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$24.99 LP
180 Gram
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BRUCE LANGHORNE
The Hired Hand OST
(Scissortail)
Now available on LP in a hand-numbered, limited edition pressing of 1000 copies, on 180 gram
vinyl. The review below originally ran in 2005, when we first featured the CD issue of this gorgeous soundtrack by Bruce Langhorne.
I guess it was about a year ago that I headed up to Cinema Village
(or was it the Quad?) one evening after work to catch the world
premiere re-release of Peter Fonda's 1971 subversive western The
Hired Hand. This was his follow up to the monumentally successful
Easy Rider, and in an attempt to bring the hysteria around
him down a notch Fonda embarked on a much more reflective filmmaking
endeavor. His western upends most of the conventions of the genre,
with vaguely homoerotic themes, a stately pace, fragmented or
anti-climatic violence, and elegiac passages of psychedelic montage
that were inspired by his days of hanging out with the experimental
filmmakers Bruce Baillie and Bruce Conner.
The movie tanked when it was released, but Fonda seemed unperturbed
as he fielded questions after the viewing. Tall and preternaturally
tan, he recounted showing the film to his famous western film
star father Henry Fonda, who responded deadpan, "That's my
kinda western." The Hired Hand really was ahead of
its time, and in the year since I first saw it, those psychedelic
interludes have been seared in my mind, as has the stunning score
by Bruce Langhorne.
The next morning I searched high and low for a copy of the soundtrack
only to discover that it didn't even exist on CD or LP. In one
of those moments of inspiration that never come to fruition, I
convinced myself that I was going to devote myself to getting
it released. Thankfully, someone with a little more conviction
and follow-through than I was able to get it out.
Langhorne was a session musician par excellence who appeared
on countless folk-rock records in the '60s. Bob Dylan has written
that Langhorne was the inspiration for "Mr. Tambourine Man,"
and he figures prominently on Bringing It All Back Home
as well as the soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,
with which the earlier Hired Hand has a little in common
stylistically. During the showing I remember thinking that the
music reminded me of a more blissful, psychedelic, and spaced-out John Fahey or Sandy Bull; later I came to find out that Langhorne
actually borrowed Bull's Twin Reverb amp to produce all those
ringing pastoral overtones.
With a battery of Farfisas, recorders, and ancient Martin guitars,
the passages on this disc seem to defy time, suspending the clock
on the CD player with each graceful, echoed parsing of a banjo
note or dulcimer slide. Langhorne's 23-minute score is a gorgeous
accomplishment that is more than able to stand outside the framework
of Fonda's film and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans
of Americana, psychedelia, finger-pick guitarists, spaghetti western
soundtracks, Bjorn Olsson enthusiasts, or perhaps people just
looking to find some music that'll help them slow down and clear
their heads a little bit. [MK]
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