The soundtracks to over 400 films were composed by Ennio Morricone, among them some of my very favorites of all time, such as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Movie soundtracks represented some of my first exposures to music as a child, but while many themes and scores from all kinds of films and composers became favorites, none so motivated me to seek out their immense discography of wild, unique music like the prolific Signore Morricone.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Here's 7 of my favorites from Ennio Morricone.
Week 21: ENNIO MORRICONE
#141/420 - Leo Nichols, “Main Theme (Navajo Joe)”
The 60s not only had wonkiness in music industry credits, but in film industry credits as well. Here legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone uses the pseudonym of “Leo Nichols” to anglicize his name into sounding more American for the Burt Reynolds picture, Navajo Joe, by Sergio Corbucci. Corbucci, though not the better known Sergio of 60s Italian Western directors, was the more prolific of the two and this is the most memorable theme from any of his films that I have heard.
One quality of Morricone’s music that I love is the way he dares to use unconventional, almost unmusical sounds that are even somewhat grating on their own, to excellent effect in his soundtracks.
Here it starts with droning screams that sound part pained, part war-cry and partly like a hundred buzzing insects to accompany the gruesome scalping of a young native woman. Morricone has always had a knack for finding the musicality in these emotions, particularly of grime and disgust, in a way where most composers would simply pick out more conventional arrangements from conventional orchestras, subtracting from the grit. Morricone is much more daring than that.
Then, in the film, we see the rowdy gang of outlaws thundering in on horseback and the more iconic Morricone sound crashes in with drums, guitars, strings and wails with so much energy and such an epic feeling. (This easily fit in on my desert playlist when traveling for the production of The Wayward Sun.)
I love movie themes and opening titles like this and Navajo Joe has one of the best from Morricone.
#142/420 - Ennio Morricone, “The Ecstasy of Gold”
The music that plays while Eli Wallach as Tuco (“The Ugly”) runs through the Civil War cemetery looking frantically for the grave that holds the gold, this is one of the most epic scores in any film out there. Less playfulness and experimental sounds compared to Morricone’s other Western pieces at this time, the powerful bells and horns make this one pack a particular punch that grows and grows as Tuco reaches his goal.
Also gotta love the lead-in with Clint Eastwood firing cannonballs at him.
#143/420 - Ennio Morricone, “Farewell to Cheyenne”
Unlike Sergio Leone’s previous trilogy of Westerns with Clint Eastwood, Once Upon a Time in the West overall feels less campy and silly, with fewer moments of slapstick than its predecessors. It’s more subdued in the soundtrack as well.
In the movie, this is the farewell song to the great Jason Robards as Cheyenne “go away, I don’t want you to see me die” as Charles Bronson marches him through the desert hills. It’s really fantastic in this scene, plodding along and underlining the moment very well, but even separate from its place in the film, I love this song.
Although not used in the movie in this way, this to me is the ultimate saloon track and it’s always playing in my head whenever I enter one. Yes, whenever I enter a saloon. I enter saloons.
#144/420 - Ennio Morricone, “Poverty”
Sergio Leone only ever directed seven films in his lifetime, primarily in the 1960s. The last of his Westerns, Duck, You Sucker, a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite, was completed in 1971 and it wasn’t until 1984 that he would release another film, the nearly 4 hour epic, Once Upon a Time in America. Ennio Morricone returns as Leone’s go-to composer and delivers a score as strikingly different from the old Westerns they worked on together as the film itself is.
This track is the one I associate most with the film. It sounds just like what it wants to sound like to me, the streets of old New York. Not only that, but it captures the sadness, the uncertainty, the struggle, the turns, and yet, in spite of all that, the nostalgia.
A very beautiful score for a great movie.
#145/420 - Dan Savio, “Titoli (A Fistful of Dollars)”
The man of many aliases, this time as “Dan Savio”, turns out his first truly iconic score in the movie that made Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, and Ennio Morricone himself famous, A Fistful of Dollars. If you’ve only ever heard of this movie and have never actually seen it, it’s probably not what you would expect considering how beloved it is and the legendary status of its main players. It’s very low budget for its time and kind of crappy in many ways. Almost all of the actors are speaking Italian and dubbed over in English except Clint Eastwood, the day-for-night shots are really obvious, and it generally has a very rough/campy quality to it. It’s just not put together like most Westerns were. The story is also based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, which I significantly prefer, so there’s also that looming over my judgment of it.
But all that said, if you can appreciate and forgive the ways in which this is a lesser film, it’s really actually a fantastic film of its kind because the people making it were/are very talented people who just didn’t quite have the same all-star supporting cast around them and were still a little green themselves. The soundtrack is the same way. This theme has a feeling of “grab whatever’s in the room and start playing it” but that compliments this production wonderfully and leads to an incredibly unique and strong composition.
Despite being made by Italians, it manages to exemplify the American West and the feeling of frontier-horseback-cowboy-hat-tippin’ so very well. It was indeed the beginning of something great.
#146/420 - Ennio Morricone, “Titoli (For a Few Dollars More)”
A movie and soundtrack that seem to be made “for a few dollars more” than A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More manages to bring back everything that was great in the first and improve on it. The theme is no exception. Though admittedly maybe the opening credits edited behind it were a little bit cooler in Fistful. This time at least Ennio uses his real name.
Not to mention, how many other songs can manage to use what sounds like a cartoon bouncing spring sound effect and still sound badass?
#147/420 - Ennio Morricone, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Main Title)”
What must be my favorite theme to any movie, the grand master from the grand master is the theme to the best of the Dollars trilogy, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, a.k.a. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It oozes cool, craziness, and calamity and has one of the most distinct and original sounds of any film score ever, even to this day. Few composers are so bold so incorporate insane Yoko Ono-like vocals, let alone pull it off, but sure enough, Ennio Morricone does it here and does it very well.
The wailing screams, the pounding drums, the twanging guitar, the lifting choirs, the blaring staccato trumpets, the whistling, the everything. This song sounds as it were made on horseback, blasting through the American West, guns firing.
This is a great song for going fast. Play it on a bike ride and you're guaranteed to pick up the pedaling. And if you have an imagination like me, probably that bike turns into a horse and senior citizens on the trail are now bandits to evade. You get into it as great music goes.
Sergio Leone’s trilogy is certainly campy at times and rough around the edges, but that is one of its many charms. They’re epic and tough as they are iconic.
Music fit for an equivalent journey.
Next week, it’s time for a group that took concept albums and progressive rock to a new level. Imaginative soundscapes with The Moody Blues.
420 to 30: A Music Retrospective
Week 2: The Jackson 5/The Jacksons
Week 3: A Tribe Called Quest
Week 4: Weezer
Week 5: Bob Dylan
Week 6: Led Zeppelin
Week 7: 2Pac/Makaveli
Week 8: Billy Joel
Week 9: Electric Light Orchestra
Week 10: Elvis Presley
Week 11: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Week 12: The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Week 13: Nirvana
Week 14: The Doors
Week 15: The Rolling Stones
Week 16: Gnarls Barkley
Week 17: Gábor Szabó
Week 18: Galaxie 500
Week 19: Simon & Garfunkel
Week 20: Gorillaz
View the full list of "420 Songs" here: https://tinyurl.com/y8fboudu (Google spreadsheet link)