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PopTodd

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    RIP: Earle Hagen

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Sounds like the perfect musician's life. All of the financial security and none of the hassles of "fame":

     

    LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod Squad" and other TV shows, died Monday. He was 88.

     

    "The music just flowed from him," wife Laura said of composer Earle Hagen.

     

    Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show," died at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday. He had been in ill health for several months.

     

    During his long musical career, Hagen performed with the top bands of the swing era, composed for movies and television, and wrote one of the first textbooks on movie composing.

     

    He and Dick Rogers were nominated for an Academy Award for best music scoring for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie "Let's Make Love."

     

    For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes, pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for "That Girl," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

     

    "He loved it," his wife said. "The music just flowed from him, and he would take off one hat and put on another and go on to the next show."

     

    Hagen enjoyed the immediacy of the small screen, he told the American Society of Musicians Arrangers & Composers in 2000.

     

    "It was hard work, with long hours and endless deadlines, but being able to write something one day and hear it a few days later appealed to me," he said. "Besides, I was addicted to the ultimate narcosis in music, which is the rush you get when you give a downbeat and wonderful players breathe life into the notes you have put on paper."

     

    Born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen moved to Los Angeles as a youngster. He began playing the trombone while in junior high school.

     

    "The school actually furnished him with a tuba, and his mother made him take it back," his wife said.

     

    He became so proficient that he graduated early from Hollywood High School and at 16 was touring with big bands. He played trombone with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey and arranged for and played with Ray Noble's orchestra.

     

    He and Rogers wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for Noble in 1939. It has been covered many times since and served as the theme music for "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" television series in 1984.

     

    In 1941, Hagen became a staff musician for CBS, but the next year, he enlisted in the military.

     

    After the war, he worked as a composer and orchestrator for 20th Century Fox studios on dozens of movies, including another Monroe classic, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

     

    In the 1950s, he and Herbert Spencer formed an orchestra partnership that also wrote music for television, including scoring the Danny Thomas hit "Make Room for Daddy."

     

    Later, he worked as musical director for producer Sheldon Leonard, sometimes working on as many of five shows a week.

     

    One of his more notable TV scoring efforts was for the 1960s adventure series "I Spy," starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.

     

    Because the show used exotic locations worldwide, Hagen often included ethnic touches in the incidental music, among them hiring Greek musicians to play for some episodes that took place in Greece. On other locations, he collected ethnic music to mix with Western music back in Hollywood.

     

    After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and television scoring.

     

    He also wrote three books on scoring, including 1971's "Scoring for Films," one of the earliest textbooks on the subject. His 2002 autobiography was titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard Of."

     

    Besides his wife, Hagen is survived by his sons, Deane and James, both of Palm Desert; stepchildren Rebecca Roberts of Irvine, Richard Roberts of Los Angeles and Rachael Roberts of Irvine; and four grandchildren. His first wife, Elouise Hagen, died in 2002 after 59 years of marriage.

     

    Now, let's whistle one in rememberance for him.

    All together now...

    who has better coffee?

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    Guess I'm biased because I've been going to them since they had a single location on Broadway, and used the roaster that was in the middle of the store. Guess that I still think of them and their coffee in that light; when it really was amazing.

     

    But yeah, some roasts are better than others.

    Happy Ashtray

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    I appreciate the mere fact that you brought them to my attention, I noticed they are on Itunes... I will probably nab it off there once I get paid. I am assuming they are Chicago based, do they play in the city often or suburbs? I'd like to check em out if I can next time I am in town.

     

    They are Chicago-based, but I don't think that they (he) really plays out much, if at all. It's just one guy, for the most part.

    Although I imagine that he (or the web site) would probably answer that question better.

    Happy Ashtray

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    yea... I dig these guys alot. Do you have any EPs or anything from them?

     

    As John is a friend, I'm not gonna provide anyone with a full album of stuff. (I'm not keen on DLing anything that's still commercially available, anyway.) But they do have a lot of free stuff available on their web site that you can DL with their blessing.

     

    And, that Happy Friday thing is a great option, too. (See first post.)

    Liz Phair

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    Haha, sorry.

    Looks like she will be playing the whole album acoustic. Is there any way that it will be good...?

     

    The tickets for the two shows really sold out fast though. I guess there is still a lot of love for Exile.

     

    I think that it could be VERY good. As I also mentioned in my earlier post, I think that she is a really interesting guitar player. A format like that would certainly highlight that aspect of the songs. And, as they are great songs, I think that they would hold up really well.

     

    You just have to hope that she doesn't go all Chan Marshall on you and run away from the crowd.

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