The Road to The Empire Strikes Back: Episode VI: The Soundtrack

Today, I continue my look back forty years at the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Now, it's the soundtrack.

Here's the link to my YouTube channel when I discuss the music of John Williams for "Star Wars II."

The Magnificent Seven (2016) Review

When I hear the words “The Magnificent Seven,” one thing immediately jumps to mind: the theme song by Elmer Bernstein. It might be they most recognizable western theme out there. Plus, I marched in the University of Texas Longhorn Band and we played “Mag Seven” frequently. And, since I'm such a band geek, he's a video of the Longhorn Band marching in 1988. "Mag Seven" is the first tune. Boy, that moving square was difficult. Yeah, I'm in there!

Other than the music, I knew about Yup Brenner and Steve McQueen. I'm sure I've seen the 1960 film, but I honestly can't recall a single detail of it.

So when I watched the 2016 version, I was basically coming in with little preconceived notions. I just wanted to hear the theme!

Even though I haven't seen the 1960 film, I'm pretty everyone knows about the plot.  Denzil Washington plays San Chisholm, a duly appointed lawman from Kansas. In the first of a series of vignettes, we see all the skills Chisholm brings as alarm in: patience and fast and quick gun work. From there, we are introduced to the other six members of Chisholm's team, starting off with Chris Pratt's Faraday, a drinker / lazy bones gunslinger who possess a great deal of charm. From there, we are introduced to the characters played by Ethan Hawke (a former Confederate sharpshooter), Vincent D'Onofrio (almost unrecognizable as a mountain man tracker), Byung-hun Lee (as an expert with knives and Hawke’s partner, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (as a wanted killer), and Martin Sensmeier (an exiled Comanche warrior).

Chisholm is persuaded to help the town of Rose Creek from the vile clutches of robber baron Bartholomew Bogue, played deliciously by Peter Sarsgaard. The persuader is Haley Bennett, a widow who witnessed her husband gunned down by Bogue. There's gold in Rise Creek’s valley, and its Bogue’s intention to take all the gold and the townsfolk be damned or killed.

You know how the story goes even if you've never watched the 1960 version or The Seven Samurai, the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film that inspired the original Mag Seven. Our band of brothers arrives in town and dispatches Bogue’s goons in probably the best sequence in the whole movie. It's the Seven in action, and it's fantastic and modern. 

Well, Bogue doesn't take kindly to having his men wiped out, so he fights back. But the town has time to plan, and so we get a pseudo “Saving Private Ryan” training / preparation sequence. And then the final battle. You know how it ends, but I'll leave it up to you to watch and see the details.

I enjoyed the film quite a bit. What I appreciate is depicting the Old West as dirty and sweaty, not all clean and prescribe as the old fashioned movies. The chemistry was quite nice, and I liked all the actors. Washing and Pratt are the two primary stars and they get more screen time than the others. Pratt is his charming self, and  Lee was a nice addition to the typical western rogues gallery.

And composer James Horner—in one of his last pieces—incorporates the theme! Heck I even heard a little snipped from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Did y'all hear it, too?

I was happy all around, and it makes me want to watch the 1960 version.

Albums of My Early Years

I've enjoyed seeing everyone's list of formative albums, so here's mine. For those who only want to know the list, they're at the top. The reasons are below.
KISS - Double Platinum

Star Wars Soundtrack

James Bond - Cassette of title songs (through "All Time High")

Amadeus - Official soundtrack

Queen - Greatest Hits

Chicago IX

Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles

Genesis - Invisible Touch

"We Are the World" - single

Paul Simon - Graceland

KISS - Double Platinum

I can't exactly recall how KISS landed on my radar. Perhaps it was because they were everywhere in 1977. Another possibility was the 1977 Marvel comic book (printed in real KISS blood!) Nevertheless, sometime after April 1978 when this two-LP, 20-song package of KISS Klassics was released, I bought it. That was all she wrote. I was enthralled, and, except for a few years in the 80s, have never looked back. KISS is my first, favorite rock band.

