Reply To: Ennio Morricone
Late to the party on this, but I’m sure I’ll be forgiven…
I was vaguely aware of the music from one or more Dollars films in the early 70s as a kid, including the 1972 album of an English rock band called Babe Ruth which included a cover of the main title from the first film. It’s easily found (and worth seeking out) on YT.
A few years later I picked up the budget Pickwick LP that others have referred to and played the grooves out of it. I think I bought it three times in all for various reasons. Then in (I think) 1976 I sent away for the 2-LP set “I Film Della Violenza”, and it blew me away. Why it’s never been released on CD is a complete mystery to me, but I’ve spent the last 50 years collecting the individual scores from which each track was taken.
The urban crime Morricones immediately took over from the Western Morricones (although I still love them of course) and Revolver, A Man to Respect(The Master Touch in the US), Wake and Kill, Milan Odia (Almost Human) and others became indispensable.
Scores I love from other genres include The Humanoid, Nostromo, Moses the Lawgiver, Orca Killer Whale, Exorcist 2, Frantic – too many to name. I enjoy the Giallo scores notwithstanding the amount of dissonance usually present, and in fact they led me to a fascination with that type of film to the point where I have over 100 on Blu-ray, only a fraction of them scored by Ennio.
I saw him at London’s O2 arena in 2015, a forty-year ambition realised.