You are gonna be thrilled to learn - and I am pleased to inform you - that I have received in the mail a new set of Western movies! Yes siree, it's The Tim Holt Collection, Volume 4, released by Warner Archives, and it came to my attention (as these things often do) via an Amazon recommendation. I saw that there were several volumes in the Holt Collection, and I chose #4 because it had the lowest price, about 22 bucks. The other volumes run about 25 to 30 dollars, much higher than the Durango Kid collection which gave you ten films for twelve bucks, but maybe they can charge more because Tim Holt was a fairly big name in Hollywood in the 1940s. He starred in some A-list movies like Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Treasure Of The Sierra Madre" with Humphrey Bogart.
In reading his IMDB biography, he seems to have opted out of a chance to become a bigger star in favor of making smaller budget Westerns, which fit his personality and lifestyle. Though he was born in Beverly Hills, the son of a Silent film actor, he gravitated toward ranch life and wound up buying property in Oklahoma. He was a cowboy at heart, and in our first Tim Holt Western tonight, "Wagon Train" (1940), he was only 21 years old when he made the picture.
Holt was All American handsome, so he looks the part of a Western idol, though he differs from Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid), in that his youth leads you to suspect a possible lack of cojones, if only due to his lack of experience against outlaws. With Starrett, who was in his early to mid-40s in the Durango movies we saw, and who had the lean, mean look of the black hatted lawman, there was no doubt of his leathality. You have to give Holt a chance, though, and when you do, you will discover that despite his youthful looks he is deadly serious, not as a Sheriff or hired gun in this movie, but as a wagon master who is leading his clients to Pecos, Texas, where they will settle as townsfolk. I don't think Holt will be playing a singular character throughout this collection, ala the Durango Kid, but his roles will likely befit his onscreen persona of a straight shooting good guy. His IMDB also says that he was a real life quick draw, and was actually timed as "the fastest gun in Hollywood", able to draw and shoot in five frames of film. More importantly, Holt - whose acting career was interrupted by World War Two - flew bombing missions in the Pacific theater over Japan and was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot on the last day of the war. So as you can see, he fills the bill as a hero, in the movies and in real life.
The Westerns in the Holt Collection are of the 60 minute variety, which we love because it leaves us a little time on our evening break to read and draw. I am working on my second Prismacolor drawing, of a scenario from the Wilbur Wash. My first, of a UFO over a lonely highway, came out pretty doggone good if I do say so myself. I am now trying to execute representative drawings after several years of abstract. The process is more painstaking because I am not naturally talented in that area, but I persevere. ////
My current books are the previously mentioned "Plot To Kill King" by William Pepper, which should be on the nightly news every night until America becomes clean, and ditto "The Cover-Up At Roswell". This country is toast until we stop keeping secrets about our past. ////
I am meaning to make another classical pick but am having trouble deciding who my last two favorite composers should be. As mentioned, it's not as easy as choosing my Ten Favorite Rock Artists, whose music I know by heart, every note of every song.
So for my last two picks, I have to sort Debussy from Beethoven and Couperin from Rameau, and what about Rachmaninoff and Scriabin? What about Sibelius? So it's tough, because there is so much great music from all of the above, and from so many more composers. With rock bands, we have had the chance to see them play live, and they are playing their own compositions. Imagine if we had lived in Mozart's time, and had been in the room when he played a new sonata to a Royal Court or to some other wealthy benefactor....
With classical music, and with choosing favorites, we have to factor in the interpretations of the instrumentalists (pianists, etc.) who are representing a given piece. One or two hundred years later, a piece can be associated as much with a favorite pianist almost as much as it is with the composer.
So the whole thing is a bit tricky. Maybe I am over analyzing it, and I will narrow my last two choices down, but for tonight, in presenting the case for Francois Couperin, I want you to listen to a single piece, just over three minutes in length. You already know it. I have posted it numerous times on my FB, and it has been used in popular films that you have seen.
It is called "Les Barricades Mysterieuses", or..."The Mysterious Barricades". As with the "Tannhauser Overture" by Wagner, this one piece alone not only qualifies the composer as a musical genius, but as a composition is worthy of consideration as one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.
Make sure to listen to the Youtube version by Georges Cziffra. It will come up near the top of the search if you use the terms "mysterious barricades couperin". Cziffra is the only one who gets the tempo exactly right. For a fast version, listen to the one by Alexandre Thaurad. It's a bit shocking in comparison, but because of his liquid playing technique, it works.
So, that's the case for Couperin, for inclusion into our Top Ten. I'm not sure if he will make one of the last two slots, but he wrote a lot of other great music besides "Barricades", so he might.
That's all for this evening. Peace and Love through the night, Sun and Butterflies in the morning.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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