N o area of record collecting over the past decade has seen as many changes as that of film soundtracks, and who would have believed many years ago that incidental music from films as camp or cheesy as Barbarella and Casino Royale — or movies as obscure as Les Bicyclettes De Belsize or Rocket To The Moon — would demand prices higher than many 50s or 60s recordings. Although certainly not every film soundtrack, even rarer and older ones, can demand prices higher than £15 or £20, some have far exceeded £100 (and in some cases well over £200) and this shows no sign of abating today.
Although this is partly due to the massive increase in popularity of lounge/ exotica/easy listening, it’s somewhat bizarre to think that clubbers will fill dancefloors to the sound of The Italian Job or Dick Dale’s Misirlou (revived so memorably in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction) but a quick and cursory glance over recent films and chart hits reveal some pretty familiar sounds. Surely we’ve heard those strings on the Divine Comedy’s Absent Friends somewhere before? (on the 1958 The Big Country soundtrack actually), and just what is that tingling tune Daryl Hannah keeps whistling in Kill Bill Vol 1? (Bernard Herrmann’s Twisted Nerve theme, proving that even Quentin Tarantino isn’t averse to a bit of soundtrack sampling). And of course even Robbie Williams borrowed John Barry’s entire violin introduction from You Only Live Twice (recorded seven years before Williams was born) for use in his own Millennium.
Foreign-only soundtracks are another subject matter entirely, and we’ll come back to these in greater detail in a future issue. As it stands today the UK market for film soundtracks — although perhaps peaking slightly — continues to flourish, as regular visitors to record shops and eBay will notice. It’s also thanks to recent cult record labels such as Harkit and Trunk that many of these rarer (and in some cases previously unissued) scores are finally seeing the light of day. Also worth highlighting are the main areas of soundtrack collectability — and that is predominantly the mid to late 60s/early 70s spy, caper, psychedelic, or horror films — anything that goes with a funk or a twang basically. A lot of 50s and early 60s soundtracks are cherished by hardened film buffs, especially in the case of the London label with their truly amazing sleeves such as The Vikings, The Ten Commandments and The Horse Soldiers— but in terms of contemporary music they have little or very limited interest. Indeed it was the case of the newer wave of 60s film composers such as John Barry, Henry Mancini, Neal Hefti, Burt Bacharach, Ennio Morricone, Roy Budd and the sadly-missed Jerry Goldsmith who injected new life into both the films and the musical collectability behind them.
Excluding the expected contributions by pop artistes such as Elvis, The Beatles and the many rare rock’n’roll soundtracks of the 50s, it’s worth an assessment of the kind of soundtrack which reaches such high prices today. With the glaring exception of the impossibly rare Alexander The Great (released in 1956 on Pye Nixa in 10” format and featuring a score by future Vikings/Dr Faustus maestro Mario Nascimbene), the majority of scores are from the later part of the 60s and involve the aforementioned spy/caper or just plain groovy format. In most cases it’s the music – in some cases it’s the sleeve (especially on some of the, er… more colourful covers such as Fathom and Biggest Bundle Of Them All) — but when you listen to the psychedelic sounds of albums such as Barbarella and Bedazzled it’s plain to see that in most cases it’s just plain both!
Bedazzled (Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of course — Liz Hurley doesn’t come into it) featured one of the most memorably inane songs in British film history, and is a perfect example of the popularity/collectability factor behind Swinging London music — an era triggered off by A Hard Day’s Night and The Knack in 1964-65. This area also encompasses well-known (and lesser known) British soundtrack gems such as To Sir With Love, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (with its Spencer Davis/Traffic tunes), Smashing Time, I’ll Never Forget Whatsisname, and The Touchables. Some of these films may not be particularly good (Bedazzled itself is no masterpiece) but the hidden tracks buried deep within the vinyl grooves can be pretty amazing (check out the Carnaby Street sounds on Whatsisname or Goodbye Gemini).
Also falling into the mode of Swinging London is 1967’s Casino Royale with Burt Bacharach’s terrific score for a film that (just about) straddles two film areas and leads us into the world of swinging spies. Closer inspection of Bondian scores such as Our Man Flint, Murderers Row, Lady In Cement and our very own Otley can also turn up some hidden masterpieces. Otley was filmed mostly in Portobello Road as was (nice link, eh?) some of The Italian Job— which ranks with The Thomas Crown Affair and the ultra-rare They Came To Rob Las Vegas as one of the best caper soundtracks ever released. It’s hard to believe that soul maestro Quincy Jones helmed this now-immensely rare score, which culminates in the unforgettable footie chant of ‘Getta Bloomin Move On’ (or the Self Preservation Society). Original UK Paramount copies of this album fetch very good prices indeed, due to the limited release of the album back in 1969.
The horror film era saw surprisingly very few UK soundtrack releases but among the ones that were, Rosemary’s Baby, The Collector, Bunny Lake Is Missing (with its Zombies contributions), the forgotten semi-classic Goodbye Gemini and the perpetually collectable Polydor pairing of Twisted Nerve/Les Bicyclettes De Belsize remain very high on most music collectors lists. It is also worth noting that three of the most collectable UK soundtracks of all time are from pretty obscure and now mostly forgotten films — 1969’s Alfred The Great (a slightly bland soundtrack to a tedious film in which David Hemmings and Michael York play at Vikings, but which was immensely popular in America), John Scott’s score to Rocket To The Moon (based around a Victorian space race), and Ron Goodwin’s dreamy low-key music to the 1968 flop based on Evelyn Waugh’s Decline & Fall Of A Birdwatcher.
Of course not every film soundtrack is a rare one, and in the titles that follow we’ve attempted to show a cross-section of what various individuals class as the best film scores ever recorded. For many people there will be omissions and disagreements (and maybe a few names will be crossed off the Xmas card list this year), but it’s this diversity of opinion and sheer scope of choice and taste when it comes to the world of movie music that means the art of film soundtrack collecting will still be with us for many many years to come. Now roll the projector…
ENNIO CLASSICAL
Ennio Morricone is best known for his Spaghetti
Western soundtracks, but that is only part of the story.
