed the Shire/Newman flub. I guess I mix them together in my head because I love both of their work kind of the same way. Didn't Newman do Pelham 123?
My favorite fun Powell experience is The Italian Job - I think that's just a terrific score and love when the strings come in starting at 3:00 in "The New Plan" - and come back in at the end of the album. Funky goodness.
(Yes, I'm not focusing on wacky fun here, not so much comedy scoring, just stuff that tends to be gleefully over the top. But wacky has it's place, of course. My own favorite comedy scores in recent years are a bit less wacky - Defending Your Life, Maxie, Dunston Checks In, and the immortal Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.)
Ah, the great advantage of missing the show when it was on and only catching up with it now on Netflix is that it's new to me, so this seems like a current release.
I'm not going to give up! Even if I'm the only one posting.
RUSH HOUR! The Main Title Lalo Schifrin put together for this action-comedy, in the tradition of his classic 70's Enter The Dragon - is just a hoot! The score is a great one taking the fun of his 70's style and making it more orchestral.
Which reminds me of the most fun I've had with 70's music, mentioned above - David Shire's The Taking of Pelham 123. I almost want to convince my wife and daughter to play this at my funeral come the day - saying, hey, where-ever Sean is, it's kick-ass!
Sean, you're not the only one posting - I can count to five on the fingers of one hand, and I lost count here. So many people, so many views (the "views" are up to more than a billion! So many inarticulate lurkers! Or was that me looking a billion times to check my speeling mistaks?)
Your mention of Lalo Schifrin is timely (well, everything is relative) - I raved on and on about GOLDEN NEEDLES on the appropriate thread when it was released. I did recognize that it may never have been Oscar-winning material (thank the Lord), but for sheer BALLS it has two big ones and more. That's not actually downplaying its musical value - much of it is intricate and delicate, and it all displays the work of a master at the top of his craft, but I think that Lalo himself knew that he couldn't approach it as if it were CITIZEN KANE. So he did what he did and we got what we got - which is splendid.
Thumbs up too for Shire's absolutely terrific PELHAM (good film too, better than NEEDLES, but that's not 100% relevant). There's a wealth of wonderful, energetic material there, and all done with admirable vigour and intelligence. That's a key point - those composers weren't just letting their hair down and having a blast (well, not totally). They just couldn't help being good.
And I do get enormous pleasure out of Monstrous Movie Music's CDs - music from TARANTULA, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON... I could go on and on. Apart from the fact that the music itself is so unpretentious, the new performances are so full of enthusiasm that they bring a smile to my face.
The above was a bit of a rabbit. Pick holes in it if you will, but I just wanted to say again that it's good to get away from dour, heavy stuff. And it's Friday too.
Graham: Golden Needles flew under my radar, but you're right, those clips on Music Box Records are just the same kind of fun. And I just picked up the first two Monstrous compilations last year (in a Kaiju and Giant Monster kick, which is also good fun!) - so I know what you mean. Black Lagoon will have to be next!
David: Live and Let Die was my very first non-Disney soundtrack album. And (duh, of course) my very first James Bond score. I recognized at 12 years old that it wasn't the typical Barry Bond music (not sure if I knew Barry by name), so that was a little disappointing, but I loved it and played the very hell out of it.
In fact, it's a great album. The original was a perfect Bond listen, I think one of the best, even if it didn't have the Barry touch. And some of my favorite track names to this day: Whisper Who Dares, Bond Drops In, If He Finds It, Kill Him.
And I think one of the very best interpolations of the James Bond theme in any Bond score: Snakes Alive. Have a listen!
