Review by Paul Cote

Rating: ****

It sort of staggers me that Elmer Bernstein always gets credit for being the first person to score comedy as though it were drama when John Morris did just that for earlier films that were just as famous and influential. In particular, I think of his scores for Mel Brooks three best films, The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles. Each of these scores treats the outrageous onscreen comedy with the same dramatic integrity that we’d see in a serious feature. For some reason though, as beloved as these films are, the scores have rarely been given their due outside of the music-and-dialogue soundtrack albums. La-La Land has been seeking to change that, however. Last year they gave us a stellar release of Morris’s score for Brooks’ guilty pleasure Spaceballs, a score that is in many respects more entertaining than the film itself. And this year they’ve finally given us one of the Brooks/Morris classics; Blazing Saddles. And while the short, fragmentary nature of the score doesn’t always make for the smoothest listen, the joy of finally having every note of this music to listen to whenever you want far outbalances everything else.

John Morris

Though I also should admit that I was initially skeptical as to how well this would hold up on album. I mean, the music is a quintessential part of a wonderful movie, but the cues are all so short and heavily reliant on the visuals that it didn’t strike me as something you’d want to listen to by itself from start to finish. I changed my mind almost immediately after the first track started. Hearing that beloved ballad in such crystal clear sound quality made me wonder why I’d never been begging for this release for years. And not only that, but the ballad now has a fantastic darker B-theme that was never in the finished film! It may be a small thing, but for Blazing Saddles fans its a revelation that makes an already awesome thing even awesome-r. The rest of the score is, by default, a little bitty, and yes, you probably will have to program a few of the tracks out if you really want to enjoy it from start to finish, and yes, Madeline Kahn’s intentionally awful “I’m Tired’ is really really really hard to listen to outside of the film. But it’s so short and the highlights are so wonderful that you really won’t care.

And while the score does have it’s share of “funny music,” it also has a great deal of heart. Mel Brooks best films, after all, ultimately stand up as well as they do because despite all of the comic madness, the films at heart are very sweet stories about close friends who stand by each other. In warm cues like “Bart Returns,” “A New Rock Ridge,” or “Finale,” Morris’s music is essential in adding that emotional dimension to the parody. This is, I think, where Morris’s comedic scores tend to have an edge over Bernstein’s – where Bernstein’s “serious” music tended to operate with complete ironic detachment, Morris’s “serious” music actually has an emotional genuineness to it that not only makes the film funnier, but also humanizes the parody a little.

Now having said all of that, I suppose I should acknowledge that my love for this music stems entirely out of my love of the film, and I can’t attest to how well this music would come off for somebody who’s never seen Blazing Saddles and is looking to enjoy the CD on pure musical terms. So I suppose I should close by saying that if you love the film and nearly know it by heart, this CD is an essential purchase for you. If, however, you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles… you know what, if you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles, get out of here, get the fuck out of here. Seriously, leave, right now. You’ve waived your review-reading privileges. Come back when you’ve seen the film at least fifteen times and can recite at least ten of its best one-liners and then we’ll talk. Until then, the rest of us will be doing “The French Mistake” and loving every minute of it. By the way, I just managed to go through the entire review without quoting the movie once. Can you believe it? Well it’s true, it’s twuuuuue … damn it, I came so close!

Music Composed, Conducted and Produced by John Morris; Orchestration by Jonathan Tunick; Remix by Micke Matessino; Album Produced by MV Gerhard, Dan Goldwasser and John Morris; Label: La-La Land Records, (LLLCD 1072); Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: September, 2008.

01. Signature/Main Title (2:33)
02. Ballad of Rock Ridge (2:08)
03. April in Paris (1:06)
04. Hoop-Dee-Doo (:41)
05. Wagon Train Flashback (1:10)
06. Transitions (:25)
07. Mongo (:35)
08. Merrily We Roll Along (:10)
09. I’m Tired (5:29)
10. Bart Returns (:56)
11. Alky 1-2-3/Ballad of Rock Ridge (sad)/Desperado Registration/Night Camp Tent (1:37)
12. A New Rock Ridge (:56)
13. Voodoo You Do/The Big Fight/French Mistake (1:47)
14. The Studio Fight/Grauman’s (2:18)
15. Noble Farewell/Finale (2:42)
16. Signature/Main Title (instrumental/chorus version) (2:33)
17. Ballad of Rock Ridge (instrumental) (2:03)
18. I’m Tired (instrumental) (5:13)
19. French Mistake (instrumental) (:14)
20. Finale (instrumental) (1:59)
21. I Get a Kick Out of You (:37)
22. Hail to the Chief (:12)
23. Springtime for Hitler (:13)
24. Bar Source (:40)
25. French Mistake (extended album version) (:33)
26. Signature/Main Title (instrumental/solo version) (2:41)

Total Running Time: 41:21