Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,011
Written 8/20/99, Revised 9/9/07
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Buy it... if you seek proof that John Barry was more intent at
times on forcing his own style onto a new genre rather than truly
adapting for it.
Avoid it... if the reason you are curious about Monte
Walsh's score is because you are a Western collector, for Barry's
output is far closer to his works in the drama and action genres.
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| Barry |
Monte Walsh: (John Barry) It took so long to get
the production of Monte Walsh under way in the late 1960's that
the Western genre had nearly outstayed its welcome by the time the film
hit the big screen. The genre was changing musically as well, leaving
the boisterous Americana spirit of Elmer Bernstein for the harder, more
dissonant and experimental lines of Jerry Goldsmith and Ennio Morricone.
The most unsuspecting entry into this genre of music was John Barry in
1970, a composer fresh off of an Academy Award win for the dramatically
powerful The Lion in Winter and (arguably) at the height of his
James Bond productivity. Suitably, the story of Monte Walsh would
also involve the evolving times, portraying the dying days of the cowboy
in the 1880's, as big companies swept through the West and
institutionalized the trade. The film was largely defined by its immense
sense of tragedy, making it a difficult viewing experience and giving it
a troubled place in history. While Barry had never scored a Western
film, this sense of drama is the same emphasis that would eventually
lead to him to great success with Dances With Wolves (which was
all drama and really little Western at all). But Barry's sound for
Monte Walsh would be predictably uncharacteristic to the genre,
with the composer bringing most of his sensibilities from other genres
and directly applying them to the Western with little alteration. One
such habit was the redundant use of themes, and Monte Walsh has
four of them. The title song is the most famous, featuring lyricist Hal
David and singer Mama Cass Elliot. The latter's performance of the hit
song "The Good Times Are Comin'" stole the spotlight from an otherwise
promising score. It has all the flair of one of the more solemn Bond
songs, with much of the same instrumentation in its single version.
Elliot's involvement was a fantastic choice by the producers; her
easy-going style perfectly captures the swinging, lazy, and eventually
destitute attitude of the film.
While the song's theme is integrated heavily into one
of the subplots of the film, Barry extends three other notable themes
into his work, and all exhibit the same care-free, wandering qualities
of the song. One is sparsely used; the "despair" theme often
intermingles with the title song and is presented with solo harmonica.
The other two are far more enjoyable. The "cowboy" theme has several
outbursts throughout the score, and allows the brass and timpani to let
loose with the stereotypical Western action that audiences would expect.
Especially in "Round-Up," it foreshadows the grandiose Barry themes of
the 80's. The "goofy" theme is its lighter side, accompanying the dark
comedy in the film with perhaps the score's most infectious harmonica
pieces. One climactic fight sequence is handled with Bond gloves by
Barry, unfolding his typical rhythmic technique of the time and crossing
genre boundaries. The instrumentation of the score as a whole is very
usual for Barry as well, with the seemingly ever-present xylophone and
harpsichord softly laying rhythms in most tracks. Both instruments,
while expected in a Barry work for the time, seem slightly out of place
in this project. The score wasn't released on CD until 1999 when, after
being plagued by production problems, it debuted as Film Score Monthly's
seventh Silver Age Classics album. On the product, the title theme is
repeated no less than five times, with each variant a different
recording. While tiring, listeners will look forward to the final
performance, the only recording in the crystal clear stereo that often
conveyed Barry's other scores of the time. The album is divided into the
listenable mass of the score first and the source and outtakes music
second. That latter half includes a "Saloon" suite with six tracks of
honky-tonk barroom performances that only interest in their renditions
of the main themes in the final two takes. Otherwise, they're a faintly
sparse precursor to their rambunctiously fun descendants in
Chaplin. The score outtakes, along with the actual score proper,
will be a notable find for Barry enthusiasts, but don't expect straight
Western genre fans to flock to this one.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.83
(in 29 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.51
(in 28,822 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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