He talks to Jonathan Wingate
He has composed the music to more than
500 films since he first emerged with
Il Federale (The Fascist) in 1961, which
works out at about a soundtrack a month.
Ennio Morricone may be the most prolific film
composer of the 20th century, not to mention the
most important, innovative and influential, but he
is also famously impatient during his rare interviews.
The sound of his voice invariably veers
between bored and barely tolerant, although once
in a while, he gets extremely animated in a typically
Italian fashion when he is trying to make sure he
gets his point across.
Born on 10 November 1928, the oldest of five
children, Ennio Morricone’s jazz trumpeter father
Mario enrolled him at Rome’s Santa Cecilia
Conservatory when he was 10 years old.
“My family listened to a lot of opera music when
I was growing up,” he recalls, sitting in his living
room at home in his 17th century central Rome
apartment. “My father loved jazz, and so we also
listened to Louis Armstrong. Jazz wasn’t a big influence
on me. Classical music wasn’t an influence on
me either when I was young. I heard certain classical
concerts on the radio, but they didn’t influence me.
I listened to them with the ingenuity that could
influence anyone.
“I inherited education, culture, respect for others
and honesty from my parents. All good things,
because my parents were good people. I don’t know
what I inherited from my mother. Maybe
from my father I inherited the will to work,
the power of wanting to work, and loyalty
to work. My love for music and composition
came much later on. My father didn’t
influence me in that way.”
Morricone studied trumpet and composition
and completed what was meant to be a
four-year course in half the time. He divided
his time between classical composition and
playing trumpet in jazz clubs. In 1943, he was promoted
to the class of Principal Harmony, when his
teacher Roberto Caggiano recognised his talent. He
completed the course in six months, after which
Caggiano suggested he study composition full-time.
He received his trumpet diploma in 1946, scoring an
unspectacular 7/10, although he also secured his first
job as an instrumentalist in the revue theatre.
“Studying at Santa Cecilia wasn’t fun. It was a
very serious thing that took a lot of work. I originally
thought I was going to play the trumpet. After studying
other subjects such as the organ and the piano, I
began to find compassion for composition. So, when
I was 16, I began to study composition, which struck
me very deeply immediately. But there is no way I
could have known what would have happened in the
future. I didn’t know that it was going to go this
way. I didn’t have a crystal ball.”
In 1951, he attended the third and final year of
his course in Choral Music and Choral Direction at
the Conservatory, but he left before receiving his
diploma. By the following year, he was writing background
music for radio dramas. He concluded his
studies in the summer of 1954, under the guidance
of Goffredo Petrassi, receiving the diploma in
Composition with a mark of 9.5/10.
“I really could never have lived this life or entered
this profession if I had not studied music. I studied
under Petrassi, who is one of the most important
composers of the 20th century.”
Did you originally think you would become a
conventional classical composer?
“Yes, exactly. I am a classical composer, despite
the soundtracks. It’s a double activity. Parallel to the
music I write for soundtracks, I have continued to
write classical music, symphonic music. When I
began to study composition, I wasn’t thinking at all
about soundtracks or the movies.”
After completing his military service in 1955,
where he had the opportunity to arrange a wide
range of music, he became a writer and arranger for
radio, television and the stage. In 1960, Morricone’s
Concerto For Orchestra was premiered at La Fenice
Opera House in Venice. He also arranged Paul
Anka’s Italian single Ogni Volta in 1964 alongside
songs for singer Gianni Morandi.
“RCA called and asked me to do the arrangements
for them. I had always worked on pop music,
so it wasn’t the first time. It was a huge success, and
they continued calling me… up until 20 years ago,
when I stopped doing albums for them.”
In 1964, director Sergio Leone approached
Morricone to write the score for Per Un Pugno Di
Dolari, the first of his classic triumvirate of Spaghetti
Westerns. The two had been to school together since
they were eight.
“He came to my house in Rome to ask me to
write the music for A Fistful Of Dollars. My first
impressions of Leone were very positive. Immediately
there was a good chemistry and a good feeling
between the two of us in terms of what we would
have to do together. There was also a friendship
between both families. We didn’t become friends
immediately, but slowly.”
When A Fistful Of Dollars was released 40 years
ago, Morricone was credited as Dan Savio and Leone
as Bob Robertson, quasi-American-sounding pseudonyms
intended to hide the fact that they were both
Italian. Leone’s heroes were amoral bad boys who
drank and spat, whereas in traditional Westerns,
leading men were generally good, honourable characters.
Leone’s films, his rewriting of America’s past as
a violent, vengeful and mercenary place, had a particular
resonance at a time when the United States was
anything but united, knee-deep as it was in the seemingly
endless Vietnam War.
Fistful featured the self-styled Man With No
Name (played by Clint Eastwood), ‘the new in-hero
who wears poncho and Levis, smokes cigar butts and
needs a shave.’
“I don’t write music based on the actor, but on
the character,” Morricone explains. “More than on
the character, on the entire story.” The original LP
sleevenotes point out that ‘The music matches the
excitement… note for note, shot for shot.’
Morricone’s work for Leone focused on the
sound as a key narrative element within the films.
As most of his subsequent work would go on to do,
Morricone’s astonishing Spaghetti soundtracks either
propelled the action along or served as a surreal
counterpoint to what was happening on screen.
Fistful caught on throughout Europe and became
the highest grossing Italian film of all time.
Its release in Britain and America was
delayed until 1967, following a legal battle
with Japanese director Akira Kurosawa over
the film’s similarity to his own Yojimbo,
made in 1961 — the same year Morricone
made his debut soundtrack appearance
and three years before A Fistful Of Dollars
came out.
