Elton John - Friends (1971)
La colonna sonora del film Friends (che doveva intitolarsi "Intimate Games",
ma Elton e Bernie si opposero) venne lanciata sul mercato come
l'ennesimo nuovo album di Elton John, ma in realtà comprendeva
anche composizioni di Paul Buckmaster. L'album infatti è
costruito su poche canzoni, di ottimo livello, e sullo score
orchestrale che accompagna tutto il film e ciò nonostante
entrò nella classifica americana. Buckmaster fu
commisionato di ricreare il sound orchestrale dei primi album di Elton,
ma essendo a digiuno di colonne sonore venne introdotto da Dudgeon al
famoso compositore John Barry, per avere qualche consiglio al
riguardo.Da notare la band che
registrò le canzoni, con Dee Murray al basso, Nigel Olsson alla
batteria e Caleb Quaye alla chitarra, sarebbe diventata la Elton John
Band se Caleb Quaye non avesse deciso di proseguire l'avventura con gli
Hookfoot. L'album venne pubblicato su etichetta Paramount e non
è mai stato distribuito in CD probabilmente per questioni di
diritti d'autore, lo si può però trovare inglobato nella
raccolta Rare Masters.
1) Friends
2) Honey Roll
3) Variations On Friends
Theme (The First
Kiss) (strumentale)
4) Seasons
5) Variations On Michelle's
Song (A Day
In The Country)
(strumentale)
6) Can I Put
You On
7) Michelle's
Song
8) I Meant To Do My Work
Today (A Day
In The Country)
9) Four Moods
10) Seasons Reprise
il
FILM
Classifiche:
Stati Uniti:
36° posto
Inghilterra:
--° posto
Italia: --°
posto
Elton John, nel 1971, parlando dell'album:
"It's
a film soundtrack
album which we contracted to do before Elton John was ever released.
....,
it represents what we had to write for the film. The whole story behind
the film was they contracted us to do three songs. There's two bits in
the film where they have a tape recorder sequence for 20 seconds or
whatever
it was, where everyone's leaping up and down, and a radio sequence for
30 seconds, and they said "You're going to have to write two songs that
last for 20 and 30 seconds, and put them on the album." I thought well
that's ridiculous. Bernie and I said, "We can't do that," so they said,
"We want three songs - the title song". They were going to call the
movie
The Intimate Game, and Bernie and I said "No, we will not write any
songs
named for a movie, and we suggested Friends, so we'll settle for
Friends."
And we had to write another song, which was Michelle's Song. They
wanted
another song, which was to last a minute and ten. And for film writing,
if they want a song that's a minute and ten seconds long, then you're
supposed
to write a song that's a minute and ten seconds long. You have to time
it, and all this rubbish. So we all got together, and we were panicking
like mad, and Bernie said write a song that's very short, and we did,
and
it was a minute and ten seconds long, and I don't know how, by the
grace
of God, that it was a minute and ten seconds. So that was Seasons. And
then they said, "We want a soundtrack album," and I said, "That's
awful,"
because there's very little music in the film. And we said "it's
terrible,
we've only got three songs." You can't put an album together with all
that
on. You know, with soundtrack albums, you get bits with motorcars that
beep, and horses galloping. So we said, right, we're going to do this
thing
with the 20 and 30 second songs, then we'll write two songs and
re-record
the whole album. So we recorded the whole album once for the film, and
then went back into our own studio which we always use studio and
recorded
the whole soundtrack album... so people would at least get a bit of
value
for their money. They get five songs instead of three and horses
galloping.
It was recorded and written in four weeks, in between the first song
when
I came to the States, which was a three-week promotional trip and my
first
major tour, so it was recorded in between September and October, in
September
in fact, as a soundtrack album... ah... the record company are
promoting
it as a new Elton John album, and kids will probably think it is a new
Elton John album. .... the guy in London (who's a
complete
idiot) who runs Paramount Records, said that he said he wanted a really
great sleeve. So the people that produced the film and made the film
were
really great -- it was independently produced film from Paramount --
they
said right, and they took the Tumbleweed Connection sleeve up and said
to this guy, "Isn't this great? Look, it's got a booklet. We'd like
something
like this for Friends." And like the guy who designed it, this friend
of
ours, said yeah, this is a great idea. And the guy said it was rubbish
- the worst thing he'd ever seen, and he said "Wait till we come up -
we'll
come up with something that'll sweep this off the board." And they came
up with that strawberry coloured rubbish. I suppose I can't blame the
Paramount
Record Company for putting my name on it in big letters, cause I would
have probably done that... I don't know... I don't want to get into
that
anyway. It's not an Elton John album, believe me. The album was gold
within
three weeks, so that's... it's amusing; I'm knocked out, I'm very glad
that it is a gold record. But it's not an Elton John album."
| anno/label |
1971 - Paramount |
| produzione |
Gus
Dudgeon |
| arrangiamenti orchestrali |
Paul
Buckmaster |
| studio |
Trident Studios, Londra |
| musicisti |
Nigel
Olsson: batteria e cori; Dee
Murray: basso
e cori; : chitarra acustica e cori; Caleb
Quaye:
chitarra; Rex Morris: sax; Liza Strike, Lesley
Duncan e Madeline Bell: cori; Elton: tastiere |
| note |
in realtà non è
un vero e proprio album di Elton, era solo la colonna sonora del film
comprendente
anche brani di Buckmaster |
|
|
