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Posted: |
Feb 7, 2021 - 11:41 AM
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By: |
Graham Watt
(Member)
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Dud Moore but far from dud music.
I keep hearing in my head all these terrific tracks written by Dudley Moore for BEDAZZLED and 30 IS A DANGEROUS AGE, CYNTHIA. I'm hearing them and yet I don't own any of the score releases, so I guess that I must have had them on some format at some time. Are the Harkit releases the only ones available of those two scores? Whatever, they would make an absolutely cracking twofer on one CD. Just imagining, not expecting it will ever happen.
I know that I had at some time a double LP of The Dudley Moore Trio from '77 or '78 - although it must have been a '60s release originally because Pete McGurk was still on bass - and the track titles on the first LP match (I think) the cuts from the film, but I'm not hearing a trio in my head. I'm hearing the full scores somehow, filled with beautiful bossa nova tracks, silky strings, swinging '60s joy and the masterfully elegant touch of Dudley Moore on piano. And of course the classic Peter Cook vocal ("You fill me with inertia"). I still don't know where I got those score tracks from, decades ago.
All comments welcome.
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I absolutely adore the score for "Bedazzled." It perfectly encapsulates all that I love about 60s soundtracks.
Do we know if Dudley Moore did the arrangements?
"Bedazzled" is on CD under the misleading title of "Bedazzled Revisited." Based on tape dropouts, I am led to believe that this was mastered from a personal tape of Moore's and not from the masters, but until something better comes along, this will have to do.
Never had the album, nor saw the film of "30." Is it good?
Incidentally, Amazon reports that "Bedazzled Revisited" is "Digitally remastered from fifteen I.P.S., half-track, quarter-inch reel-to-reel analogue tapes."
I haven't had much time to look into this, but at least part of my memory came back, sort of. I remember now taping both scores from LP to cassette (one of dozens) in order to have something to listen to when I was doing my degree away from home, and the only source would have been the 2-LP set previously mentioned, "The Music of Dudley Moore", from about 1978 or '79. Sure enough, although it's billed as being performed by The Dudley Moore Trio, that's only really true of the second LP. LP 1 has 30 IS A DANGEROUS AGE, CYNTHIA on Side A, with BEDAZZLED on Side B, and after a quick visit to YouTube I believe they are the same takes as featured on previous releases (and possibly the Martine Avenue Productions release you mention, Onya). There are more tracks on the other releases than on the double-Dud LP I have (had), but mine seems to have left off the few annoying tracks.
I don't know if Dudley Moore himself did the arrangements for the films... I suspect so, although Christopher Gunning did the liner notes for the LPs. No idea what he said. Perhaps he had a hand in arranging after all, I don't know.
Is 30 a good film? It's one I saw on TV in my teenage years, and I enjoyed it although it hasn't got a great reputation (neither has BEDAZZLED for that matter). The music's great though, except for the few irritating tracks which were thankfully left off the LP set I acquired way back.
All of the above is a very general, hurried overview. Would be nice to have these two paired. Dudley Moore was a genius in many ways, certainly a very gifted composer and musician. It's a pity his later career was tarnished.
Just as a footnote, I'll mention that I was very impressed by his atonal/chamber score for 1968's INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE starring Nicol Williamson and scripted by John Osborne from his play. I wonder how he got that job.
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Onya, remind me of the two vocal numbers missing from the double LP... The track called simply "Bedazzled" is the wonderful number with the girls going crazy over Peter Cook ("You drive me cra-a-azy, you drive me wiiild!" "You fill me with inertia.") I'm glad that one's on it.
Thanks for the YouTube link, Leo. That's a great piece, and it shows off Dud's real jazz skills. Brilliant. Plenty of Dud at the piano on YouTube, usually accompanied by Chris Karan and Pete McGurk, all tremendous musicians. I think they both did a lot of work with Roy Budd (Karan certainly did) and Basil Kirchin.
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Posted: |
Feb 8, 2021 - 8:43 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Onya, remind me of the two vocal numbers missing from the double LP... The track called simply "Bedazzled" is the wonderful number with the girls going crazy over Peter Cook ("You drive me cra-a-azy, you drive me wiiild!" "You fill me with inertia.") I'm glad that one's on it.
OK, I assumed it may be the instrumental version that had been included. It looks like the LP omits the Dudley-sung "Love Me," which is of course the polar opposite of "Bedazzled."
It also omits "Main Title," "Strip Club," "Leaping Nuns," "GPO Tower" (which is very good), "Sweet Mouth," and "Goodbye George."
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That's right, Onya. I heard those tracks on YT and didn't recognise them from my forty-year-old cassette. And we really ought to spare some more love for Cynthia. A lot of it's very sweet and wistful. Sometimes gorgeously so.
Oh, and cheers, lacoq - I take it Dud wasn't conducting when he was playing the piano though. Multi-talented nonetheless.
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