A Fistful of Dollars; Ennio Morricone

A Fistful of Dollars (Italian: Per un pugno di dollari) is a 1964 Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp, José Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joseph Egger. Released in Italy in 1964 then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti Western film genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are commonly known as the “Dollars Trilogy” or “The Man With No Name Trilogy”. This film is an unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961), which itself drew inspiration from earlier Westerns.

The film’s music was written by Ennio Morricone, credited as Dan Savio. Morricone recalled Leone requesting him to write “Dimitri Tiomkin music” for the film. The trumpet theme is similar to Tiomkin’s El Degüello theme from Rio Bravo (1959) (that was called Un dollaro d’onore in Italy) while the opening title whistling music recalls Tiomkin's use of whistling in his Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). “Some of the music was written before the film, which is unusual. Leone’s films were made like that because he wanted the music to be an important part of it, and he often kept the scenes longer simply because he didn’t want the music to end. That’s why the films are so slow - because of the music.”




Source: Wikipedia.com

For a Few Dollars More; Ennio Morricone

I hardly could wait to see Kick-Ass in the movie theaters. The whole first semester was about to expect for the film’s debut. The story of common people who turn themselves into superheroes without super powers, super guns and responsability written by Mark Millar is awesome! So last month, in an afternoon, I went to the mall just to watch it. The film was great! It surpassed my expectations! So good it is, I saw it two more times.

But... you may ask me: what are you talking about? I’m getting there. “Kick-Ass” has one scene where Hit-Girl go alone to kill the bad guys and this song is played. I hadn’t heard it until then (really!), but I knew it was a Ennio Morricone’s composition.

And I was right! This song was composed by Morricone in 1965 for the Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western film called “For a Few Dollars More” (or “Per qualche dollaro in più” in Italian). “For a Few Dollars More” is the first film of “Dollars Trilogy”, which gave to Clint Eastwood international fame.

The older people and the vintage ones certainly will want to kill me but I’d prefer to put here the Kick-Ass scene with the song instead the original trailer. :P

Colonel Bogey March in The Bridge on the River Kwai

The last song reminded me of today’s song. I wanted so bad to put it here but I often forgot. Now that I decided to post some whistling movie songs again it’s time to say a few words about this tune.

According to Wikipedia, it was written in 1914 by “Lieutenant F. J. Ricketts (1881–1945), a British military bandmaster who was director of music for the Royal Marines at Plymouth”. Still citing its article “Supposedly, the tune was inspired by a military man and golfer who whistled a characteristic two-note phrase (a descending minor third interval) instead of shouting ‘Fore!’. It is this descending interval which begins each line of the melody. Bogey is a golfing term meaning one over par. Edwardian golfers in North America often played matches against ‘Colonel Bogey’”.

In real life, “Colonel Bogey” is the authorized march of The King’s Own Calgary Regiment (RCAC) of the Canadian Forces.

In “fictional” life it was whistled, to my knowledge, in two films: The first one is the Alfred Hitchcock’s, The Lady Vanishes, and I’m still looking for this scene. The second one, whoise use of “Colonel Bogey March” gave to the tune the worldwide fame, is The Brigde on the River Kwai, film by David Lean based in the eponymous novel written by Pierre Boulle.

Malcolm Arnold added “Colonel Bogey March” “besides serving as an example of British fortitude and dignity in the face of privation, the ‘Colonel Bogey March’ suggested a specific symbol of defiance to British film-goers, as its melody was tied to a vulgar verse about Hitler [Hitler has got one ball], the leader of Nazi Germany and Japan’s principal ally during the war. Although the mocking lyrics were not used in the film, British audience members of the time knew them well enough to mentally sing along when the tune was heard.”*

“Colonel Bogey March” was also whistled in several TV series, like Friends, Doctor Who, Lost, etc.

I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman; Whistling Jack Smith

“I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman” was a hit single in 1967 composed by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. It was a novelty record, being performed mostly by whistling. This was credited to Whistling Jack Smith and Billy Moeller appeared under this name, though the whistling was really performed by John O'Neill, provided as a session musician by The Mike Sammes Singers.¹

So everybody thinks that this Whistling Jack Smith (the guy in the picture) is the whistler but HE IS NOT! Billy Moeller just dub the real whistler, who trully is John O'Neill. Have a look in the video to see Moeller’s false beak blowing only wind while he does his hypocrite dance!