Ironically, just a few years earlier during
an interview, one of Morricone’s biggest influences,
composer Igor Stravinsky, said: ‘Film music should
have the same relationship to the film drama that
somebody’s piano playing in my living room has to
the book I am reading.’ Morricone couldn’t have disagreed
more. His music always plays an integral part
in the films it accompanies and is invariably impossible
to ignore.
Maybe the key to the enduring appeal of his film
work is the fact that unlike most soundtrack scores,
which are commissioned purely to enhance what you
see on the screen, Morricone’s music also works on
its own away from the action.
Did Leone give you a clear idea of what he wanted
you to write for the soundtrack to A Fistful Of
Dollars?
“No, I gave him the idea, and he accepted it. It’s
a typical relationship between a composer and a
director. You know, I have my idea, I give it to him,
and then he gives me his suggestions. And we go
back and forth in that way. It was a very collaborative
relationship.
“I have no idea where an idea comes from. It is
probably born from when I reflect on a movie and
what I have to do. When I started, I wasn’t thinking
about other composers when I was writing. I was
thinking about my ideas and my needs. I wasn’t
comparing myself to others. What can I say? The
style of a composer is born very slowly. From the
moment I was composing for A Fistful Of Dollars,
the creative process had already been born a long
time before.”
Next came For A Few Dollars More and Once
Upon A Time In The West, which incorporated equally
mesmeric music from Morricone that again transported
the Leone films into another world and
enhanced every visual image. Morricone’s unique
music utilised a disparate array of often strange musical
elements — including offbeat orchestrations,
Sicilian folk instruments and twangy guitars mixed
with haunting harmonica, whistles, whip-cracks,
Jew’s harps, ghostly choral harmonies and church
bells.
“I honestly don’t know if I would say that the
music was as important as the visual images, but the
importance is given by the mix that the director
makes between the music and the other elements. All
of the directors I have worked with have influenced
me and helped me to better myself.”
Would you say your classical training gave you a
much broader musical vision than you would have
had if you had been learning your craft in the pop
world?
“There’s absolutely no doubt about it. Music
should be studied in its entirety. Classical training
studies the entire path of music from the very beginning…
until today. You really have to study to compose
music. I don’t think anything can come naturally.”
So where does that leave you on the subject of a
self-taught writer like Paul McCartney?
“Well, if he’d studied, he could have done a
better job. The Beatles were absolutely extraordinary
at what they did, but you have to see who was
behind them.”
As a rule, Leone asked Morricone to write the
music for films like The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
(1966) and Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
before he had actually started shooting them, with
the actors and crew often reacting to the music as it
was played back to them on the sets in Spain and
Italy, so that they would get the atmosphere exactly
as Leone wanted it.
“Yes, he asked me to write them before he started
filming, so I wrote them. He did tell me about a lot
of the visual elements, though. It was a collaboration
with good results. He would tell me about the film
and the story and explain the shots to me.
“You need at least a minimal idea to begin writing
a project. The original idea has certain mutations
transformed, so the beginning may become superfluous.
The original idea can change completely, but
you need it in order to begin.”
For the beautiful Once Upon A Time In The West,
Morricone penned a separate theme for each of the
five protagonists. “I would propose some ideas, and
he was always very good at understanding which
ones were the right ideas. Sometimes things would
happen quickly when we worked together, sometimes
things would be slower.
“I’d like to ask a question,” he suddenly snaps via
his clearly embarrassed interpreter, Lydia. “Why are
you always asking me about Leone? You do know
that I have worked with over 100 directors? How
much more time do you want to spend on this?”
Because the music Morricone wrote for Leone’s
films totally electrified the Western world, to some
extent, that is what he became forever known for.
But Morricone has also worked with some of the
greatest directors in cinema history including Oliver
Stone, Brian de Palma, Mike Nichols, Roland Joffé
and Roman Polanski. Although he has scored literally
hundreds of soundtracks — even
the composer himself doesn’t know
how many films he has worked on
— only 30 of them are actually
Westerns.
Morricone’s work revolutionised
the soundtrack world. He changed
everything and influenced everyone
from the moment he arrived, leaving an indelible
mark on film music, rock, pop and dance culture.
His ideas have been plundered by everyone who has
ever operated a sampler.
“If sampling is done well, then I think well about
it,” he explains. “I don’t like sampling when it’s done
to save money in terms of the orchestra. But whoever
writes a symphony today doesn’t sample.”
What sort of music do you listen to on a Saturday
night?
“I don’t really listen to many albums, but I do go
to a lot of concerts. I would say that my favourite
Saturday evening artists are The Beatles and Pink
Floyd.”
Would you agree that your music totally changed
the very way in which film soundtracks were composed?
“I really can’t say that. If other people who have
studied my music want to say that, then they can say
that. I have never compared myself to others or to
what people have done before. If you are a historian,
then you should be worthy of establishing something
like this. Time goes by and things change.”
In 1978, Morricone was nominated for his first
Oscar for his Days Of Heaven score. He won a
BAFTA for his score of Leone’s Once Upon A Time
In America in 1985. He also received six Oscar nominations
for his celestial soundtrack to The Mission in
1986, although he again failed to take even one
home, something which was rumoured to have upset
him immensely. Nearly 20 years later, inexplicably,
Ennio Morricone still hasn’t won an Oscar.
“So, I didn’t win an Oscar. The nominations
changed nothing for me. I don’t think my music
changed direction with The Mission. No, I think it
was just progress… a gradual progress from the first
movie onwards. It’s not that you change all at once.
It was just a gradual process of getting better.”
Do you think you have received the credit you
have deserved — both generally and within the classical
world?
Morricone pauses for 30 seconds: “Yes. Very
much so. I think so, but maybe I’m missing from the
classical world, because the credit that I got began
coming later on. But all other kinds of credit came
from the film world. To get credit from the soundtrack
world is more than enough. I don’t know what
people think about me.”
