I am pleased to announce that my first book has been published by Bear Manor Media in the United States and is available directly from them or on Amazon.
Italian Western: Violent Image, Savage Soundtrack is a culmination of interviews and biographies of Italian composers who were heavily involved in creating the sound and style that we all know as the music of the Spaghetti Western. It is a journey I undertook many years ago when I discovered the delights of the unique and masterful composer Ennio Morricone by mistake. I purchased the LP record The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, because it was priced incorrectly. From that day on I have never stopped loving his music and also the music of other composers who contributed to this quirky and innovative genre of film.
It was fifty years ago that I read a book, The Opera of Violence, and decided that one day I would also write a book about the music from the Italian western, but I wanted to go further than biographies, so I set about interviewing as many Italian composers as I could. It took over twenty-five years to put the information together, and I am glad to say I made many friends along the way with composers, vocalists, and filmmakers. The book is my way of thanking everyone involved in the genre for so many hours of enjoyment and entertainment; it focuses in part on Ennio Morricone but also includes others that were also responsible for creating the highly original and influential music within these films. There are chapters on the gunfights, the songs, and the infectious screams, squeals, whistles, soaring female wordless vocals, and raw energy of the music… music that also had far-reaching influences which are still seen and heard in contemporary motion pictures and television shows.
It is my homage to Gianni Ferrio, Piero Piccioni, Nico Fidenco, Alessandro Alessandroni, Franco Micalizzi, Stelvio Cipriani and so many more. All of whom were kind and allowed a somewhat obsessive film music fan to talk to them and find out how they approached scoring these sagebrush sagas.
The book can be purchased through Amazon.
Thank you for reading.
John Mansell.
