Well, something close anyway -- The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing the theme song from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." No, really! The ensemble appears to be having a good time, as does the audience.
We missed you JP. Great to see you back. Fun and entertaining score!
I'm sure that Ennio loved that rendition.
My favorite score from that movie was this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSxmtivj_Gs
Tough acts to follow.; Here's one of my favorites from the 80's.
Carl,
I liked that song too and couldn't remember much about that group:
Nice selections, guys. The orchestral rendition of "Ecstasy of Gold" was outstanding. That was a huge ensemble, with what I believe was an English Horn (the oboe-like instrument first featured), an operatic soprano (fantastic, huge voice), a choir and expanded brass section -- I think I saw five trumpets (most large orchestras have four, and three isn't at all uncommon for smaller-scored orchestral works).
JP,
Thanks for the comprehensive description of the huge ensemble. You know your stuff........way better me.
My favorite composer is/was John Barry, partly because of powerful french horns he brought into his music.
Hans Zimmer is wonderful too. This performance from "Inception" is awesome with the part after 4:10 (from collapsing dream) being my favorite use of horns ever(not to overlook the strings magnificently woven in to accompany the sound)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIk-Kxw_7Kc
But Hans does some incredible unique things with other instruments, the strings stood out in his music for the Da Vinci Code(at least for me, with the start of chevaliers de sangreal below having that unique string piece that repeats during the movie and defines it).
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xsP3u-CVO4
What do you think?
I think this 9 minutes of John Barry from "Dances with Wolves" personifies his ability to use french horns in a powerful way that nobody can beat but this entire ending to the soundtrack is epic John Barry at his best.
After I bought the soundtrack, the first 10 times that I listened to it, I cried. I had it blasting on our stereo with 4 huge speakers surrounding me.
After not hearing it for a long time, like just now, that happens again.
There's a lot of talent out there, that's for sure. I really like Canadian Howard Shore, who wrote the music for the Lord of the Rings movies. I think he did a fantastic job!
I can appreciate why you like Howard Shore but his music is not quite my style.
Music is so incredibly subjective, especially under the same genres.
After my wife saw how much I loved John Barry's stuff(I had a dozen of his CDD's) she assumed that I liked that kind of music and for Fathers Day got me a couple of CDD's with "some" orchestra music and assumed I would like it because that's the kind of music I like.
Sorry to disappoint honey but there wasn't a thing that I would listen to more than once.
Same way with individual artists(at least for me).
There are almost none of them that have as many as 50% of their songs that I would want to listen to more than once............even John Barry, with the exception of Dances with Wolves and Somewhere in Time.
But then, there are artists that have just 1 song that is so awesome that I could listen to it 100 times in a year and still not get tired of it.
I never liked Madonna but she has this one song that was on tv when we were in St. Louis at a hotel 30 years ago and it was like "oh my, God, this is the best song ever!"
And it's just the instrumentals during the refrain that make it so special.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvVvN0QvzTk
I never liked Elton John much but he had this one song that did the same thing to me 45 years ago with instrumentals that have similar characteristics to the Maddona song(the synthesizer hitting low notes in the refrain part of the song for instance is the only part of the song that makes it for me):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eyjBBcUO9k
It wasn't until 35 years later that I realized that the song was about a gay girl because I never listen to words(didn't make a difference).
My wife remembers and can sing all the words to all the songs that she likes.
My favorite Madonna single by a landslide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzAO9A9GjgI
Anyone remember this one?
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An underrated and often forgotten classic from Elton John:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CiyKeSnSxk
Though I had forgotten about this one til tonight after not hearing it for 20+ years, this is another Elton classic from the 80s, tribute to John Lennon, who had just been killed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWyy7Huc6KA
I sooooo miss the 1980s for music. Back when there was real music.
"there are artists that have just 1 song that is so awesome that I could listen to it 100 times in a year and still not get tired of it."
Mike, my example is "Electric Blue". I checked out all the songs by the group (icehouse) and was very disappointed. Different lead singer and talky songs.
Another example would be "Big Country" . Not happy with the lyrics, but that beat!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=657TZDHZqj4
Isn’t it strange how the human brain works with regards to music?
What is it about noises that come from different noise making devices arranged to sound a certain way that can move us in powerful ways?
And some arrangements are nothing special for one person but captivating for somebody else!
I love both of Carl’s mentions, “Electric Blue” and “In A Big Country”. Not surprisingly they are just like the three songs I mentioned, also from the 1980s, which was the last great decade for music for me. Although the 90s has a few more, there weren’t nearly the number. And since about 1996, the percentage liked is literally about 1% as high as the 1980s percentage. It is so disappointing but then that’s where I’m so thankful for You Tube!
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The 1980s were so good that they had not one but two songs called “Head Over Heels” that I’m head over heels about:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CsHiG-43Fzg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DUqMqBl9Qrs
I also love that one "Head over Heels"
I think that we should have a daily post to give everybody an opportunity to share one of their favorite songs.............and add why they like it if they feel like doing so.
Everybody has hundreds of songs that they like.
The coolest thing is that we can play them and many have extraordinarily creative/entertaining videos that come with the music.
I agree to some extent on the songs today vs those in the past.
However, when my 2 sons were still living here, they both played alternative music(alt-rock) and there are probably hundreds of songs that I like from this genre...........ALOT!
Actually, because there is so much new stuff out there and I could never possibly remember it all, I've written down all the new songs.
Here's one that I really love with the video really making it super special:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqWjl7GkCE
Met Mike said: "I also love that one 'Head over Heels'"
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Mike, which one of the two "Head Over Heels" do you like? The one from Tears for Fears or the one from the Go Go's?
Only the Tears for Fears. I did not like the other one much, in fact, I played a few seconds of the Go Go's and knew that and didn't even pay attention enough to know it was the same song.
After you've looked at that last video above, it's interesting to watch how they created it:
Actually, here it is below since you need to watch it first to appreciate how they made it.