Ennio Morricone paints pictures with music like
nobody else. His innate ability to match a memorable
melody or a specific sound with a scene or an
atmosphere means that many of the films he worked
on — most notably Leone’s low-budget Spaghetti
Westerns of the 60s — would not have been as
successful in cinematic or commercial terms without
Morricone. Leone’s films are now seen as classics,
and are associated with two things — Clint
Eastwood and Morricone’s music.
Morricone has been composing music for films
for over 40 years now, and he is still as in demand as
he ever was, though he says he has reduced his workload
recently. Last year, Quentin Tarantino used
Morricone’s Death Rides A Horse (originally written
for Navajo Joe) in Kill Bill Vol. 1, although when
asked what working with Tarantino was like, he
points out that “it wasn’t any kind of experience for
me. I refused to go to the United States for two and a
half minutes of music.” In fact, Morricone has never
lived anywhere but Rome, and still speaks little or no
English.
Has pop music influenced you at all?
“I worked in pop music, so I hope that I influence
pop music. There is a series of composers that
I love… Monteverdi, Palestrina, Johann Sebastian
Bach, Stravinsky. Is that enough?
“There really aren’t any rules,” he adds, just
about managing to stifle a post-lunch yawn. “Sorry,
I am not bored, I am just very tired. I am tired, but
not because of you.” Morricone then whispers something
to his interpreter, Lydia, who is initially too
embarrassed to translate what he had said. “He said
all these questions allow me to have a beautiful girl
sitting in front of me,” she giggles.
Do you generally write sitting at the piano?
“No,” he says, sounding almost insulted. “I
compose at my desk, without any instrument, of
course…as all composers should do. Those who
compose on the piano are amateurs,” he chuckles.
“It’s not necessarily true that you can write better
music without an instrument, [but] whoever writes
on a piano transcribes from the piano to the orchestra.
It is very limiting.”
Do you spend most of your time writing music?
“Almost always. Either I compose or I think
about composing, read books or I play chess. If I
hadn’t become a composer, I would have wanted to
be the world chess champion. I also like football.
I certainly have free time, and I need it for when I
am reflecting. Staying still means that your mind is
working in order to find other things to inspire you.”
Ennio Morricone’s Movie Masterpieces compilation
is out now on BMG along with remastered digipak
editions of the soundtracks to A Fistful Of Dollars,
For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon A Time In
The West.
THE COMPOSER’S COMPOSER
Michael Nyman reflects on Brian Eno,
Damon Albarn and meddlesome film
directors
Most people probably know Michael Nyman from the plinky theme
he did for the 1992 film The Piano, which has now inevitably
cropped up in a car ad — or from the many appearances he makes in
broadsheets, peering owlishly out of articles about the populist end of
modern classical music. Alternatively, you might recognise his name from the
series of 11 Peter Greenaway films he soundtracked from 1976 to 1991, including
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover and Prospero’s Books. Britfilm
fans will remember his work on Antonia Bird’s Ravenous with Damon Albarn.
However you take your Nyman, it’s probable that he’s done stuff you’ve never
heard of. His is a long and distinguished career: born in 1944, he worked first as a
musicologist, writing a study in 1974 called Experimental Music: John Cage And
Beyond and collecting Romanian folk music. Then he was a critic for publications
such as The Spectator, in which — in a 1968 review of Cornelius Cardew’s The
Great Digest — he was the first writer to use the word ‘minimalism’ when referring
to music. He later became interested in the work of Steve Reich, formed an
orchestral (but amplified) group called The Michael Nyman Band and wrote for a
variety of ensembles including symphony orchestra. Having traversed the worlds
of film, opera and dance, it was probably inevitable that the late 90s saw him
soundtrack fashion shows, computer games and miscellaneous happenings such as
the launch of a high-speed train (MGV, 1993).
Nyman’s sixtieth birthday was celebrated this year with the reissue by EMI of six
of his soundtracks: Decay Music (1976), The Draughtsman’s Contract (’82), A Zed
And Two Noughts (’85), Drowning By Numbers (’88), The Cook… (’89), and The
Piano (’92). “They were a present to myself,” ruminates Michael…
Why reissue the albums? Surely The Piano sells pretty well anyway?
The Piano soundtrack is still doing very well, thank you very much, but the
Greenaway albums have been floating around for years. The most interesting reissue
for me is Decay Music from 1976, produced by Brian Eno and never available
on CD before. It came from nowhere: at the time I was a music critic rather than
a composer. Those bits of music were the first I had written since I was a student
in 1964. Some of it sounds as if I’d been studying Balinese gamelan music —
it came from a totally different set of preconceptions. The people who only know
me from the Greenaway stuff will think, what the hell was he doing back in
1976?
How did the Eno collaboration work out?
Well, everyone got a lot out of it. Brian got a lot of street cred from being
associated with various ‘serious’ composers, and he’s said publicly that my multiple-
piano piece 1-100 was an inspiration for Music For Airports, which has some
sounds that I like, although I prefer a slightly more pro-active approach.
How was it working with Damon Albarn on Ravenous?
Brilliant. It took a lot of pressure off me. He was given the film by Antonia
Bird and when he found out that it was an orchestral soundtrack, he insisted that
he wanted me to help. So I had two roles. Firstly to help him get his material into
shape, which at the time was pretty loose and had just been played into the computer
with no click tracks. And then I took half the cues that Damon hadn’t done
and did those. But I love the freshness of what he wrote, and it was wonderful to
have a resourceful, inspired musician from another world come into mine. He
had legendary arguments with the musicians, and kind of threw his weight
around, but I think the results justify doing that. I liked the way he said, fuck the
system, I don’t care how things are normally done. Being a rich rock star, he
obviously had the power and the ability to do it the way he wanted. I also went to
Mali with him and hung out a lot. We share the same birthday and, you know,
he’s the son I never had.
How is the relationship between you and Peter Greenaway?
Dormant! Redundant. We haven’t worked together since 1991.
But clearly there was a powerful artistic relationship between you at one point?
