Remember the old children’s song, pia-pia-piano and all that? Well I can’t play an instrument, although I did have lessons at school. My Mum came back from a parent’s evening and said she’d signed me up for after-school sessions.
“Guitar?” I asked hopefully. She shook her head.
“Drums?” Head shake.
“Keyboards?” Nope.
“Bass?” I asked, pulling a face. It would mean I could join a band, even if the other guys would be getting the chicks [don’t hate me, I was only 12].
“Clarinet,” she said, smiling as if this was something I’d always wanted.
Lessons didn't last long. I had no plans to join an orchestra or play in a jazz band so didn't practice. After several months of pathetic puffing away at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, my tutor suggested the instrument probably wasn't for me. Despite all this, I would describe myself as a music man.
Early Beginnings
I think this all came from my discovery when I was about 5 years old that I could whistle. Not just make sound, but whistle a tune. It was early one Sunday morning as I lay in bed and ran through my first repertoire of TV themes: Screen Test, Robinson Crusoe, Mr Benn and The Champions. I was about to encore with Swingin' Safari when there was an abrupt “SHUT-UP!” from elsewhere in the house. Well it was early.
Being able to whistle was liberating; it meant I could make and listen to music that I liked, any time I wanted. I suppose it’s more common for people to sing their favourites but for some reason I was far more interested in a bangin' good tune. Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven) and Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly) wrote brilliantly memorable music for films and A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (both Morricone) actually featured whistling while The Great Escape (Bernstein) sounded like it did. War and Western films often had themes that I loved to whistle: 633 Squadron, The Dam Busters, Where Eagles Dare (needs finger drumming for the full effect) and The Green Leaves of Summer (from The Alamo).
Many films had great incidental music (music that accompanies a scene or relates to a character), sometimes a variation on the main theme but often wonderful pieces of music in their own right. In The Magnificent Seven soundtrack there’s a short piece called After the Brawl (the scene near the beginning where Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen ride shotgun for a funeral) that other composers might have saved for the main theme to a lesser movie. Another Elmer Bernstein example is a piece called The Chase, from The Great Escape, which brilliantly shifts in tone as the scenes cut between John Leyton & Charles Bronson serenely rowing down a river and Steve McQueen carrying out his motorbike heroics. And then there's Ennio Morricone's classic The Ecstasy of Gold which plays partway through The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Metallica open their concerts with it.
If we’re talking great film music both for themes and incidental music, how can I not mention the great John Barry. The first album I ever bought (Readings for Records in Clapham Junction, fact fans) was a double album of James Bond themes from Dr. No through to OHMSS. Everyone knows the theme songs but the incidental tracks like The Golden Horn (From Russia With Love), Into Miami (Goldfinger), 007 (Thunderball), Mountains and Sunsets, Capsule In Space (You Only Live Twice) are all fully rounded pieces. So much more effective than the tuneless ‘piano when it’s sad, strings when it’s exciting’.
While we're on the subject, how about the greatest John Barry Bond theme that wasn't actually a Bond theme. Grab your hankie and imagine this over the final scenes of No Time To Die.
Alright Pop Pickers? Not 'alf!
As the intro to this post suggests, by the time I was pre-teen I was paying more attention to the singles chart. On Sundays there was the Pick of the Pops chart rundown with Alan 'Fluff' Freeman (I'm whistling the theme tune while typing). The first song I really took notice of was Sweet's Blockbuster - police sirens at the start, then the stomping guitar riff and those falsetto harmonies. What's not to like. But even though it was fun to sing along with Brian Connolly (especially the fast bit: "the cops are out, they're running about, don't-know-if-they'll-ever-be-able-to block buster out") I was still mainly listening to what the musicians were doing: noticing the change to acoustic guitar during the middle eight; the dynamics when the bass and drums came back in for the final part.
I was given a second-hand record player when I was 12, possibly in an attempt to stop my whistling. I had very few records of my own so amused myself working my way through a box of old singles I inherited. It was a very varied mix of artists and genres and I played both A and B sides of them all. Again, I was partly listening to verses and choruses but it was sounds that moved me far more than the words. The harmonies on The Tremeloes' Silence Is Golden, the famously hoarse vocals of John Lennon on Twist and Shout and the one that I loved the most - Dusty Springfield's I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten. That dramatic piano intro and the way she uses her voice to change the emotion from wistful to anguished. It was almost cinematic.
Not Just Background Noise
Music is an essential component of film soundtracks. The best directors understand this and work closely with composers to create the desired mood or emotion for scenes. Imagine a Star Wars film without John Williams' theme suddenly bursting into life after the 'A long time ago...' introduction - you're excited before the first star destroyer even appears. In Jaws you sometimes hear the bom-bom bom-bom music without even seeing the shark, but your brain has already associated the two. More recently the slow build of Ennio Morricone's music at the beginning of The Hateful Eight. Tarantino, now there's a director who understands the importance of soundtrack.
A music lover is someone who listens to music, which is quite a different thing to just hearing it. In the digital streaming era, services like Spotify define their users as either:
Lean Back listeners - those who just want to be served music, typically by selecting a playlist that matches their current activity or mood. "Alexa, play my emptying-the-dishwasher playlist."
Lean Forward listeners - people who want to listen to something specific, perhaps explore an artist's back catalogue or discover something new based on their library
My musical tastes have always been around the music - the stuff that happens behind the singer, if there's a singer at all. It doesn't matter how good a voice might be, if the music or musicians aren't doing something interesting then it's normally not for me. Let's face it, most lyrics are banal variations on a theme. It's like someone offering you a hundred books then telling you they're all by Barbara Cartland.
Confession Time
I am an audiophile. There, I said it.
Wait, come back! I'm not going to bore you with technical jargon, buzz phrases or the technical merits of Japanese vinyl pressings. Audiophiles seem to have got a bad name, but most of us became one because of our love of music, not hi-fi equipment. One is the end, the other just the means. In my next post, I'll explain why.
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