Star Wars - Official soundtrack

I'm an only child and much of the music I learned I discovered on my own. The music of Star Wars was a natural thing for me to get because it was Star Wars! I'd try and get anything related to the movie. Little did I know that the music of John Williams would lay the groundwork for much of the music that came after it. With this soundtrack, I was introduced to long-form instrumental music. I could "see" the movie in my head. I learned about themes and motifs (although I didn't know the terms yet). The Cantina Band song was arguably my introduction to jazz and the primary reason I selected the alto sax as my instrument in 6th grade band. Over the years, Williams has scored some of my favorite films and added numerous themes, but this original soundtrack with its original track listing remains foundational for my love of music.

James Bond - Cassette of title songs (through "All Time High")

Whenever I drove in a car with my dad, he'd almost always have the car radio tuned to KPRC-AM, talk radio. My mom's musical tastes while driving was KODA, i.e., elevator music. Most of the albums I had were actual albums and I had no means of transferring them to a cassette. Somewhere along the line, we got a compilation of James Bond theme songs from Dr. No's instrumental opener to "All Time High" from 1983's Octopussy. This was common ground for all three of us. My parents loved the movies--they also had the novels--and this was my introduction to singers beyond KISS. It was here my love of Tom Jones began. It was with these songs I heard how the same titular character could be conveyed in various musical styles. You had it all with these songs: 60s pop (Jones), early 70s rock (McCartney), mid-70s proto-disco (LuLu), and early 80s pop (Sheena Easton), all as filtered through the Bond sound. 

Amadeus - Official soundtrack

If Star Wars was my introduction to instrumental music, then this soundtrack full of Mozart's music was my bridge into the world of classical music. This 2-LP soundtrack was a greatest hits collection of Mozart's music, starting off with the thrilling opening movement of the 25th Symphony. Moreover, Mozart himself, as played by Tom Hulce, educated me in how to listen to classical music. In the film, he describes the third movement of the Serenade for Winds in B flat major, K. 361. That scene in the film was eye opening.

Queen - Greatest Hits

Most folks my age can remember taping a penny to the card of a Columbia Music service postcard and getting 13 cassettes in the mail. This album was one of them. I had known who Queen was since 1978 and even had the Flash Gordon soundtrack, but this collection of songs did two things for me. One, it gave me a taste of a band competant enough to change style on almost every song. From rockabilly to theater to disco, this band could do anything. Secondly, and most importantly for me, was the inclusion of "Under Pressure" with this other guy named David Bowie. I liked Bowie's voice and sought out his records. Let's Dance was first, then two compilations--ChangesTwoBowie and Golden Years. After that, a radio broadcast on 101 KLOL-FM in Houston (which I taped) was enough to send me on a Bowie trajectory that I never left. And it all started with Queen.

Chicago IX

The summer of 1985 was THE summer for me. First car, first girlfriend, and glorious music on the radio. A fellow friend of mine in band loaned me a cassette of this band called Chicago. He said I'd probably know a few songs, but love them all. Chicago IX was the band's first hits collection. Not knowing a thing, I slipped the cassette into my Walkman, got the leash on the the dog, and starting walking. I pushed play. Track 1 was "25 or 6 to 4." In my headphones came the sound of Terry Kath's opening guitar riff, then the in-your-face horns, then Peter Cetera's clear vocals, then the incredible guitar solo, and finally the ending. To say I was blown away would be an understatement. Track 2 was "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is" and it delivered a completely different sound and voice in Robert Lamm. But those horns were still there! Third came "Colour My World," followed by "Just You n' Me" with its soprano sax solo. I literally ran home and called my friend. As low-key as every teenager is, I declared this music the best ever. Quickly, I started collecting all the other albums, never realizing I already owned--but never played--Chicago 17. I can't even remember how I got 17 but I was hooked. Still am.

Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles

I owned Synchronicity (who didn't?) but few of the other Police records. So when Sting left the band to make a record with jazz musicians, I was intrigued. Frankly, I expected Police-like songs with...I didn't know what. The first single was "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free," a great tune of which I've never grown weary. But it was the rest of the album that helped introduce me to the then-contemporary world of jazz. Branford Marsalis's sax, Kenny Kirkland's piano were wonderful. All of that, filtered through Sting's songs really paved the way for my love of jazz.