Oh, absolutely. We’ve known each other since 1961 or ’62. We were movie
buddies, we’d go and see the latest Godard or whatever.
You soundtracked psychologist Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife
For A Hat.
Yes. The story behind that is that I read the book at Christmas 1985 and
loved the idea of turning it into an opera. I met him at the ICA where he was
lecturing, and he was totally flummoxed and intrigued by the idea. It took about
10 months to get it staged, which is brilliant. Those were the days. Long gone,
I’m afraid.
You did a computer game too.
Yes, I did Enemy Zero in 1996, made by someone called Kenji Iino, funnily
enough, who later spelled his name ‘Eno’ as if he was Brian’s younger brother. He
was Mr Large to Brian’s Mr. Little. I’m curious about doing these things blind,
like soundtracking a film before seeing it.
You don’t play the game first?
Certainly not! I still haven’t seen Enemy Zero. I don’t go in for that kind of
stuff. It’s like writing a dance piece — you don’t write for the choreography, they
base the choreography on your music.
What are your favourite soundtracks by other composers?
Prokofiev. More or less anything by Bernard Herrmann, including Psycho and
Taxi Driver. Morricone’s spaghetti westerns. I’m even a sucker for things like
Cinema Paradiso. I like Carter Burwell, he did a soundtrack for Fargo which
no-one really noticed. Alex North, up to a point. There are a lot of journeyman
composers who I’m afraid I haven’t paid much attention to.
Are you a fan of cut-and-paste soundtracks like Trent Reznor’s Natural Born Killers, which used both dialogue and music?
I would like the opportunity to try something like that. To mastermind a
whole soundtrack. The main reason I fell out with Peter Greenaway on Prospero’s
Books was that I wrote him a fantastic score under his closely supervised instructions,
and then I saw a screening of the film. My score had been hacked about
more than he usually hacked it about, but there was also some kind of would-be
proto-electronic music. I thought that from an objective point of view it looked
quite interesting, but that from a subjective point of view he’d neither told me he
was going to do this, nor given me the opportunity to do it myself. So that would
have been a fantastic opportunity to take the whole sound department and
mastermind it myself. It’ll happen one day. Joel McIver
HOLMES IS WHERE THE ART IS
D avid Holmes has been obsessed with music
ever since he was a nipper. The youngest
of 10 brothers and sisters, he remembers
being exposed to all kinds of different
sounds from punk, rock and Motown to early hiphop
and funk. His first job involved cutting people’s
hair, but he gave it up to concentrate on DJ-ing
and writing his own tracks. A prolific producer,
he’s released three solo albums, numerous compilations
and one album with his group The Free
Association. When he’s not locked in his home studio,
he divides his time between scoring soundtracks
and running his label, 13 Amp.
What was the first soundtrack you fell in love with?
Probably Once Upon A Time In The West by
Ennio Morricone. The emotion in that score is so
well orchestrated that even without the visuals it still
sounds like a breathtaking piece of music. As a young
DJ I was very inspired by the whole score and used to
mix certain sections into the latest tracks by DJ Hell
and other house producers. It could have been a disaster,
but the fusion of the flutes and the helicopter
sound effects with the driving beats actually worked
really well together. I look back at it now and laugh,
but at the time the punters went mad for it. The
whole soundtrack also provided a comfort blanket
for me on Sunday evenings when I was coming down
from certain exotic goods!
Did you start to take an active interest in soundtracks
from then on?
I definitely started checking out other scores and
dropping certain tracks into my sets. It wasn’t until
I made De Niro with Ashley Beadle however, that I
actually started using soundtracks as a proper form of
inspiration and dreaming of scoring my own one day.
Was De Niro a homage to the De Niro of Taxi
Driver or Deer Hunter?
Both. He might have done a few dodgy films in
the last decade, but the stuff De Niro did in the 70s
and 80s was flawless. I mean, how many times do
you come across a character like Travis Bickle?
I don’t know if he’s ever heard the track, but I still
dig it out occasionally and I think it’s quite representative
of the time. I was listening to John Carpenter’s
Halloween and Escape From New York a lot and they
definitely encouraged me to experiment with synthesisers
and drum machines.
Had your passion for soundtracks expanded by the
time you recorded This Film’s Crap Let’s Slash The
Seats?
Totally, and if you listen to it closely you should
be able to hear echoes of The Long Good Friday, Dark
Star and In The Name of The Father. The Long Good
Friday isn’t the be-all and end-all of soundtracks, but
some of the cues are incredible and it felt quite natural
to use them as a springboard. I didn’t sample anything
from In The Name Of The Father, but it struck
such a deep chord with me it inspired the opening
track of This Film’s Crap, No Man’s Land. Growing
up in Belfast in the 70s was like living in a war zone
at times and In The Name Of The Father really
captures this.
Resurrection Man was the first soundtrack you
composed. How did you hook up with the director
Mark Evans?
He heard This Film’s Crap and liked it so much
he decided I’d be the perfect person to do the soundtrack.
He gave me some key words and phrases, then
encouraged me to lock myself in the studio and see
what I could come up with. Other artists might have
found composing a soundtrack about Northern
Ireland a bit of a headfuck, but I identified with the
story straight away and that helped me understand
what kind of moods and emotions were needed. I
can’t remember how many minutes of music I did
altogether, but the final score was very dark and electronic
with lots of subtle textures. It was part luck,
part preparation and a great introduction to scoring
soundtracks.
What was the next film you did?
Out Of Sight for Steven Soderbergh. It was a massive
step for me and I was totally thrown in at the
deep end. Fortunately, Steven was a dream to work
for and I managed to get access to lots of great source
material like Marva Whitney and The Staple Singers.
When I realised how well those tracks worked, I listened
to the instrumentation and decided we needed
a Fender Rhodes, a clarinet, a piano and acoustic
guitar to provide the continuity and inspiration for
the rest of the score. It took a while to get right, but
eventually the whole thing held together like glue.