This John O’Neill had already appeared here. I talked about him in “The Good, the Ugly and the Bad by Ennio Morricone”’s post. But I cannot find his photography anywhere. Well, at least, I unmasked the impostor! >D

Serre-moi; Tryo

I heard the whistling song of the day playing my new favorite and completely addictive online game: Transformice! For who doesn’t know it yet, it consists in to control a mouse with the arrow keys to try to catch a cheese in somewhere in the screen (they say “map”) and go to the hole as fast as you can or fast enough to do it on the time. Reading like I wrote may sound boring, but believe me, Transformice is a funny and intelligent way to pass your time. The great thing is that you play against or with or even pro (it depends on your mood) other people who control their mice too! So you can figure what a kind of hilarious moves and attitudes we can do.

When you play in a room that has a moderator you can listen to the songs he or she decides to put on. For instance, now I’m listening to “We are the champions”. But sooner I was playing on the French server and “le moderateur” played this gorgeous French song.

PS1: this is NOT an advertising post. Not at all.

PS2: If you want to play with me, I called my mouse Miséricorde. :)

--

“Serre-moi” apparently means “hold me” (“segure-me” em minha língua natal) and the whole song is a request to his angel come back “A nos tragédies, à nos adieux / Reviens-moi, reviens-moi / Tu partiras mieux comme ça” and love one each other with all their hearts “Rendons-nous amants / qui se passionnent, qui se saignent”.

Now citing the always good Wikipedia: “Tryo is a French language ‘unplugged’ reggae acoustic band, popular in Europe and in Quebec, with three French guitarists, a Latin American percussionist, and a producer: Guizmo, Christophe Mali, Manu Eveno, Daniel ‘Danielito’ Bravo and Bibou.”

“Serre-moi” was released in the 2003 studio album called “Gran de sable” and it is not a single. The website of the band is here, Tryo’s MySpace account is here and a picture of members is here:

Embrasse-moi dessus bord
Viens mon ange, retracer le ciel
J'irai crucifier ton corps
Pourrais-je dépunaiser tes ailes?
Embrasser, te mordre en même temps
Enfoncer mes ongles dans ton dos brûlant
Te Supplier de me revenir
Et tout faire Ô tout pour te voir partir

Viens, Emmène-moi là-bas
Donne-moi la main
Que je ne la prenne pas
Écorche mes ailes,envole moi
Et laisse toi tranquille à la fois
Mille fois entrelaçons-nous
Et lassons-nous même en-dessous
Serre-moi encore Serre-moi
Jusqu'à étouffer de toi...

Il y a des salauds
Qui pillent le coeur des femmes
Et des femmes qui n'savent plus trop
D'où l'amour tire son charme
Papillon de fleur en fleur
D'amour en amour de coeur
Ceux qui n'ont qu'une étoile
Ou ceux qui brûlent leur voile

J'aime tes larmes quand tu aimes
Ta sueur le sang,Rendons-nous amants
Qui se passionnent, qui se saignent
J'aime quand mon écorché est vivant
Je ne donne pas long feu
A nos tragédies, à nos adieux
Reviens-moi, reviens-moi
Tu partiras mieux comme ça

A force de se tordre
On en finirait par se mordre
A quoi bon se reconstruire
Quand on est adeptes du pire
Malgré nous, malgré nous
A quoi bon se sentir,plus grands,que nous
Deux grains de folie dans le vent
Deux âmes brûlantes,
Deux enfants...

Il y a des salauds
Qui pillent le coeur des femmes
Et des femmes qui n'savent plus trop
D'où l'amour tire son charme
Papillon de fleur en fleur
D'amour en amour de coeur
Ceux qui n'ont qu'une étoile
Ou ceux qui brûlent leur voile

Embrasse-moi dessus bord
Viens mon ange, retracer le ciel
J'irai crucifier ton corps
Pourrais-je dépunaiser tes ailes
Embrasser, te mordre en même temps
Enfoncer mes ongles dans ton dos brûlant
Te supplier de me revenir
Et tout faire, pour te voir partir

Viens,emmène-moi là-bas
Donne-moi la main
Que je ne la prenne pas
Écorche mes ailes, envole-moi
Et laisse toi tranquille à la fois
Mille fois entrelaçons-nous
Et lassons-nous même en-dessous

Serre-moi encore serre-moi
Jusqu'à étouffer de toi
Serre-moi encore serre-moi
Jusqu'à étouffer de toi...