36 Years Ago

36 Years Ago, Vienna 1971—A Student Journal

Day 295: Angelo Badalamenti and Twin Peaks

36yearsago.com

Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing & friends.



Day 295 —Angelo Badalamenti and Twin Peaks
23-May-1972 (Dienstag–Tue.)


TRANSCRIPT

A little bit of most things. Not at all happy with the horn playing. Until I change my problems, it’s hopeless.

Delightful Mozart at night. Acted as a guide for some American tourists—and spread the goodwill.


REFLECTIONS

Goodwill. My horn playing is not going well? What happened? Weeks ago, I thought I was doing well. Thank goodness I get to a better mood with Mozart (opera unknown) and share some goodwill with tourists. Nice.

2009–NJ is closed. It’s Memorial Day weekend. I’m looking to move—the rent keeps going up (a lot) every year. Why is this happening? Well, the prices of houses doubled a few years ago. The bubble burst (as the economy) and no one can afford to buy a house anymore. So, this morning I look at real estate rentals on the web. NJ is now too expensive. The state is doomed. Close it down. For me to get a normal and decent rent, I would need to move to PA. Many people do this. The commute could then be 1-1/2 hours or more. We’re doomed.

Weird TV episode. On this lazy day in 2009, I happen to catch a rerun of “Twin Peaks” from director David Lynch—the strange, intriguing, and often bizarre tale of events in a small Pacific Northwest town. Are you old enough to remember this series? No. Here’s the amazing part. This one episode was sort of a dream-like fantasy sequence—rooms with red curtains and strange characters—and the dialog was rendered as captions on the screen, while the characters spoke in strange, partially-processed, voices. You never see this kind of dialog-processing on TV often (excluding the vocoder effects on sci-fi movie). What did we do in Vienna? Process voices. That Twin Peaks happened to be on, and that it was such a bizarre episode was strange. Coincidence? Or fate?

Music for Twin Peaks. While we are on the topic of coincidences. Guess who wrote the music for Twin Peaks? Composer, Angelo Badalamenti—a well-known and highly respected film composer of many Hollywood films. His music in Twin Peaks (dramatic, eerie, haunting, nostalgic) is important to the drama and atmosphere of the series. So, why am I bringing this up? My sister-in-law’s father, lyricist-songwriter Frank Stanton, was a partner with Mr. Badalamenti—Andy Badale, before he became Mr. Badalamenti. My brother Steve and his wife Becky told me this story. I once met Mr. Stanton, Becky’s father, in Nashville. I admired that he was able to be a professional lyricist-songwriter for his entire life. Quite an accomplishment. I believe he had a couple of hits during his life, perhaps World War II. Unfortunately, there is not much Internet information on Mr. Stanton.

Mr. Badalamenti’s film score accomplishments are also noteworthy, including his first David Lynch score,
Blue Velvet. There are some interesting interviews with Mr. Badalamenti on YouTube (see below).

Links:

Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks Theme on YouTube

Angelo Badalamenti (Official Website)

An interview with Angelo Badalamenti on YouTube

How the Twin Peaks theme was composed on YouTube


John

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