I was just wondering if anyone else has picked up this score - I don't see any comments about it other than what Daniel Schweiger posted below, saying that it is one of the top CDs to pick up in March.
Anyway, I just love it...anyone else???...
HARDLY WORKING
What is it?: Sure the overhyped “Artist” won the Oscar for Best Score. But even that movie’s French makers will likely admit it’s all about Jerry Lewis when it comes to comedy genius, whether the shtick has talk or not. This man of a million zany faces gave his composers ample opportunities for musical merriment, especially in the case of Morton Stevens’ accompaniment for the one-man unemployment office of 1980’s “Hardly Working,” its pratfalls sweetly embodied by the kind of musical storytelling that could just as well be placed into the effort of any silent funnyman.
Why should you buy it?: More famed as a television composer for such shows as “Voyage To the Bottom of the Sea” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E,” let alone as the guy who wrote the theme for “Hawaii Five-O,” “Hardly Working” gave the prolific boob tube composer one of his rare chances to score a theatrical feature. And upon listening to this wonderfully melodic soundtrack, it’s amazing that Morton Stevens didn’t get more chances on the big screen. “Hardly Working” is a gem of old-school comedy scoring, when it was about playing a gag’s humorous arch, as opposed to having an orchestra hit every single joke. With a lushly thematic orchestral and brass band sound that brings to mind John Morris’ work on “Silent Movie,” Morton Stevens puts his sad sack clown theme through its clever paces, from the lurching horns and ding-dong doorbells of an inept mailman’s delivery to a way politically incorrect Japanese chef, capturing his multi-handed knife work with an Asian spin on “Madame Butterly” that proves to be this soundtracks’ inspired highlight. Like Chaplin, Lewis dared to throw unabashed empathy into his slapstick, music that always laughs with “Hardly Working”’s inept hero instead of mocking him, an approach that’s downright heroic for the rousing bunny march that accompanies the “Parade of the Clown Mailman.” By then end, Morton Stevens’ score is more of an affectionate smile than it is outright guffaw, and all the more of a melodically pleasurable listen because of it.
Extra Special: Like all legendary comics who tried to be “with-it” for changing times, “Hardly Working” has some fun pop and disco interludes, along with a pipe organ theme and an unhinged brass band that tries to play “When the Saints Come Marching In,” with their funniest bit seeing the inept players completely break down with the helter-skelter speed of “Crazy Clown Music.” But best of all, “Hardly Working” reveals a comedy scoring genius in Morton Stevens. It’s enough to make you wish that Buysoundtrax would also put out Stevens’ score for Lewis’ “Cracking Up,” let alone his music for alone for Johnny Yune’s “They Still Call Me Bruce.”
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