A SKY FULL OF STARS FOR A ROOF (1968) ...E Per Tetto Un Cielo Di Stelle AMIGOS Rustic Morricone #17
This series is inspired by a controversy thread where someone posited the idea that besides THE MISSION and some Sergio Leone westerns Ennio Morricone hasn't written anything great. Rather than making my usual comment that most of Morricone's great scores are from Italy and trying to get Americans to listen to them is like getting them to see movies with subtitles, I decided to take another tact. Since I am at an age where I will only be able to make my case a finite number of times I decided to turn this into a series presenting each great score one at a time, sort of like recordman.
It's funny that I have been accused of presenting mainly obscure scores because when I started collecting Morricone LE DUE STAGIONI DELLA VITA, this score and the next one were all considered highly revered scarcities that you paid extra money for. Hexacord who released the CD in 2002 called it one of the most requested scores they've had. Now it seems like an archaeological find. I can totally justify picking this release if just based on the whistling theme he wrote for the opening. For me it is one of the best whistled themes ever written by anybody:
As much as I love all of Morricone's westerns at a certain point they have a sameness about them. This one sticks out. In fact if it wasn't for the electric guitar piece you wouldn't know it was Morricone. The whole thing has solo banjo, fiddle, piccolo, rinky-tink piano and whistling. All extremely simple but it has grown on me. Now this is a good time to introduce one of THE most important people in Morricone's career. Alessandro Alessandroni whistled, played guitar, did "coyote" voices, and practically everything else for most of the early Morricone scores. He worked for practically every Italian composer out there including the great Nino Rota way before Ennio. A composer in his own right he led the "I Cantori Moderni" where Edda, Gianna Spagnuolo and many others performed all those great Morricone vocals. Just listening to this score it has pure Alessandro Alessandroni performances heard the most distinctly. The film story involves a conman and his dupe and has some funny moments. It is directed by Giulio Petroni who did LABBRA DI LURIDO BLU, TEPEPA, CRESCETE E MOLTIPLICATEVI, LIFE IS TOUGH, EH PROVIDENCE? and DEATH RIDES A HORSE with Morricone. Maybe the film is far from great and perhaps the score but it is unique amongst Morricone westerns and I give it a special place.
I'm with you all this way on this one. Much deserving of another CD issue, and with maybe a better sounding source for the expanded version than what Avanz/Japan did: using the Cometa vinyl source for the stereo tracks and that "expanded" CD that's been floating around for the rest of it. With any luck this will be another of the expanded Cometa CDs from Italy.
Have just finished listening to this one again the music in Henry's clip is such a lovely piece of music it is not the same as what is on the cd maybe I have missed it but don't think I have.
Think this cd suffers from 7 weak tracks out of 25. # 3,5,7,10,11,12,13
As far as I can tell, it's the exact same track as "Harry's Ranch - Main theme" (track 20) on the Hexacord CD. The music plays a little bit faster in the video clip posted by Henry though.
As far as I can tell, it's the exact same track as "Harry's Ranch - Main theme" (track 20) on the Hexacord CD. The music plays a little bit faster in the video clip posted by Henry though.
Thanks I was thinking that was the closest last night but for whatever reason never heard the guitar playing until about 4 mins odd in can hear it now though sound is very low had to crank the volume way up.
I enjoy the harsh guitar and usual elements of this score but as a complete listen it does tire a little. Others suggest that they sometimes make a shorter album out of a full score for listening pleasure; I haven't been tempted to do this and now regularly play my music (streaming) on random ... and must admit that this is a score that I haven't selected to play in quite some time.
I do recall that the sound quality isn't perfect but then this score isn't unique in that area.
NP: I'm going to cancel random (presently: Piero Piccioni's Main Theme from Un Modo Di Essere Donna) and choose to play ... E Per Tetto Un Cielo Di Stelle
As far as I can tell, it's the exact same track as "Harry's Ranch - Main theme" (track 20) on the Hexacord CD. The music plays a little bit faster in the video clip posted by Henry though.
Thanks I was thinking that was the closest last night but for whatever reason never heard the guitar playing until about 4 mins odd in can hear it now though sound is very low had to crank the volume way up.
Certainly could do with being remastered.
I have the original Cometa LP as well as the Hexacord CD and I can tell you that the sound quality of the LP is superior. Also, the guitar and the whistle are louder on the Lp than on the CD. So yes, this score certainly needs to be remastered.
This title cropped up a few times in recent zoom, unusual but very definitely a great ennio western score. As wayoutwest says, the main man here is Alessandroni, who earned his money here.
This title cropped up a few times in recent zoom, unusual but very definitely a great ennio western score. As wayoutwest says, the main man here is Alessandroni, who earned his money here.
Really love that whistling need to dig this one out again to give it another spin.
John Bender shared a track think it was in his Yahoo group years ago it was superb and the best track from the score and it is not on the hexacord CD only on the Avanz disc. Never got around to picking that one up, hopefully a new release will appear at some point of this score with better sound and all the tracks especially the Alessandroni ones.
Wayoutwest, I also want this score to be rereleased. I indeed have only the LP and a CD-r copy of the Hexacord CD. But as Mikael pointed out, the sound level of the whistled track is way too low on the CD and absolutely needs to be increased. Let's cross our fingers.
