(I COULD count the radio version of "The Way We Were", which was very different from the soundtrack version, and featured blatant and unrepentant moments of "wah-wah, wacka-wacka" sounds, but I won't because it didn't appear in the film or on the soundtrack and I'm being very strict here. )
I think there's a bit of "wah-wah, wacka-wacka" in "Get I On!" from Mancini's score for "10", but I'm not positive.
Any other examples of "wah-wah, wacka-wacka" (gawd I just love typing that !!) in film scores? (awesome examples only, please. )
- Fieldings Rooftop Chase from The Enforcer. (Please see recent DH thread.) - Headhunters Death Wish. - JJ Johnson Across 110th St. - Saturday Night Fever.
They're everywhere DiB. Check the recent 70s Clavinet thread for some cool ones too.
That's a good one SignMe. I also like the main theme, Gotcha by Tom Scott, and that is Ray Parker Jr. playing guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass, and Steve Gadd on drums. Great 70s theme. Great 70s lineup.
Hey DiB: What about the theme to SWAT? Or the old TSOP theme for Soul Train? Or Charlie's Angels?
My dad still has a '70s wah-wah pedal. And it works. And I love it.
70s guitar gear shreds. I traded my Crybaby for two MXR pedals when I was 12: a phase-90, and an eq - the steel case ones.
The wah-wah pedal is basically a variable tone control. Up is bass-side wide-open; down is the treble-side wide-open. The signal is affected mostly with transistors (e.g., active) and resistors (e.g., potentiometer), with maybe a capacitor to relieve noise.
A way to create the "wacka-wacka" sound is to use a fully or partially muted attack at the bridge via the picking hand, while adjusting the pedal up and down. The guitar signal needs enough gain to allow the dead-ring of the muted string to produce an almost "tchk" sound that sustains - the wah-wah does the rest. The muted notes have discernable pitch, so that's a way to have fun. Here is one of the best examples I know of "wacka-wacka" sound from the 70s - it's great, and you should laugh a little (non-film).
Leaving aside the obvious 'wah-wah' scores like the various Shaft films, Philip Lambro used wah wah in his Murph the Surf score, released a few years back on the Perseverance label. It's fairly prominent in this track although I don't remember it being prominent in the rest of the score:
Italian poliziotteschi scores from the '70's are a goldmine for this kind of stuff; off the top of my head, Stelvio Cipriani uses wah-wah throughout his score for Mark Il Poliziotto:
Franco Micalizzi used it extensively in many of his scores too:
Another one that just occurred to me: Alessandro Alessandroni's entire score for Sangue di Sbirro: (spot the very obvious rip-off of Shaft stylings here):
D'oh! And of course, Roy Budd wasn't averse to some wah-wah as evidenced by Who Dares Wins (aka The Final Option):
Finalyy, some more Roy Budd wah-wah, this time from his jazzy score to Diamonds; this combines wah-wah, scat vocal and bowed bass all in one:
I've recently been watching some of The Streets of San Francisco on DVD and was reminded how good that whole show was. It sometimes tends to lie, somewhat unfairly, in the shadow of Hawaii Five O.
But there is no doubt that the music - both the theme and the score - is fantastic, and a lot of it (most of it even?) written by Patrick Williams himself.
I presume the music in that YouTube clip is an edit of the music that played on screen? It doesn't sound to me like the commercial version that Williams recorded and which turns up on compilation albums. That's an excellently put together montage, in any event.
Television is, of course, a gold mine for 'wah-wah' scoring....
I've recently been watching some of The Streets of San Francisco on DVD and was reminded how good that whole show was. It sometimes tends to lie, somewhat unfairly, in the shadow of Hawaii Five O.
But there is no doubt that the music - both the theme and the score - is fantastic, and a lot of it (most of it even?) written by Patrick Williams himself.
I presume the music in that YouTube clip is an edit of the music that played on screen? It doesn't sound to me like the commercial version that Williams recorded and which turns up on compilation versions. That's an excellently put together montage, in any event.
Television is, of course, a gold mine for 'wah-wah' scoring....
No it´s the original TV Version from the first one or two seasons w/o the quinn martin trademark voice-over. And yes, it´s a mix I never quite liked Willams´ commercial version of it - too different from the TV Version.
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!!) in film scores? (awesome examples only, please. 
