This little interruption to the current “Darling Range flora” series comes to you via the trigger plants having accidentally made me think fondly of the most celebrated theme ever written for a “Western”.
The relevant film was a so-called “spaghetti western”.
Almost certainly, you have heard its theme, but you have probably not heard what John Zorn did to it in 1987.
To put it mildly, the highly creative Mr Zorn greatly admired Ennio Morricone’s “original”, but he was not the least intimidated by it!
Ennio Morricone was more than one of the world’s great soundtrack composers—he was one of the world’s great composers, period. For me, his work stands with Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Ellington and Stravinsky in achieving that rare fusion of heart and mind. Dare we compare the five notes of his famous “coyote call” in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with the four opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony? Morricone’s music is just as timeless
The italicised quotation comes from an appreciation which John Zorn wrote for The New York Times, following the Italian composer’s death in 2020.
Thirty-three years earlier, John Zorn recorded what you are about to hear.
Its particular context is equally amusing and surprising!
After – or before – you hear the recording, be sure to read Zorn’s explanation.
This track is a freak. In April of 1987 I got a call from a representative of the McCann Erikson Advertising Agency who was putting a new presentation for Camel cigarettes in South East Asia. They were looking for a new approach in arranging the Camel theme song “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly”, which they’d been using for years, and had already commissiones a reggae band, a jazz group and a classical string quartet. God knows what they thought I would come up with, but needless to say, after I delivered my track I never heard from them again. That’s show biz! I still wonder which one they picked…
John Zorn in liner notes to Filmworks 1986-1990 (Elektra Nonesuch)
“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” (Ennio Morricone)
Robert Quine (guitar) Bill Frisell (guitar) Fred Frith (bass)Wayne Horvitz (Órgano Hammond) organ) David Weinstein (keyboards), Carol Emanuel (harp) Robert Previte (drums, percussion & vocal) , John Zorn (arrangement & production)