You teamed up with Soderbergh again in 2001 for
the Bratpack re-make Ocean’s Eleven.
Yeah, I had a lot of fun scoring that movie and a
lot of fun hanging out with the cast. I’m not arrogant
enough to think it’s the best score in the world, but
I think I managed to tap into the characters and
capture their spirit and drive. It sounds obvious, but
I think making a soundtrack is quite similar to DJing.
Both involve taking people on a journey for a
couple of hours and trying to make sure the journey
has its own highs and lows.
In between Out Of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven you
did the soundtracks for Buffalo Soldiers and Analyze
That.
Analyze That was a pleasure to score, but I had a
bit of a bumpy ride with the director of Buffalo
Soldiers. We’re good friends now and I still like the
score, but I never bothered releasing it as an official
soundtrack. Unfortunately the release date coincided
with the aftermath of September 11th and the film
was put on hold for two years.
You mentioned Ennio Morricone earlier. What
other composers have had an effect on you?
I like Lalo Schifrin, Elmer Bernstein, John Barry,
Bernard Hermann, Kryzstof Komeda and Francis
Monkman. The composers that inspire me more
than anyone else at the moment though, are Alain
Clavier and Giles Trenelay. They were French musicians
that made incredible musique concrète through
manipulating magnetic tape and noise generators. It’s
hard to get their stuff, but they’re both worth tracking
down. The other composer I’m really into right
now is Norman McClaren. He was a Canadian maverick
that made short films with really edgy soundtracks.
The stuff I’ve got was recorded between 1952
and 1955 and it’s just completely ahead of its time.
I’ve no idea how he composed or recorded any of it,
but its been a real inspiration to me over the last few
years.
Every composer has their own sound or style. How
would you describe yours?
Sometimes it’s really upbeat and funky, sometimes
its really dark and intense. It really depends on
the story and the visuals. I’m quite an emotional person
so I think my soundtracks naturally sound quite
emotional and cinematic. When people hear those
words together they usually think of Henry Mancini
and sweeping strings, but there’s lots of different
emotions to explore — from anger and fear to lust
and loneliness — and I try to explore as many as I
can with each soundtrack I make. Basically, it’s my
job to come up with a unique score each time and
make it flow through the whole movie.
Tell us about your score for Michael Winterbottom’s
Code 46 starring Tim Robbins and Samantha
Morton.
I recorded it with Steve Hilton from The Free
Association and we had a fantastic time in the studio.
Michael gave us a lot of space and freedom and as a
result we delivered a really tight score. I’ve listened to
it a lot over the last few months and I think it’s the
best soundtrack I’ve done in terms of longevity. It’s
dirty and filthy and funky as hell in parts, but it’s also
a record you could go back to when you’re feeling
blue and need a good cry. There’s lots of prepared
piano, Farfisa organ, drums brushed with bamboo
and lush vocal harmonies.
What’s next?
Ocean’s Twelve. I’m really excited that it’s being
filmed in Europe instead of America because it means
I can use a totally different set of reference points to
Ocean’s Eleven. I don’t know which tracks they’ve
used as temps yet, but I’ve been sending Steven
everything from Serge Gainsbourg and Nico to really
rare Morricone scores. When I go to Rome next week
we’ll watch the footage together in the editing suite,
then decide which tracks work, where they need incidental
music and what kind of tempo it needs to be.
It’s still early days, but because I know the characters
off by heart I can already envisage the scenes in my
head.
You’ve got six soundtracks under your belt now.
What advice would you give to any budding
composers?
I think the key to doing any soundtrack is to
enjoy the process and maintain a good relationship
with the director. If you can’t do either of those
you’re completely fucked — because you have to
watch the same bits of footage over and over again
for months on end and it’s quite a tedious process.
Personally, I’d rather be a plumber than score a film
I didn’t like.
Are there any directors left you’re dying to work
with?
There’s too many to mention, but David Lynch,
Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and
Paul Thomas Anderson would all be pretty high up
the list. It’s always a pleasure to work with Steven
Soderbergh, but I don’t want to be known as the guy
who did funky lounge scores for him. I have a lot
more in me and I hope I get the opportunity to
express it because I don’t see the point in making
music if I can’t keep moving forwards and confusing
the fuck out of people.
DAVID HOLMES’ FAVOURITE SOUNDTRACKS
PERFORMANCE I can’t put into words how
much I love Performance. I’ve watched it hundreds of
times. The story is great, the acting’s fantastic and
the soundtrack was the driving influence behind my
last solo album Bow Down To The Exit Sign.
QUADROPHENIA I first saw Quadrophenia
in 1978 and it totally changed my life. I was so
drawn to the characters and the songs that within a
few weeks of watching it, I started dressing like a
mod, buying records by The Jam and The Who,
watching mod films and immersing myself in the
whole culture.
ANGEL HEART A lot of films from the 80s
have aged terribly, but Angel Heart just gets better
and better. New Orleans glistens and gleams like a
beautiful whore, Mickey Rourke dazzles as Johnny
Favourite and Trevor Jones captures the voodoo perfectly
with his eerie, atmospheric score.
DE SADE Bruno Nicolai was Morricone’s righthand
man. He did the orchestra for Battle Of Algiers
and went on to score lots of fantastic soundtracks.
My favourite is De Sade because of the instrumentation.
I’m sure other composers have tried to imitate
and recreate the incredible sound effects, but
nobody’s ever managed to pull it off.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY The first time I
watched Midnight Cowboy I glimpsed a life I’d never
seen before. I found the characters, the scenes, the
dialogue, the cinematography and the music really
edgy and exciting. Lots of directors have tried to
capture the real New York on film, but it’s in
Midnight Cowboy that the freaks come out and you
get to see the dark, sweaty underbelly of the city.
TRACKING THE GOOD STUFF
A guide to buying soundtracks, by Sarah-Jane
D ecades ago, soundtracks were the domain of film fanatics and record collectors.
