Continuing my rundown of scores mentioned in last summer’s Big Board Extravaganza that I haven’t heard before.
Last time - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=133957
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This time - My Name is Nobody / Il mio nome è Nessuno (1973)
Ennio Morricone
Mentioned by: PT, Southall
My Name Is Nobody, Tonino Valerii’s semi-parodic take on spaghetti Westerns, was plagued by production issues and flopped in the U.S., though it was a success in Italy. The director had been Sergio Leone’s assistant director on A Fistful of Dollars, though of the six films Valerii had led since only his 1972 thriller My Dear Killer had employed the services of Ennio Morricone. My Name Is Nobody, on which Leone played a not-insignificant role in getting it to the finish line, would be time #2, with the composer firmly planting his tongue in his cheek as he riffed on a few of his earlier Leone Westerns, most notably Henry Fonda’s material from Once Upon a Time in the West (Fonda starred in this film too), and interspersed some of his mythic vocals with what sounds like a large kazoo playing a parody of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Elevating the work beyond mere goofiness is a carefree, outrageously catchy main theme (expect to bounce along) and the soulful Good Luck, Jack. Nearly a decade after the Dollars Trilogy started, Ennio was still proving he could take familiar parts (usual suspects like singer Edda Dell’Orso, whistler Alessandro Alessandroni, and the Modern Singers of Alessandroni all show up) and do something new with them.
**** for this rare moment of a composer going whole hog on self-parody.
32 minutes of score ended up on LP, with GDM (and later Beat Records) adding over 40 minutes of alternates on CD. The longer program is the one on U.S. digital / streaming services, though I imagine for most listeners the original program will be more than sufficient.
Album - https://open.spotify.com/album/6HQ7RbAEUTMDCrNQbrupqk?si=a_XJHIuATkybmDVuGkc-HA
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Next time: 1973 again, with the only score in this series I didn’t like.
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