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Posted: |
Aug 12, 2018 - 1:37 PM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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I refiled my Mancini albums in chronological order, based on RCA catalog numbers.
Sometime between the mid-1960s and late-1960s, Mancini's overall style changed from a light, hip, west coast jazzy sound to a sad, introspective "adult" sound. Interestingly, this change seems to roughly coincide with his transition to the combover.
On "The Brothers Go to Mothers" by Group 1 (RCA LSP-3524) and "Mancini '67" (RCA LPM-3694), there is no combover. He looks generally like he does on the earlier albums. But on "Two for the Road" (RCA LPM-3802), Mancini is beginning to rock a proto-combover, which will come into full fruition by the late-1960s or early-1970s. "Two for the Road" is also when we begin to hear Mancini's sad, adult-ennui sound.
Coincidence, or were larger forces at work?
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I refiled my Mancini albums in chronological order, based on RCA catalog numbers.
Sometime between the mid-1960s and late-1960s, Mancini's overall style changed from a light, hip, west coast jazzy sound to a sad, introspective "adult" sound. Interestingly, this change seems to roughly coincide with his transition to the combover.
On "The Brothers Go to Mothers" by Group 1 (RCA LSP-3524) and "Mancini '67" (RCA LPM-3694), there is no combover. He looks generally like he does on the earlier albums. But on "Two for the Road" (RCA LPM-3802), Mancini is beginning to rock a proto-combover, which will come into full fruition by the late-1960s or early-1970s. "Two for the Road" is also when we begin to hear Mancini's sad, adult-ennui sound.
Coincidence, or were larger forces at work?
The famous "comb-over' is very common with older men losing their hair to make it appear that they have more hair than they do. This requires growing longer hair to do a "wrap-around" to achieve the desired effect. I have lost a lot of hair but I personally go with what Mother Nature intended and refuse to "do the do". It just makes you look silly and desperate to look younger. But, hey baby, it's Hollywood and Hollywood doesn't like old and bald. At least it's not a rug.
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Onya, I seem to recall when you were listing your favorite composers you listed Goldsmith pre-ponytail, which makes you our most astute observer of hair matters. So, what came first? The composition style or the coiffure?
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Posted: |
Aug 13, 2018 - 8:24 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Even before the combover, when he sported the "thinning top buzz" hairstyle, Mancini's music was frequently sad and downright depressing. Sure, the films he scored often called for it, but the man was never particularly joyous, even at his swingin' peak.
It didn't help that Hank had the equally morose Johnny Mercer as his lyricist, who was, to paraphrase Miles Davis--one sad motherf_cker.
By the late 1960s, many so-called "establishment" figures felt the marketing pressure to be hip and to snatch a portion of the then-young, then-hip, and then-radical unwashed Baby Boomer multitudes; think of one's father from the Glenn Miller generation attempting to "groove" to the Rolling Stones. Few and far between were the pop chart victories of "Everybody Loves Somebody" and "Please Release Me" amid Boomer cultural hegemony.
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Posted: |
Aug 13, 2018 - 5:47 PM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Even before the combover, when he sported the "thinning top buzz" hairstyle, Mancini's music was frequently sad and downright depressing. Sure, the films he scored often called for it, but the man was never particularly joyous, even at his swingin' peak.
I agree, but the sadness heard in, for example, "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" has a different musical character IMO than his late-60s/70s "adult ennui" music, which has a Bacharach-on-valium quality.
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I think Mancini is really interesting. I love a lot of his stuff, especially the cool, jazzier stuff and the melancholy melodies. What I don't care for is when he goes for a happy, cute sound. So, give me Charade, Arabesque, Dreamsville, Molly Maguires, Thorn Birds, Mr. Lucky, The White Dawn, Lifeforce, and many more. "Moon River" is my favorite movie song--both the tune and the lyrics. As far as an instrumental version, I'll take the main title version with Tommy Morgan's harmonica. Oh, and though it's not known as a "tune," that Lifeforce main theme is as catchy as it gets.
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Posted: |
Aug 14, 2018 - 5:42 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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I think Mancini is really interesting. I love a lot of his stuff, especially the cool, jazzier stuff and the melancholy melodies. What I don't care for is when he goes for a happy, cute sound. So, give me Charade, Arabesque, Dreamsville, Molly Maguires, Thorn Birds, Mr. Lucky, The White Dawn, Lifeforce, and many more. "Moon River" is my favorite movie song--both the tune and the lyrics. As far as an instrumental version, I'll take the main title version with Tommy Morgan's harmonica. Oh, and though it's not known as a "tune," that Lifeforce main theme is as catchy as it gets.
I don't know some of the later ones you mentioned. Among the 70s Mancini I know is "The Thief Who Came to Dinner," "Once is Not Enough," and "The Money Changers." Of these, "Thief" is in the heaviest rotation. I also have some of his LPs, including "The Cop Show Themes" and the aforementioned "Symphonic Soul." I think I have an LP of remake of a Tennessee Williams play, but I can't remember which.
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Posted: |
Aug 14, 2018 - 6:10 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Regarding changing music and films, I once again refer to Nick Redman's definitive statement on the subject:
"It is widely believed among film historians that the decade of the 1970s was the last great hurrah of American film. Much has been written and spoken about why this is so, and yet, in truth, it is the only the first half of the '70s that is meaningful--roughly the period between 1969-1976. Afterward the tide inevitably turned toward younger subjects for younger audiences, and the innovative, adult-themed--some would say nihilistically inclined--pictures went the way of the Dodo bird."
Sadly, by the 1980s, those "younger subjects for younger audiences" would completely metastasize themselves onto American films, and the grown-up fare you and I and perhaps two or three others here prefer had long since given way to Lucas and Spielberg cinematic toothlessness. With some notable exceptions, Goldsmith's output ceased to be interesting, but then look at the tripe he was scoring in the last 20 years of his career; It was certainly enough to make a man in his 60s grow a long, white ponytail.
No one will disagree with this.
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Any thoughts on Barry's style with his early/mid sixties neatly combed but balding hair to his late sixties "modder" look through to his whatever-style of the later seventies. Oh, and I think he never shaved while working on a score. Several shots of in the studio show him with an unshaven look; otherwise, he's been seen shaven, goatee, and with full beard.
Slow day on the FSM board, I guess.
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Posted: |
Aug 14, 2018 - 10:42 AM
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By: |
jackfu
(Member)
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Any thoughts on Barry's style with his early/mid sixties neatly combed but balding hair to his late sixties "modder" look through to his whatever-style of the later seventies. Oh, and I think he never shaved while working on a score. Several shots of in the studio show him with an unshaven look; otherwise, he's been seen shaven, goatee, and with full beard.
Slow day on the FSM board, I guess.
John Barry wore a "game face" during recording sessions, like an athlete who refuses to shave during an extended tournament. It's more this than any change in his personal fashion sense. Barry seemed like a tough-as-nails kind of guy, and the dedication to his craft was exemplary.
I'm enjoying the PH.D-level discussion this thread has inspired.
Me too; interesting and amusing discussion, I think.
I'm pretty big on correlation, however "correlation does not imply causation".
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I think I have an LP of remake of a Tennessee Williams play, but I can't remember which.
It's The Glass Menagerie.
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