Genesis - Invisible Touch

If you were a kid in the 80s, Phil Collins was EVERYwhere. If it wasn't a solo tune, it was a Genesis song or a one-off soundtrack song. Being a sheltered person, all of Genesis's music sailed under my radar until 1986 and this album. Here was Phil with this other band (?). What the heck? But this led me to learn more about this band that played, in "Domino," long songs. Little did I know at the time that this other guy (Peter Gabriel) who had a hit song called "Sledgehammer" used to be in Genesis. I can still remember my astonishment. I like the older material better now--"Supper's Ready," the 24-minute song, is my favorite--but it all started here with the bright sheen of 80s Genesis. 

"We Are the World" - single

Not a record--although there was one--but a phenomenon, a cultural milestone. The song is a near-perfect snapshot of 1985 in music. All those artists singing together in a song that, for me, has held up. I distinctly remember that song playing on multiple radio stations at the same time, including KLEF, Houston's defunct classical station. It showed me that celebrities can do things besides sell records and tickets. As an interesting experiment, listen to the original then the 2010 version recorded for relief in Haiti. Note how in 1985, you had multiple voices that sounded different, then note in 2010 there was a homogeneaty to the sound.

Paul Simon - Graceland

I'm not alone in confessing that this 1986 album opened my ears and mind to the wonders of world music. Before this, I knew little if any world music. Afterwards, I fell in love with it and sought it out. The beats of the world still pulse in my ears.

Movie Review: The Secret Life of Pets

Up front confession: I didn’t finish the film. I tried. Maybe I was tired. Maybe the idea of taking out the trash on a Sunday night was more appealing than the movie. I don’t know. But I just couldn’t finish the film.

What was surprising was that it was tailor-made for someone like me. It’s a period piece, set in the early 1950s. It’s an inside look at Hollywood through the eyes of Josh Broil’s character, Eddie Mannix, an executive who is described as a “fixer,” a guy who does his best to cover up the real excesses of Hollywood celebrities in order to maintain the fiction of Hollywood itself as a golden paradise where everyone is always good. He actually did a pretty good job. I like the idea of following him around.

In fact, perhaps the neatest thing is when directors/writers Ethan and Joel Coen follow Mannix around the lot of Capital Pictures and the camera shows us various movies being filmed. Scarlett Johanssen is shown when one movie is staging one of those synchronized water dance pieces and she’s dressed as a mermaid. That was fun, until she threw her crown and struck the band leader, killing the scene. Now you realize that they’ll have to do the whole thing all over again because one person, the star, screwed it up. Another number I really enjoyed was Channing Tatum’s tap dance routine on the set of a picture about sailor’s about to ship out. I loved this sequence not only because it looked like the film itself, but, partway through the piece, Mannix walks in and we get a scene of the piece from behind the scenes.

Now, you might think that this praise on these set pieces would get me through the rest of the movie. Ironically, as I type this, I’m beginning to realize what the movie is going for. The overall story is that big star Baird Whitlock, played by George Clooney (I will watch anything he's in), has been kidnapped by communists. The commies have demanded a $100,000 ransom. When I turned off the film, Mannix had collected the dough and was prepared to meet the kidnappers somewhere.

But the movie was so disjointed. Ralph Fiennes, as director Laurence Laurentz, was frustrated by being told he had to work with cowboy star, Hobie Doyle, played by future Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich. I had the wikipedia page pulled up for him and learned who he was while watching his scenes. Suddenly, now that there was a Star Wars connection, I watched him intently. I could see Ehrenreich as a young Harrison Ford.

Argh! I’m digressing, but that’s what I faced last night while watching the movie. I’m beginning to think I was just tired. Maybe the pinot grigio relaxed me too much. Maybe I’ll give the film another go, at least finish it.

Anyone out there see the whole thing? Shall I get back to it or did I just miss point?

P.S., Okay, I just re-watched the trailer. I think I'll try and finish it tonight. Still, anyone out there see this flick?