Raymond Scott :: Little Miss Echo
I love me some cartoons. When I was a kiddo I’d sit back, work my fine motor skills opening coke cans, throw on some Looney Tunes and love life. It’s amazing to watch those old cartoons and hear the vocabulary they used. They didn’t dumb-down for the audience. That goes doubly for the music. Everyone knows Carl Stalling. He was a freaking genius. One time in college, we had a cartoon music composer come in for a guest lecture. He put some of his scores up on a projector so we could analyze the music: frenetic, genre-blasting, wacky and brilliant. He talked about Carl Stalling’s influence a great deal. Unfortunately he neglected to talk about the guy who started it all: Raymond Scott. This guy was the real deal. Not only was he a major influence on cartoon music but he also taught a young Bob Moog about electronics and how to apply the science to musical instruments. Yep, that far reaching…
If you want to hear a song that you had no idea was written by Raymond Scott check out Powerhouse. You’ll recognize it right away. Think factory line music. Anyway, this post is not quintessential Raymond Scott but it’s oh-so pretty. Who wants a coke?
Little Miss Echo (10.5mb mp3)
Raymond Scott (homepage)
claire said on tuesday, may 13th, 2008
Jason said on tuesday, may 13th, 2008
Wow I never knew.
I went to his homepage. Both "Powerhouse" and "Diner Music For a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" were used by Stalling…or at least incorporated into a medley.
vj said on wednesday, may 14th, 2008
Word! That album is amazing!! Yep, a lot of his music was "incorporated" into Stalling’s and other’s work. I’m not sure about the copyright on most of it though. It could have been(and still is) up for grabs. Actually, I heard Powerhouse on a Simpsons episode the other day. The one where Homer gets his dream job at the bowling alley…
hiram said on wednesday, may 14th, 2008
Nice! I love Mr. Scott as well. He’s one of my favorite Kansas City-ites. UMKC has the Raymond Scott collection and recordings at the MARR archives, which has (I think) most of the stuff from the Manhattan Research album.
http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/raymond.htm
Thanks for the song, vj.
i love raymond scott, but i think not many people realize that his weirder stuff is where it’s at. perhaps you have the manhattan research cd also? i love that one.