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Composer Oliver Edward Nelson was born June 4, 1932 and passed away October 28, 1975. Oliver Nelson came from the jazz scene where he worked as a saxophonist-arranger-composer-band leader. In the mid-1960’s, he joined the rank of Universal TV. The body of his TV work lied in two shows in which he defined the shapes of his dynamic musical style -- first, the funky bassline vibe with the 1967-1975 “Ironside” (at the request of composer Quincy Jones, he was hired); for the first season of "Ironside", Nelson composed four scores: "Message from Beyond" and "Dead's Man Tale" (the two seminal scores that started his arch-signature), "Tagged for Murder", "The Man Who Believed". And, then, the haunting electronic sounds and acid melancolic melodies with the 1971-1972 season 2 of “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery” (producer Jack Laird hired him to replace and emulate Gil Mellé’s season 1 synthetic pulses) -- that influenced and bred his masterpiece that was a firework of electronic - military - ethnic and funky beats: “The Six Million Dollar Man”, in which he added his stamp from its third TV movie entitled “Solid Gold Kidnapping” (1973) to the first three seasons between 1974 and 1976 (among those scores, listen carefully to the electronic ones as “Population Zero”, “Day of the Robot”, “The Rescue of Athena One”, “The Pioneers”, “Straight on 'til Morning“, and the heavy funk ones as “Eyewitness to Murder”, “Dr. Wells is Missing”, "The Last of the Fourth of Julys", “The Seven Million Dollar Man”) which also cost his life. The irony was that Nelson was again a replacement after two composers working on the first two TV movies (“The Six Million Dollar Man/Cyborg” by modernist Gil Mellé and “Wine, Women and War" by Pop-oriented Stu Phillips). To understand the musical roots of “The Six Million Dollar Man”, we will select and compare some scores from “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery” whose basic motifs or sound colors were derived, extended and blossomed: *“The Boy Who Predicted Earthquake”: the end spooky sad electronic sound influence “Population Zero” and “The Rescue of Athena One”. *“The Hand of Borgus Weems”: the obsessive and depressing electronic motif influence “Population Zero”, “Day of the Robot” and “The Pioneers”. *“Logoda’s Head”: the ethnic African sound is part of “Solid Gold Kidnapping”. Before creating the final identity of “The Six Million Dollar Man”, Nelson composed two ABC Movies of the Week for Silverton Productions Inc. (aka Harve Bennett company): “The Alpha Caper” (1973) and “Money to Burn” (1973). Nevertheless, Nelson strongly contributed to two series: “Matt Lincoln” (1970-1971)--based on the TV movie “Dial Hot Line”-- and also one at Paramount: “Longstreet” (1971-1972). Other shows had memorable scores by him as “The Name of the Game” three scores: "Nightmare”, “The White Birch" (1968) and "Cynthia is Alive and Living in Avalon" (1970)--a hip-oriented score combined with some of Nelson's motifs--, “Columbo” season 2 score: “The Greenhouse Jungle” (1972). By listening to COLUMBO’s “The Greenhouse Jungle” (1972), I witness again his ability to use a dominant violin section and a flute to create a sensitive and powerful melody and always combined with an elegant catchy solo of piano and a strong rhythm section with a touch of martial beats (bassline, funky congas and drum); he even adds an electronic piano here and there a la “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery”. This is the high peak of COLUMBO’s scores and one motif of this score is re-interpreted in “The Six Million Dollar Man”. In January 2006, Film Score Monthly released one of his rare film score for the thriller “Zigzag” (1970), an original recording that I highly recommend and forestalls the leaning of “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery” scores. You can listen to 5 original audio samples at: http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=354 For the majority of people, he is labeled as a jazzman whose best creation remains the 1961 “The Blues And The Abstract Truth and Sound Pieces”. Film music critic Douglas Payne about Oliver Nelson: http://www.dougpayne.com/nelson.htm Ironside Archive site: http://www.ironside.info/ BOOKS "TV's Biggest Hits: The History of Television Themes from 'Dragnet' to 'Friends' " by Jon Burlingame (Schirmer Books, 1996, 342 pages, ISBN 0-02-870324-3) “Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour” by Scott Skelton and Jim Benson (Syracuse University Press, 1999, 398 pages, ISBN 0-8156-0535-8) http://www.nightgallery.net/ "The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman Reconstructed" by Herbie J. Pilato foreword by Richard Anderson (Bear Manor Media, 2007, 480 pages, ISBN 1-59393-083-6)
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QUESTIONS 1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Oliver Nelson? 2. What are your favourite scores? 3. What Nelson CD releases do you wish in the future?
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My answer is simple: SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN for all three questions. Maybe one day.....?
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Once the series got rolling, SMDM not only had a highly distinctive musical identity, it was a fantastic one. Truly deserving of a multi-CD release, but unlikely to get anything out at all. I'd buy it.
