Beautifully said and observed...
It¹s very difficult to take things out of context...especially music or
should I say ³soundtrack¹ instead to be more accurate.
Let¹s take the music of my fave man Nick Cave and let¹s not even talk about
his songs, but his (and warren ellis) score for the oz Œnoir¹ western The
Proposition...If you listen to the score all alone...is it Œnoir¹ on its own
or is it noir Œto me¹, because I Œsee¹ images from the film...Take the
Œalmost noir...yet pretty grey¹ 89¹s film by Chris Petit called Radio On
with soundtrack with Sting, Bowie, Kraftwerk, Frpp, Dury, Wreckless Eric,
The Rumour...individually speaking none of those are noir or even
close...but the soundtrach created with the film was...on the way...or some
of the choir music behind the BBC series from J. Le Carré¹s books...or if
you take the soundtrack of F. de Roubaix for Le Samourai, and just listen to
the music CD...
I have no specific answers...
Is there a Œnoir¹ sound...a ³noir² music...should it remain
contextualized...?...
Montois
ps: setzer has dabbled for 15 years at least in tracks for advertising
(besides his normal gig) and has covered every genre...that would bring the
$50grand+ fees...I remain a fan of his Stray Cats gig...I don¹t know what
his Œnoir² album might be like...²Songs for a Lonely Ave²..is it in
Œsupport¹ of a particular noir film...?
On 10/9/09 2:23 PM, "Kevin Burton Smith" <kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com>
wrote:
>
> If you want it to be.
>
> But not because he says so. Or Carly Simon -- who also did a "noir"
> album -- says so.
>
> There's nothing inherently noir or hard-boiled in most instrumental
> music -- only what the listener brings to it.
>
> Even all that brassy, horny jazz associated with old crime films and
> TV shows isn't necessarily "noir." Well-suited to it? Maybe. But on
> it's own, without any association to a film or TV show, would we hear
> it and automatically go "That's noir."?
>
> If DOUBLE INDEMNITY was scored with bluegrass or Celtic reels or
> electro-pop, would we automatically associate bluegrass and Celtic
> reels and electro-pop as "noir?
>
> TV's CRIME STORY a few years ago featured Dell Shannon's RUNAWAY -- a
> song that also featured prominently in Lucas' AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Is it
> now a crime song? I wah-wah-wah-wonder.
>
> Now, songs with actual lyrics -- that's a whole different thing. Some
> guy singing about sitting in Old Sparky waiting for the switch to be
> pulled, wishing his baby was sitting in his lap? That's dark, sir, no
> matter how you play it.
>
> So, is Setzer trying to write actual noir music, or just music that
> will make us think of old noir films? There's a difference.
>
> Kevin
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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