Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to Mr. Miklos Rozsa conduct his movie scores, the three albums he did for Polydor, which have shockingly never been released on CD. Film music when film music was film music not wallpapered sound design and droning with no themes – even the people who argue there are themes have apparently never heard an actual theme. Chords with a couple of notes over them do not a theme make. Rozsa was, like many film composers of the Golden Age, unique. His sound is like no other composer’s. You can recognize a Rozsa score in the first ten seconds. And you look at the scores over the years and how they not only worked for the films but how popular they were and how many albums they sold. On the Polydor albums you won’t find any newer than 1970, I believe. And you won’t find any of the his big 70mm scores like Ben-Hur, King of Kings, or El Cid. But you will find beautifully played versions of The Thief of Baghdad, A Double Life, The Lost Weekend, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Naked City, Knights of the Round Table, Young Bess, The Asphalt Jungle, Moonfleet, Double Indemnity, Lust for Life, The Killers, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Five Graves to Cairo and much more. The Royal Philharmonic does Mr. Rozsa proud. A real, honest-to-goodness film composer who understood what a film score was supposed to do. I’m not sure we’ll ever get back there and that, in my opinion, is a crying shame. In other news, I watched the first forty minutes of a Francois Truffaut film I’ve never seen, Two English Girls. I’m enjoying it, and it does have one of my favorite Georges Delerue scores – I had the LP when it came out. I also watched a bit of a Truffaut I have fond memories, Small Change. I’ll finish ‘em both today, I’m sure. The important envelope did not arrive, so unless by some miraculous miracle it arrives today, I’ll have to call the SAG pension office and have them stop payment and issue a new check. Unfortunately, they wait fifteen days to write the new check, that takes a few days, and then they mail it, which takes a few days, so I doubt I’ll see it until the end of this short month. Infuriating at best and downright pathetic at worst. This I did not need. Let’s see. I got seven hours of sleep, answered e-mails, then had a brief rehearsal for the Robby Awards, running the song I’m singing – it’s pretty simple so we just went through it once. After that, I went to the mail place and picked up no important envelope – they saw how frustrated I was and were very nice about it and hoped it would show up today.
Then I drove up the street to Popeye’s and got my usual two mild breasts to go. I came home and ate them and the two biscuits that came with them. I had several telephonic conversations, then sat on my couch like so much fish and had my viewing. Then I took a hot shower, watched a bit more, and here we are.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll check with the mail place, I’ll figure out what I want to eat, I’ll eat whatever that is, then I just have to rest my voice and watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow is the Robby Awards show, which begins at seven. Not sure if I’ll do sound check – don’t really need to. After the show, I’ll probably grab a bite to eat somewhere. Then this coming week is a lot of writing and trying to keep the old head above water.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, check with the mail place, figure out food and eat it, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your favorite Golden Age film composers, and what are your favorite scores of Mr. Miklos Rosza? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be spending time in Rozsaland.