Came across this saccharine bit of early 70 kitsch -- a performance of the ABC Melbourne Show Band, as led by Brian May...
No shots of May leading the band, but it's a somewhat amusing to consider that the guy who scored Mad Mad and The Road Warrior was originally famous for this kind of thing.
but it's a somewhat amusing to consider that the guy who scored Mad Mad and The Road Warrior was originally famous for this kind of thing.
Perhaps.
One could tell, though, from Brian May's brassy writing for Mad Max, Thirst, etc. that he had band experience.
Plus, this is not unique. Was not Harry Robertson/Robinson doing pop/band music prior to getting assignments with Hammer to score their early '70s vampire movies?
Johnny Dankworth entered cinema after making a name for himself with his band ... not unlike John Barry himself.
And before George Duning's contract with Columbia Pictures he was associated with Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge. In some of Duning's scores for STAR TREK episodes, one can also detect brass band experience.
But ... yeah, it's quite a shift in pop culture tone to transition from the 'candy man' song to the 'toecutter' in less than 10 years.
Cool find, but yes -- as Zardoz says -- fairly common within that generation. Williams and Barry would also be other examples of band leaders going film music later on.
Cool find, but yes -- as Zardoz says -- fairly common within that generation. Williams and Barry would also be other examples of band leaders going film music later on.
But Barry's 1960s film output was not dissimilar to the non-film music he had been creating. Williams' early scores often had much in common with his pop/jazz work as well.
May however -- going from things like that treacly arrangement of "Candyman" to scoring Patrick and Mad Max -- imagine Lawrence Welk being tapped to score Romsemary's Baby and Where Eagle Dare -- and totally delivering. That was the point I was making.
May however -- going from things like that treacly arrangement of "Candyman" to scoring Patrick and Mad Max -- imagine Lawrence Welk being tapped to score Romsemary's Baby and Where Eagle Dare -- and totally delivering. That was the point I was making.
Both Williams and Barry did several scores in a more classical idiom while doing all the band stuff in the 60s, so it's not altogether uncommon.
But Barry's 1960s film output was not dissimilar to the non-film music he had been creating.
I would have to strongly disagree here. Yes, "Elizabeth Taylor in London" and "Sophia Loren in Rome" are, arguably, fairly anodyne, and "The Knack" is, deliberately, contemporary in its style. However, the vast majority of his Bond music, plus "Zulu", "Four in the Morning", "King Rat", "The Whisperers", and "The Lion in Winter", for examples, are leagues away, I contend, from the output of the "John Barry Seven".
imagine Lawrence Welk being tapped to score Romsemary's Baby and Where Eagle Dare -- and totally delivering.
This could be a topic for another thread.
My mind recalls reading about CBS Music Library director Lud Gluskin being suprised that Fred Steiner (who was pigeon-holed for comedy music at the time) could write dramatic underscoring for TWILIGHT ZONE segments such as "King Nine Will Not Return".
Actually, FSM's OnyaBirri regularly posts here about '50s 'bachelor pad' albums by the likes of Les Baxter, for example. Baxter came from "Ports of Pleasure" & "Tamboo!" to scoring Roger Corman/Edgar Allan Poe movies such as House of Usher or re-scoring Mario Bava's Black Sabbath.
Dominic Frontiere started with his accordion numbers ... then later went into THE OUTER LIMITS.
And since Rosemary's Baby was brought up, the film-makers didn't need to tap into Lawrence Welk - they already had Krzysztof Trzcinski (Christopher Komeda), who performed jazz on Polish Radio years before Roman Polanski started filming.
Harry Robinson went from "Hoots Mon" as Lord Rockingham ... to backing Countess Dracula & The Vampire Lovers.
Plenty of more space will be required if I start on my Italian favorites.
Piero Piccioni, under the name Piero Morgan, during the mid-'50s was known for soft jazz. His later film scores fluctuated from Debussy impressionism to Bartokian angst.
But Armando Trovajoli might have had the most albums in this area ...
... prior to scoring low-budget genre items like Seddok & Lycanthropus
Indeed, most Italian composers who wrote for the giallo genre during late-'60s & early '70s had blended easy listening lounge with Pendereckian atonal strings plus acid rock with fuzz guitars.
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