These days, everyone seems interested in the language of cinema and the demand
for soundtracks has risen dramatically. More film scores are being released and
reissued than ever before. Some of them are approved records released by dedicated
labels while others are rushed bootlegs put out on cheap vinyl. Prices vary dramatically,
so it pays to shop around and ask about the condition of what you’re looking for.
As long-term collector Jonny Trunk emphasises: “Soundtracks can be outrageously
expensive or outrageously inexpensive, depending on where you buy them. You may find
a rare Italian or French LP you’re after for sale on specialist sites at £200-£500, but then
find it elsewhere at £40. So be very cautious before you buy. It’s a complicated market,
and soundtracks that were once considered super-rare now turn up at least once a month
and go for far less than they used to.”
With that advice in mind, here’s a guide to some of our favourite sources for film
music. The rest is up to you…
SHOPS
RARE DISCS, 18 Bloomsbury St, London, WC1B 3QA tel 0207 580 3516. The first port of call for serious collectors,
Rare Discs has been specialising in film scores for the last 25 years. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly and
their impressive selection of vinyl and CDs spans everything from old musicals, TV themes and library albums to
original scores by John Barry, Lalo Schifrin and others.
GRAMMAR SCHOOL RECORDS, High St, Rye, East Sussex, TN31 7JF tel 01797 222 777. An atmospheric shop that
boasts the most extensive collection of soundtracks in the UK. They try to keep a range of everything from rare to
contemporary scores and their stock is fairly priced (I managed to pick up a Japanese import of The Man With The
Golden Arm for £25). They also run a brilliant mail order service (www.backtrackrye.com) with free P&P and discounts
for large orders.
THE RECORD ALBUM, 8 Terminus Rd, Brighton, BN1 3PD tel 01273 323 853. Said to be the longest established
record shop in the UK, The Record Album has been servicing DJs and record collectors with vinyl since 1948. The
charismatic owner stocks every conceivable type of music from rock to pop, but his soft spot is for soundtracks and
his collection includes over 5,000 film and TV scores. If you ask nicely he might even tell you a few stories about the
industry. Unfortunately the store recently closed — but who knows, it may resurface.
INTOXICA, 231 Portobello Rd, London, W11 1LT tel 0207 229 8010. Split over two floors, Intoxica is a cosy shop
packed head to toe with all kinds of new and used vinyl. Both DJ Shadow and David Holmes paw through their soundtracks
when they’re in town while collectors regularly search through their jazz, funk and exotica sections for rare and
unknown library recordings. Most of their stock is also listed on their website www.intoxica.co.uk
MEMORY LANE RECORDS, 1940 East University Drive, Tempe, Arizona tel 001 480 968 1512. A Midwest institution,
Memory Lane is a homely shop that specialises in rare and out of print 33s, 45s, 78s, reel to reel tapes and
8-tracks. They grade each record according to the sleeve and condition of the vinyl and stock over 20,000 soundtracks
and original cast shows. They also run a mail order service through their website www.memorylanerecords.com.
SOUNDTRACK DELETIONS, Hillside House, 1 Woodstock Road, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 2DL tel 1634 711053.
Try them for those rare out-of-print LPs and CDs, especially Goblin/Simonetti material. Friendly and helpful.
MOVIE BOULEVARD, 3 Cherry Tree Walk, Leeds LS2 7EB tel 0113 2422888. Established 20 years ago and now
based in The Calls in Leeds City Centre, the shop sells movie-related products including LPs, CDs, DVD’s, limited
edition and rare promotional items, deleted titles, posters, lobby sets, stills, postcards, books and magazines. Their
searchable website is movieboulevard.co.uk.
AMOEBA RECORDS, 1855 Haight St, San Francisco tel 001 415 831 1200. Immortalised on the cover of DJ
Shadow’s Entroducing, this former bowling alley is the largest independent record store in the US. They don’t do mail
order yet, but they stock new and used jukebox 45s, Japanese imports and soundtrack reissues. Their sister store in
Berkeley, California is equally worth visiting.
DUSTY GROOVES, 1120 N. Ashland Ave, Chicago tel 001 773 342 5800. The place to start if you’re looking for Sun
Ra’s soundtrack to Batman And Robin, this cute Chicago store specialises in rare grooves, jazz, funk and booty-shaking
soundtracks. They also run a speedy mail order service through their excellent website www.dustygrooves.com.
ONLINE SHOPS
WWW.MOVIEGROOVES.COM Smooth site dedicated to ‘the grooviest, jazziest, sleaziest, easiest and funkiest soundtracks‚
committed to wax. Endearingly, the search engine lets you look through the whole catalogue or scan related
categories like Nunsploitation and Horrotica. There’s MP3 samples of most releases, testimonials from happy
customers and an enviable collection of 60s and 70s scores.
WWW.MOVIEMUSIC.COM The only online shop with its own comic strip, Movie Music has a stock of 4,000 new and
secondhand CDs in Mint condition. Search by composer or title, and the scores range from blockbusters to arthouse
flicks.
WWW.INTERMEZZOMEDIA.COM Still searching for a copy of Quattro Mosche Di Velluto Grigio? This Italian mail order
company specialises in limited edition CDs and DVDs by Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Armando Trovaioli and other
respected composers. Prices are competitive and they offer speedy delivery.
WWW.SUPERCOLLECTOR.COM Testosterone-fuelled site that supplies soundtracks, toys, video games, DVDs and
anime comics to men across the globe. Their soundtrack selection is regularly updated and includes everything from
Stars Wars to Scarface.
WWW.SOUNDTRACKCORNER.DE Run by a self-confessed cinephile in Berlin, this is one of the best-kept secrets on
the web. There are no MP3s, detailed descriptions or track listings, just a brilliant collection of vinyl albums all listed
with a photo and label info. One of the places to start if you’re after a rare Quincy Jones or Roy Budd score.
