I too have linked the titles to the corresponding videos on youtube.
1. The Mysterious Cities of Gold
I don't want to be some kind of copycat but I have to agree with Graeme and put this at number 1. This epic theme tune still somehow fills me with hope.
2. Ironside (incidental music)
Quincy Jones's theme tune is pretty reasonable (it's the one they used in Kill Bill) but it doesn't interest me, to be honest. The music I like is a brilliant bit of incidental music that happens only in some episodes, usually after a long period of quiet atmosphericity. It's a crisp, clanging, rolling drum solo. I can't find an example to link to, but for something similar listen to In a Silent Way/It's About That Time from In a Silent Way by Miles Davis, and listen to the change in the drumming about halfway through. That is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. I used to sit next to the TV so I could turn the volume up to maximum when this music came on for a mere 5 or 6 seconds. This was when I was a student and could have been getting my degree instead.
3. Pole Position
Pounding car-race excitement. Written by the presumably unpleasant media mogul Haim Saban. Sometimes it takes a bastard to write a truly exciting song though.
4. St Elsewhere
When I listened to this on youtube I realised that this is the music by which I judge all other music. When I am listening to something, a dark and confused part of my mind is silently comparing it to the St Elsewhere music. 'Yes', says my mind, 'but is it as good as the theme from St Elsewhere?' This is alarming, because it's really pretty bad. But listen to the bass! I could listen to that bass indefinitely. According to this title sequence the real and serious actor Denzel Washington was in this programme.
5. Petrocelli
This theme tune is a bit of a mish mash, but I bloody like it. And I now see that it was by Lalo 'Mission Impossible' Schifrin, which just shows you. Petrocelli - a lawyer with an excellent briefcase and a liberal outlook - usually ended up defending people for free so he drove a rubbish car and didn't have a proper house. His wife understood though. Just like real life.
4 comments:
petrocelli! he was the fuckin man!
that reminds me, i need to send you guys the japanese version of colombo... it uses the same music, and the character is similar as an outsider, only, instead of looking like a tramp it`s colombo in a black polo neck with slick backed hair looking more like a japanese david copperfield.... it`s a kind of magic...
some of the mysterious cities incidental music is amazing, electronic dirge with spanish folk samples, totally on par with 80s vangelis or something, ha ha ha! i suspect that show might have inspired every post-80s british ambient/organic pioneer... orb, global communication, fsol...! i have the entire show on vcd and the complete soundtrack if you want a copy...
What was it that Colombo says in Japanese? "One more thing..."
"mo ichido..."
but you have to say it with an air of suspense while striking a tei towa pose and looking elusively into the camera...
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