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1) As with most composers from that era, I first heard the music of Oliver Nelson on TV when I was a wee nipper. Never realized at the time that real people wrote that music. Then I started paying attention to names, and Oliver Nelson was one that cropped up amongst my favourites - THE 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN was probably the first exposure I had to his scores. 2) After THE 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN (doesn't sound much money now), I took note of other scores that cropped up in TV showings. Amongst my favourites, off the top of my head, were the themes for the TV Movie THE ALPHA CAPER, plus NIGHT GALLERY and his COLUMBO score. I also liked the Main Titles for SKULLDUGGERY (typically propulsive) and DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER (jaunty, heartfelt, harmonically rich). And ZIGZAG of course. 3) Apart from ZIGZAG I'm not really sure of how his other scores stand up as complete listens, although I love the Main Titles. I'm sure that there is, however, a wealth of good listening in THE 6, NIGHT GALLERY and, what the hell, probably everything else too. Additional info 1) - Pick up the expanded LAST TANGO IN PARIS to hear Oliver Nelson arrangements which sound like they wouldn't be out of place in ZIGZAG or THE SIX BUCK MAN. Additional info 2) - Time to drive Stefan nuts again with this story (I'm sure he doesn't believe me). I have, on cassette, taped direct from TV in the late 70s, the full-length SIX episode "The Solid Gold Kidnapping", but with music by Gil Mellé. Nobody has ever been able to clear up that mystery.
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Additional info 2) - Time to drive Stefan nuts again with this story (I'm sure he doesn't believe me). I have, on cassette, taped direct from TV in the late 70s, the full-length SIX episode "The Solid Gold Kidnapping", but with music by Gil Mellé. Nobody has ever been able to clear up that mystery. I think you'd better ask Columbo, Banacek or Kolchak to solve that mystery!
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QUESTIONS 1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Oliver Nelson? 2. What are your favourite scores? 3. What Nelson CD releases do you wish in the future? 1. In the mid-1970's, as a kid, I was a fan of "The Six Million Dollar Man". 2. All the scores from "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "Rod Serling's Night Gallery". 3. I wish Universal could be smart enough and generous enough to allow to release Oliver Nelson's television triptych: IRONSIDE+ROD SERLING'S NIGHT GALLERY+THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN
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I've never heard a single thing he's done, but someone mentioned LAST TANGO IN PARIS up there. I thought that was Gato Barbieri? Hello Thor, I advise you to read this that I published above: In January 2006, Film Score Monthly released one of his rare film score for the thriller “Zigzag” (1970), an original recording that I highly recommend and forestalls the leaning of “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery” scores. You can listen to 5 original audio samples at: http://www.screenarchives.com/fsm/detailCD.cfm?ID=354
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I've never heard a single thing he's done, but someone mentioned LAST TANGO IN PARIS up there. I thought that was Gato Barbieri? I think Nelson did the arrangements didn't he? Other than LAST TANGO, the only other film that I know of which Barbieri scored was the Michael Winner film for ITC called FIREPOWER (starring James Coburn). The arrangements for that were by Jay Chattaway. I suppose you could have the usual arguments about how much Barbieri 'scored' himself, but from what I remember of the LAST TANGO album there *did* seem to be quite a lot of Nelson's style on display....
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Correct Simon, that's what I was talking about. Thor, you're slipping. I clearly stated "arrangements" in my post. Of course I implied Oliver Nelson arrangements of Gato Barbieri originals, but you chose to infer otherwise. And I'm not just saying that to show I know the difference between the verbs "to imply" and "to infer", which many people get the wrong way round. Anyway, I'll put a smiley face on this post, plus a few jolly exclamation marks, just in case anyone thinks I get angry about stuff like that! Peace and love to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Wow, Major Sloan! I've waited 30 years for somebody to clear up that mystery. Thanks! And they all called me mad. Well, I'll show them, I'll show them...
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Posted: |
Jul 27, 2009 - 12:46 PM
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By: |
Major Sloan
(Member)
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Wow, Major Sloan! I've waited 30 years for somebody to clear up that mystery. Thanks! And they all called me mad. Well, I'll show them, I'll show them... You're welcome. Although crazy people can be right, too, you know As to buying options for El Hombre Nuclear, I'm afraid it's tough to get; Amazon has them, but they're over $70 there. http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Nuclear-Collectors-America/dp/B000TCCCZU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1248719483&sr=8-3 The transfers are interlaced, but NTSC, so no PAL speedup on the music. Plus, there is no region restriction, so it will play on almost anything. Watching the original TV Movies reveals that Stu Phillips took a sting from Gil Mellé and turned it into a Six theme of sorts, which Gil took up again in TSGK. By ditching the score for TSGK, and re-editing Wine, Women and War, this "theme" is virtually gone from the 2-hour re-edits. Listen for it when Oscar first appears in WWW, when Steve parachutes over the cemetery at the end, and in TSGK right before Dr. Bergner's headache in Vitto Scotti's Taxicab. Nelson's theme is reminiscent of the Mellé/Phillips theme, turning it on it's ear. My favorite Nelson themes from Six are Pop Zero, Survival of the Fittest, Day of the Robot, The Pioneers, The Seven Million Dollar Man (outstanding), The Bionic Woman (the original 2-parter), Return of The Bionic Woman, and Clark Templeton O'Flarhety. The latter was rolled out posthumously, and some of the score was preleaked to track some earlier episodes that season, but there is no mistaking the full suite in CTO. It was overdubbed by the bassist in post, marring the original recording; doubtless the director or producer would have commissioned a change from Nelson had he lived. Still one of the outstanding themes from the show.
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Major Sloan, do you run a SIX site or something? Your input has been invaluable here. I'm making an educated guess here which perhaps you could confirm... I imagine that the reason Gil Mellé's original (and great) score for "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" was replaced by tracked stuff by Oliver Nelson was because by the time the show was on syndication, the Nelson theme had become so linked to the series in the mind of the audience that it was deemed necessary to have it in place of the Mellé. And if that is true, why was "Wine, Women and War" left with the Stu Phillips score? Major Sloan?
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