WWW.INTRADA.COM California based store with a diverse CD catalogue. Items are listed in One of A Kind‚ and there
are individual sections for popular composers like Thomas Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Nino Rota and Gabriel Yared.
They also sell the TV and film scores they release on their own Intrada imprint.
WWW.SCREENARCHIVES.COM Virginia-based site with large catalogue of past, present and hard to find CDs. Stock
changes regularly and last time I visited they had 340 out of print scores including Wojciech Killar’s scores for Ninth
Gate and Death And The Maiden. First editions and extremely rare soundtracks are put up for auction and each release
is listed with a short synopsis of the film.
WWW.SHOCKINGIMAGES.COM Funky site that specialises in soundtracks, books and DVDs ‘for sinful minds’. Their
mouth-watering selection ranges from the exotic to the kitsch and includes memorable titles like Italian Girls Like Ear
Catching Melodies, Pimps, Players & Private Eyes and Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars & Sitars.‚
WWW.EBAY.COM If you‚re looking to buy or sell a particular filmscore, eBay is one of the easiest places to start.
There are hundreds of different records put up for auction each week and this makes it an ideal place to pick up bargains.
Of course, is also gives other sites a chance to pick up collector’s items and sell them on for a small fortune!
LABEL-RELATED SITES
WWW.ALLSCORE.DE Like Crippled Dick, this is a German label that specialises in easy listening, 60s and 70s jazz
and music from and for the screen. Their releases have a distinct European twist and their catalogue includes Italian
B-movies, cult TV themes, Western scores from East Germany and the popular Mondo Morricone series.
WWW.CINEVOX.IT An Italian label that prides itself on reissuing original scores and well thought-out compilations
(check So Sweet So Sensual — Erotika Morricone). Their eye-catching site offers news, discographies and a strong
collection of popular Goblin and Dario Argento scores.
WWW.CINEDELIC.COM Online home to slick Italian label that loves ‘cool grooves, cinematic shake, sitars, beats and
Hammond a go-go’. Includes vintage and contemporary scores by well-respected composers like Riz Ortolani, Mario
Nascimbene and Nora Orlandi.
WWW.CHELSEARIALTOSTUDIOS.COM Established label dedicated to restoring and rescuing classic film scores from
the 30s onwards. Most releases have extensive sleevenotes, photos and incidental music. Impressive discography
includes King Kong, The Glass Menagerie and dozens of scores by Alfred Newman, Max Steiner and Benjamin Frankel.
WWW.CRIPPLED.DE Crippled Dick Hot Wax is a cheeky label with treasures from the 60s and 70s. No mail order yet,
but you can download samples and trawl through their impressive discography including I Told You Not To Cry:
Swinging Themes From Thrilling German Crime Films, Shake Sauvage: French Soundtracks From 1968-1973 and
Vampiros Lesbos: Sexadelic Dance Party.
WWW.FILMSCOREMONTHLY.COM When he’s not writing his monthly fanzine, Lukas Kendall releases gems like The
Omega Man and The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 on his labels Silver Age Classics, Golden Age Classics and Retrograde
Records. $20 might seem a lot for a new CD, but each release is limited to 3000 and comes with rare stills and
exhaustive notes.
WWW.POTFLEUR.COM Founded early 2001, Potfleur aims to present quality soundtracks from Greece and beyond.
All are on 180 gramme vinyl and CD digipaks and their small catalogue includes funky, avant-garde scores by George
Hadjinassios, Mike Rozakis and George Theodossiadis.
WWW.SILVASCREEN.COM Since 1986, Silva Screen have been quietly and steadily releasing a selection of past and
present TV and film scores. Their website claims that they’re ‘the best in mail order movie music’. No Polish jazz,
Italian funk or French loungecore here, just dozens of mainstream and made-for-TV compilations like The Essential
James Bond and John Barry: Hits And Misses.
WWW.TRUNKRECORDS.COM Cracking Essex label run by film fanatic, porn collector and RC contributor. Most releases
are on CD and vinyl in unique, eye-catching sleeves with background info. An enviable selection of rare and previously
unreleased soundtracks includes Kes, Psychomania, Dawn of The Dead, UFO, The Wicker Man and Basil
Kirchin’s library music.
WWW.VARESESARABANDE.COM Quality soundtrack label that releases rare, out of print and previously unreleased
scores. Each CD is limited to 3000 copies worldwide and their favourite composers seem to be Elmer Bernstein, Alex
North, Jeremy Goldsmith and John Williams.
SOUNDTRACK RADIO PROGRAMMES
A FISTFUL OF SOUNDTRACKS Totally eclectic soundtrack station hosted by film critic and producer Jim Aquino.
Themed shows, playlists and two new programmes added each month. Mac users can listen through iTunes while PC
users can download from www.live365.com and www.jim.aquino.com.
BLOODSTREAM Spooky station devoted to cult horror, thriller and giallo soundtracks, mostly from the 60s and 70s
with the odd John Carpenter score thrown in for good measure. Mac users can listen to through iTunes while PC users
can download from www.exploitika.com.
CINEGROOVIN Run by the producer of Bloodstream, Cinegroovin is a cool soundtrack station devoted to 60s and 70s
loungecore, crimejazz, freakbeat, funk and groove. Mac users can listen via iTunes and PC users can download from
www.exploitika.com.
CINEMASCAPE US station playing great orchestral film scores 24 hours a day, seven days a week — everyone from
James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith to John Williams and Thomas Newman. Mac users can listen through iTunes while
PC users can download from www.live365.com
O.S.T. Jonny Trunk’s weekly programme for Resonance 104.4FM is essential listening. He prides himself on playing
totally different records week in week out, tells interesting stories about his favourite scores and regularly invites
special guests in to DJ. Forthcoming: Kentucky Fried Film Music, More French Library and Gainsbourg In The Movies.
Check www.resonancefm.com and www.trunkrecords.com for times and playlists.
