 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| This is a comments thread about FSM CD: Zigzag/The Super Cops |
| |
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Aug 9, 2009 - 5:14 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
|
Count me as another champion of this fine release.
This FSM double disc could be wickedly nicknamed "The Bum Ticker Two-fer" seeing as both Oliver Nelson and Jerry Fielding suffered from heart problems. It's an absolute tragedy that both men died so young. Fielding was sorely needed in the 1980s with how synthetic that decade turned out. But I wonder how much work he could have scared up if he didn't continue working with Clint Eastwood. Of course we'll never know...In Oliver Nelson's case, it's an even greater tragedy. He, like Fielding worked in the Universal composer's "stable" and, as Thomas brilliantly put it in his Zigzag blog, Nelson's was both a sensitive and forceful sound. When I see what the subsequent decades in film scoring brought to the art, I mourn the deaths of Nelson and Fielding all the more. Still, would there have been the room for these two brilliant composers? In an age where greats like Bruce Broughton and David Shire toil in veritable obscurity, I doubt it.
As for the music...
Zigzag is a great, great introduction to the world of Oliver Nelson. Sure, we all want The Six Million Dollar Man, but Zigzag is all the more interesting for being an obscure George Kennedy movie. I love the "driving through the city" sound of many of the cues, and that main title is hummable as anything else from that time. Love it. The album presentation is equally fascinating, and a reminder of a time when the re-record was every bit as interesting in its own way. Don't ignore it!
Avant-gardist that I am, I could listen to Jerry Fielding's atmospheric suspense cues for hours on end and still remain fascinated with the man's very sound. The Hawkins scores are a wonderful (and obvious) companion to Maestro Goldsmith's take on the same show, but Fielding's music has flashes of his other scores from that period. I can hear traces of The Mechanic and Alfredo Garcia, especially the former with its low, rumbling piano.
The Super Cops is a funkier, but lighter precursor to Fielding's score for The Enforcer, and if they ever did Dirty Harry as an intentional comedy, then The Super Cops would be the score for it. There are enough serious and suspensful selections in Fielding's "lighter" effort that always keep it interesting. It's a score that's grown on me considerably.
It's also great to have the source from The Outfit, a movie that TCM (thankfully) aired one late night about three years ago. Fielding's score is fitting and conveys a more relaxed, rural setting, though it gets tense and edgy when it must.
Zigzag/Supercops is the greatest FSM release nobody ever bought. And that's a shame. But if there's ever a release for The Six Million Dollar Man, you can guarantee that Oliver Nelson will earn a career re-evaluation and some much-deserved recognition. In the meantime, I'll be grooving to Zigzag...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh yeah, love that Super Cops. Just doesn't get much more funky than that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I play this cd a LOT. Mostly for ZIGZAG, as much as I like Fielding, I prefer this score.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ZigZag is so good. I never knew I'd be getting a Roy Orbison performance too, even if the song is lousy. "It's my mind you're blowing. Zigzag!"
I like the arrangements for the film more than the LP performances. One thing that makes a good composer is to know when to stop adding stuff, and I think something is lost with the album treatment in this regard. Still interesting listening, for sure.
As for The Super Cops... I've never been a Fielding fan and this score certainly didn't turn me into one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The thing I find a bit odd about THE SUPER COPS is that if Intrada had put this score out as one of its Fielding releases as a 'Special Collection' it would have been greeted by cries of "Awesome!"
"Another Holy Grail released!" and so forth. And it would have gone in a couple of days.
Weird.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The thing I find a bit odd about THE SUPER COPS is that if Intrada had put this score out as one of its Fielding releases as a 'Special Collection' it would have been greeted by cries of "Awesome!"
"Another Holy Grail released!" and so forth. And it would have gone in a couple of days.
Weird.
And the same applies to "The Getaway", another Peckinpah/Fielding title that is not sold out.
At Intrada, any Peckinpah/Fielding title would have gone in 24 hours.
Go figure?
PS: Intrada seems to have stopped their Fielding well, at least in the first semestre of 2009?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh, I think it was just the fact that the Intrada Fielding's were released in smaller quantities. As we all know, most things that are pressed in low numbers tend to sell out quick these days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Or maybe it was the extra $5 on the price tag. Those 2-CD sets can be a real punch in the wallet, you know.
True.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh, I think it was just the fact that the Intrada Fielding's were released in smaller quantities. As we all know, most things that are pressed in low numbers tend to sell out quick these days.
Or maybe it was the extra $5 on the price tag. Those 2-CD sets can be a real punch in the wallet, you know.
A little story that's amusing now, but not so much back in late January, 2006.- I was about 3 weeks away from relocating back to Dallas from Phoenix, and I was driving to work about an hour earlier than usual on a wetter than usual highway. Rain is so rare out there that when it hits pavement, any oil in the concrete just rises like cream. Long story shorter, I was involved in an accident that morning that ended up totalling out my Mustang. The cops pushed me over to the side and the tow driver gave me a lift to work.
My drive to work listen that a.m. ? ZIGZAG. I ended up leaving the damned thing on the side of the highway when I got out of the car and had to buy a new one about a month later when I was re-settling in Dallas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I was actually just joking (tried to make it more obvious by adding the winky smiley...oh well).
Ok. Not too bright today.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Woops. This space for rent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh, I think it was just the fact that the Intrada Fielding's were released in smaller quantities. As we all know, most things that are pressed in low numbers tend to sell out quick these days.
Exactly. The point we were making is that it doesn't seem to matter what the music is like or who the composer is.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exactly. The point we were making is that it doesn't seem to matter what the music is like or who the composer is.
Yeah I know I was just stating the obvious, I guess.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
