Classical restraint as a result. That is a mat
ter of personal taste; this Mozart works both
ways. The string playing is just what one
would expect of three-quarters of the Guar
ncris: rich in tone, and mutually supportive.
E.C.
Michael Nesmith
Live at the Palais; The Wichita Train
Whistle Sings (Pacific Arts)
After listening to the cheering, screaming
audience at this performance in Victoria,
Australia last year,, one wonders why we
aren’t hearing more about —or from —
Nesmith back -here. He was recording
country-rock back before there was a name
for it, and has written songs that have been
done to death by others; without “Different
Drum,” where would Linda Ronstadt be
right now? (Still in the pigpen?). The “Live”
album is basically a collection of Nesmith’s
greatest hits, or at least his best-known
numbers with the exception of “Drum,”
which isn’t here. “Joanne,” “Silver Moon,”
and “Some of Shelly’s Blues” arc, though,
plus a rocking version of “Nadine” that
ranks among the best covers of Chuck Berry
material ever. The backup group includes
drummer John Ware, who worked with
Nesmith before joining Emmylou Harris’
Hot Band; bassist David Mac Kay; pianist
James Jrumbo; and A 1 Perkins, who simply
sizzles on electric 6-string and steel guitar.
Sound quality is a bit strange, with the
room’s echo captured all'too well on tape
fact: .
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si—iure
and Nesmith’s voice sounding a-bit distant:
this is why most acts heavily overdub on
so-called live albums. It’s to Nesmith’s
credit that he kept that to a minimum (he
explains where and why in the liner notes),
but the sound might be a bit disconcerting
at first. The performances more than com
pensate.
In 1967, Nesmith and arranger Shorty
Rogers collaborated on an instrumental
album fusing big-band jazz and country
styles, with strings,' horns, and soloists in
cluding guitarist James Burton, steel
guitarist Red Rhodes, and banjoist Doug
Dillard. It’s still ahead of its time, and
available for the first time in ten years.
Original Cast
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
(MCA)
.This album gives you a taste of why the
Broadway musical tale of tail on the trail is
such a hit. Carol Hall’s songs, like the rauc
ous .“24 Fans,” the wistful “The Bus from
Amarillo,” and the hard-bitten but hopeful
“No Lies,” are often delightful. The rec
orded performances are exuberant and con
tagious, radiating a joy that makes the sex
ual goings-on seem just as nice and normal
as the barn-building scene in Sever Brides for
Seven Brothers.
But what, exactly, is going on here? Aha!
Funny you should ask! Nobody’s telling —at
least, not the record company. The double-
j Name.
i Addresi
Ampersand
fold album, “generously” housing just one
disc, has no plot synopsis, no lyric sheet, and
no accounting of-who sings what. Who is
doing that marvelous wailing on “24 Hours
of Loving?” Gol-lee, fellas, leaving that stufT
out shore is dumb.
Anyhow, wc can’t all get to New York to
sec the play, but since it’s “presented” by
Universal Pictures, there’ll be a movie of
this ’un as sure as the sun sets in the West.
Meanwhile, enjoy the record
Miklos Rozsa
“The Thief of Bagdad”;
Elmer Bernstein
“To Kill a Mockingbird.” Elmer Berns
tein conducting the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra. (Warner Bros.)
Del Porter
Film scores arc an incidental art form, or a
craft perhaps, like pottery or weaving. They
may be beautiful, or exciting, or anything
else, but first and foremost, they are meant
for practical use, to heighten the mood on
screen.
Stripped of the moving pictures they are
meant to accompany —pictures which
either make one forget they"are listening to
music at all, or too conscious of the self
effacing accompaniment —too many film
scores end up as so much musical doodling.
There are exceptions and exceptional
composers such as Bernard Herrman, Erich
Korngold and Bronislaw Kapcr, but the
□ Extra Large
significance of the creator is probably indi
cated by the Schwann catalog, which lists
films by title but doesn’t credit the composer
at all.
Such anonymity is the film composer’s
lot, and that may be one reason so many of
them adopted musical disguises. The Bern
stein of “Mockingbird” is Aaron Copland,
The Rozsa of “Thief’ is Delius or Grilles.
It is all too predictable. Copland first
wrote “folksy” American music for films.
Bernstein signs to write (quickly, no doubt)
music for a “folksy” picture. The result: de
rivative Copland..
One can just imagine the producer of The
Thief of Bagdad telling Rozsa, an accom
plished concert hall veteran, “I got this
Arabian nights picture due out in six weeks.
Write me something exotic, a little belly
dance music, and make it good.” So Rozsa
gives Alexander Korda what Korda and the
audience expect, pockets the check, and goes
back to writing the “serious” music which
orchestras won’t play because he is, after all,
a film composer. Well, the family has to eat.
• Not all film music is weak, or ersatz.
Bernstein himself produced at least one ex
traordinary score, The Man with the Golden
zlrm.Rozsa did Spellbound and Julius Caesar, to
name two that come to mind easily.
But these two eflorts are not of that high
musical standard. They remain recordings,
well performed to be sure, for film or nostal
gia buffs
October, 1978