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Monday, July 5, 2010

Ennio Marricone - Man with Harmonica

Two things, congratulations Granit on winning the world cup pool, Holland really pulled it off for you. Second thank you Granit for letting us watch “Once Upon A Time in the West,” at your place a while back, it was great.

The first thing that surprised me about “Once Upon A Time in the West,” was the fact that Charles Bronson was actually is a good movie, the second thing that surprised me was that a movie this amazing could have gone under my notice for so long. How I’m not a movie critic, though I could probably do that too, I’m a music critic, so let’s get to the point.

About four seconds into the film Granit turns to Sean and me and says “best sound track ever.” When you’re right, you’re right; it was in fact the best soundtrack ever.

While it may be far from original, every major character gets their own theme song. Charles Bronson plays the man with no name, but when he appears, every time without fail we hear the harmonica playing the classic death rattle. Every time Frank (Henry Fonda) appears we get an electric guitar with violin. Claudia Cardinale gets a beautiful operatic song. The final song, the great climax plays a mix of all three, appropriate too since the final duel is literally the coming of worlds between the protagonist Charles Bronson and the villain Henry Fonda, and it is finally revealed why the man with no name wants to kill Frank.

If you haven’t seen it, see it, if you have seen it, watch again. In the mean time listen to the climatic end theme “Man With Harmonica.”

Now you know where “Kill Bill” got its great score from, now you know the ultimate duelling song, now you know.

I don’t really have much else to say other than the Stampede makes me thing about cowboy stuff, which in turn makes me think about spaghetti westerns, that’s just now I operate. I consider it a good thing.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly