Raymond Scott was one of the most effortlessly subversive composers of the 20th century, having inserted profoundly bent music deep into the collective unconscious of Americans for half a century. Although he never wrote any music specifically for film or cartoons, after his back catalog was acquired by Warner Brothers in the early 1940s, Carl Stalling cut and pasted (sampled) Scott’s zany music over and over again into the Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig cartoons, exposing generations of unsuspecting children to some very strange music.
Scott was also an inventor of electronic musical instruments and technologies, making important contributions to the young genre of electronic music during the 1950s and 60s. His 1963 three record set Soothing Sounds For Baby predates ambient music by fifteen years and remains an indispensable child rearing tool to this day.
You can find Powerhouse on the excellent compilation Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights, available in a remastered version here. Soothing Sounds For Baby is here. And there is a good Raymond Scott Web site here.
6 Comments so farLeave a comment
I’ll second that Manhattan Research, Inc. disk.
Comment by Bruce P. 05.11.05 @ 8:52 amCommercial as in “made for commercials or advertising”? Or commercial as in “acessible and appealing to the general public”?
Comment by Blake 05.11.05 @ 9:08 amThat’s great. I had assumed that Carl Stalling wrote everything heard in those cartoons and on The Carl Stalling Project.
Comment by Arnold 05.11.05 @ 5:39 pmBlake–
In answer to your questions: The outer liner notes of MANAHATTAN RESEARCH, INC. partially read “Prepare yourself for something beyond the parameters of Pop. This 2-CD set of Raymond Scott’s electronic music is your ticket to uncharted realms. These never-before commercially available 1950’s-60’s recordings range from advertising jingles to bold experiments in musique concrete, performed on pioneering electronic equipment designed and built by Scott. Also included are soundtracks of Scott’s film collaborations with Muppet master Jim Henson.” Some of the equipment and inventions are: the Clavivox; Electronium; Karloff; and, last but certainly not least, Bandito the Bongo Artist. The 2-CD’s come with a 140-page book.
I had this song groovin’ along this morning while I made my breakfast, when the middle section of the song came along and a wave of nostalgia hit. They used the middle section for the movie Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.
Comment by G. Andrew 05.17.05 @ 8:24 amLeave a comment
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Don’t forget the Manhattan Research disk:
http://raymondscott.com/mripr.html
This is a bunch of commercial electronic music, mostly from the 50s and 60s
Comment by Chris Muir 05.11.05 @ 2:28 am