A Writer's Life

He Is, He Said

Neil Diamond is now on Twitter.

They Say That Cat is a Baaaaad Mother

I can't stop listening to "The Shaft Anthology" while I write. It's an incredible, 3 CD collection of original soundtrack cues from "Shaft," "Shaft's Big Score," and the TV movies, brought to you by the terrific folks at Screen Archives.

The "Shaft" soundtrack that has been available up to now was actually a re-recording of the original cues. But this anthology presents the original score for the first time. Here's how Screen Archives tells it:

The original 1971 Shaft was one of the seminal films of “blaxploitation” movement, as Shaft gets involved in the Harlem rescue effort of a gangster’s kidnapped daughter. The score by Isaac Hayes not only set trends in film music but pop and R&B, with its spoken/sung lyrics, disco-era wah-wah guitar and high-hat cymbals, and lush, soulful orchestrations. The soundtrack was widely distributed on a 2LP set (later a CD) by Enterprise (Hayes’s personal label on Stax Records) but that was a re-recording done in Memphis. For the first time, this CD presents the original Hollywood-recorded film score featuring primordial versions of the source cues as well as all of the dramatic underscoring (little of which was adapted for the LP). It is a fascinating glimpse into Hayes’s creativity and an important archiving of this legendary work.

Being the geek that I am, I have been obsessively comparing cues between the original and the re-recording...and I definitely prefer the original cues. The anthology also includes the music from "Shaft's Big Score" and the never-bef0re-released cues from the half-dozen "Shaft" TV movies by Johnny Pate ("Shaft in Africa), who used the iconic Shaft theme in a variety of clever and entertaining ways. The collection also comes with surprisingly detailed and informative liner notes.

It's great stuff, a must for any soundtrack collector. But if you want to buy it, you'd better hurry. This is a limited edition of 3000 copies.

The Worst Bond Theme Ever

Here's "Another Way to Die," the main title theme from QUANTUM OF SOLACE, performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White. I hate it. The Los Angeles Times likes it more than Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" from CASINO ROYALE, but that's not saying much.

Any hooks by the song are provided by riffing on the instantly recognizable Bond theme, not by anything new offered in the song. And Keys, usually a relatively bold, in-your-face R&B singer, seems oddly tamed here, her voice not meshing well with White's yelled warble. In her defense, it's hard to not sound silly when you sing, "Suit 'em up, bang bang!" And there's some odd, out-of-place sudden electronic textures here and there, resulting in an overly-crowded song.

This song is so hideous it almost makes Ah-Ha's "The Living Daylights" and Lulu's "Man with the Golden Gun" seem like classics by comparison.  "Another Way to Die" is much more suited to a Coke Zero advertisement than James Bond main title, as you can see for yourself:

The Name is Geek, Big Geek

The theme song for CASINO ROYALE is so bad, that it made me long for the good old days of Shirley Bassey.  Here's my ranking of the Bond songs...

1. Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey)
2. Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney)
3. Tomorrow Never Dies (KD Lang) The original intended opening theme song. It played over the end credits and is referenced throughout the score
4. Diamonds Are Forever (Shirley Bassey)
5. Thunderball (Tom Jones)
6. Goldeneye (Tina Turner)
7. Nobody Does It Better (The Spy Who Loved Me) (Carly Simon)
8. A View to a Kill (Duran Duran)
9. For Your Eyes Only (Sheena Easton)
10. You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra)
11. We Have All The Time in the World (Louis Armstrong) (This technically wasn't a theme song...but it plays a big role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
11. Tomorrow Never Dies (Sheryl Crow)

(from this point on, they are all pretty bad, so it's hard to rank them)

12. Die Another Day (Madonna)
13. From Russia, With Love (Matt Munro)
14. You Know My Name (Casino Royale) (Chris Cornell)
15. Man With The Golden Gun (Lulu) (As bad as this song is, it's one of my guilty pleasures anyway...it's so incredibly cheesy that it's irresistable..."love is required, whenever he's hired, it comes just before the kiillllll...")
16. Never Say Never Again (Lani Hall)
17. License To Kill (Gladys Knight)
18. The Living Daylights (Ah-ha)
19. The World Is Not Enough  (Garbage)
20. All Time High (Octopussy) (Rita Coolidge)
21. Moonraker (Shirley Bassey)

UPDATE: A bigger geek than me has edited the original TOMORROW NEVER DIES theme (KD Lang's SURRENDER) into the movie's main title sequence so we can see how it might have been if the producers stuck with it instead of going with Sheryl Crow. Thanks to William Simon for the link.

Someone else with way too much time on their hands put Alice Cooper's rejected attempt a MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN theme (released on his "Muscle of Love" album) onto the main titles of  THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

Bum Bum Bum-dee Bum Bum...

I didn't like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3...but I absolutely love the soundtrack. I can't stop listening to it. The score is exhilirating in a way the movie wasn't. Composer Michael Giacchino did a fantastic reinterpreting Lalo Schifrin's classic cues and added some great ones of his own. I'm also a huge fan of Giacchino's THE INCREDIBLES soundtrack, a rousing and fun-loving homage to the John Barry 007 scores of the 60s and 70s (particularly ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE).  I'm hoping the Bond folks pick Giacchino to score CASINO ROYALE...

Indulging My Inner Old Coot

Neil Diamond's new 12 SONGS came out today -- and it's terrific, his best album since THE JAZZ SINGER. We always knew he still had at least one more great album left in him. We never lost faith. Not when he did the HEADING TO THE FUTURE video. Not when he sang about ET. Not even when he went country.  Way to go, Neil.

Book'em Dano

I went to the dentist today, and while he was drilling and scraping my teeth, I was plugged into my iPod, listening to TV themes (an admission that proves, in case anybody wondered, that I am a geek).  I've decided that "Hawaii 5-0" is the best instrumental TV theme in TV history... better than "Peter Gunn," "Miami Vice," "Star Trek," or even "Mission Impossible."

I'm a TV Geek

Last night, I was in TV Geek heaven...

I went to the Television Academy's salute to TV themes at the Hollywood Bowl. It was wonderful, with the Hollywood Bowl orchestra playing salutes to Earle Hagen, Jerry Goldsmith, Vic Mizzy and Stu Phillips, among other things.

The show included some of my favorites themes -- "Mod Squad," "Virginian," "Green Acres," "Addams Family," "Wild Wild West," "Hawaii 5-0," "Peter Gunn," "Gunsmoke," "Room 222," "Man from UNCLE," and "Barnaby Jones -- accompanied by the main title sequences on the big screens. The Rembrandts showed up play "We'll Be There For You," the Smothers Brothers did a schtick over clips from their variety show, and there was a nice set piece on great television choreographers. They also featured suites from "Deadwood," "Jag," and, as the big fireworks finale, "Battlestar Galactica."

My nine-year-old daughter turned to me afterwards and said: "I think I'm beginning to like classical music."

I thought about telling her nah, it's just TV themes... then again, better she thinks of me as a man with refined tastes than as a big tv geek.