Sorry I've been gone for a bit. I'm hoping to update the blog on a more regular basis--say, every other week. But no promises!



Anyway, Judeo-Christianity inspired me to get the blog going again. No, I didn't get in touch with my spiritual side (in fact, I don't have a spiritual side, which leaves me in the awkward position of being comprised of ONLY ONE SIDE) or find Jesus. Wait, I did find Jesus...he's under the settee, with Saddam's WMD and Obama's Change We Can Believe In...oh, sorry, that's just some loose change.

It's all Moses fault. I recently picked up a copy of the 1974 soundtrack LP, released by RCA Victor to accompany the television mini-series Moses the Lawgiver (starring Burt Lancaster as the Man in Sack), which I'm pretty sure I watched when it first aired because, well, because I spent virtually every non-school hour I could spare in front of the boob tube. And in 1974, the only shows on TV were Wide World of Sports, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Happy Days, Moses the Lawgiver, and Bad Ronald. Oh, and Lamp Unto My Feet, but that was on on Sunday morning, so I never watched it.

Anyway, this particular soundtrack features a score composed by a gentleman named Ennio Morricone, with an orchestra conducted by a gentleman named Bruno Nicolai, and with vocals by a gentlewoman named Gianna Spagnolo. You've probably heard of the fellas, but you may not know Ms. Spagnolo, at least not by name. You've probably heard her, though, because this is the woman Morricone and many other Italian composers hired when they needed something a little...otherworldly...to accompany their score. If you've heard the astonishing theme song from Sergio Corbucci's 1966 western Navajo Joe, you've heard Gianna, who I don't believe ever received a single screen credit for ANY of her amazing body of work.

Anyway, back to Moses. This is, quite simply, amongst Morricone's best. If you happen across a copy of this LP in your local record emporium--and I don't think it's a particularly rare item--grab it, and don't let that annoying young clerk with the eyeball ring and the Hello Kitty tee-shirt shame you into putting it back in the rack. It's that good, and if it helps you get back in touch with that ol' time religion, well all the better. Me, I'm going to go and covet my neighbor's oxen. See you in a week or two.