Light On Dark Water

Wet Guitar in Dry Country

Weekend Music

Demonstrating the folly of trying to associate music very closely with specific images and narratives, the heavily reverbed guitar sound has somehow become associated with the desert as well as with the ocean. You hear it a lot in movie sound tracks and commercials, though frequently it's a dobro or other slide guitar rather than a standard one. I wasn't able to locate many examples, but here's one, from one of my favorite ambient albums, Dust to Dust, by Steve Roach and Roger King. As it happens, of the tracks I found on YouTube, this one, which includes the sounds of rain and thunder, also has the most guitar.

 

And from the great Daniel Lanois, from his instrumental album, Belladonna. I think this is pedal steel. But the reviewers all talk about it being a Southwestern sound, and some of the track names bear that out: "Dusty," "Agave," "Oaxaca."

 

And there's more than a hint of the sound in the theme from Breaking Bad, which is set in Albuquerque and has a lot of scenes that take place in the desert.

 

I sort of think some of Morricone's sound tracks include a surf-spy-desert guitar sound, but I'm not sure. Maybe it was other spaghetti westerns.

Maclin Horton

12 responses to “Wet Guitar in Dry Country”

  1. Gary

    Much as I like the Breaking Bad theme, IMHO the essential sound is derivative of (aka stolen from) Ry Cooder’s austere soundtrack for the movie, “Paris, Texis”:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6ymVaq3Fqk

    Liked the first 2 vids, “Rain and Creosote” especially hypnotic.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    Isn’t that two-note slide at 42 seconds the same as in Breaking Bad? My question is, where did that basic association come from? I’m not certain but I think it predates that movie. There must have been some movie or tv show that did it first.
    I know that’s supposed to be a good movie, btw. I think I have it on my dvr but haven’t gotten around to watching it.
    You might like that whole album. I haven’t heard it for a while so I’m not sure how much guitar is on it.

    Reply
  3. Rob G

    Morricone used that type of guitar sound in all his Western soundtracks for Leone. It reached its apotheosis in the huge, almost heavy metal surf guitar sound that shows up frequently in ‘Once Upon a Time in the West.’
    The fine film ‘Lantana,’ has a great guitar-led, somewhat ambient soundtrack of that sort by Aussie rocker Paul Kelly. And oddly enough there is an ambient guitar group called Lanterna that uses that sort of sound occasionally.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    I thought I remembered it, but it isn’t in the main titles of the The Good etc or A Fistful of Dollars and I didn’t look further. I’d like to hear a sample of that Once Upon A Time sound.
    Haven’t heard of Lantana but I have at least one Lanterna album, which as I recall has a great sound.

    Reply
  5. Rob G

    “Haven’t heard of Lantana”
    Very good Australian film from 10-12 years ago or so, with Anthony LaPaglia and Barbara Hershey.
    If I get a chance I’ll try to find a OUATITW clip with the big guitar sound. I think there’s a little bit of guitar work in the theme for Fistful…, maybe more for the Few Dollars More theme.

    Reply
  6. Gary

    My ear isn’t good enough to tell if that two-note slide is the same as in BB’s theme, but I think the overall similarity it apparent.
    “I’m not certain but I think it [association of desert with reverb guitar] predates that movie.”
    I think you’re right. After I posted above, I wondered if Cooder’s work was “derivative” of someone else’s. I have some vague memories of 1950s or 1960s cowboy movies (or others in desert settings) using a similar desolate slide guitar sound, possibly spaghetti westerns. There’s something like it in the “Fistful of Dollars” theme (around 1:03 and 1:53):
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpZjvbSC9_M
    (Off-topic, but here’s a great scene from the same movie:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ_7br_3y54)
    I’m not sure who first made public use of the association between this kind of guitar work and the desert, but the two are a natural fit. Actually, although the reverb guitar is great for this kind of thing, I don’t think it’s essential. Any stark, shimmering, mysterious forlorn music puts me in mind of the vast, silent, lonely, awesome desert expanses I’ve visited.

    Reply
  7. Gary

    Re “Paris, Texas”: I have mixed feelings about this thing. I saw it in a theater when it first came out and hated it. A few years later I rented the video and loved it. Subsequently, I watched parts or all of the movie a few times and felt somewhere in the middle. It’s an ambitious film that begins with some interesting atmospherics–the opening shot of the bleak west-Texas desert with that Ry Cooder theme playing; that’s what I like best. Then it shifts gears to something else entirely, goes on too long, eventually striving to be a kind of sad mythic tale that partially succeeds. Nastassja Kinski wins an Oscar for worst Texas accent ever.
    Years ago I bought a used CD of the soundtrack. I like it a lot. Most of it (maybe 25 or 30 minutes) is just Cooder’s crisp guitar, variations and some additions like that theme from the 5-minute video above. Very mesmerizing listening while driving through the desert.

    Reply
  8. Rob G

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3-uOjK4TY
    Comes in at about the :35 mark.

    Reply
  9. Mac

    Oh yeah, I remember that now. It is pretty strong. Not exactly the reverb thing, more fuzz/distortion.
    I don’t really hear the desert/surf/reverb thing in the Fistful of Dollar theme. It’s pretty straight electric guitar. I bet I would like that Paris, Texas soundtrack, though.
    Seeing that bit of Fistful makes me think “I’d like to see the whole movie.” Then I remembered that I did watch all those major Sergio Leone westerns a few years ago and really didn’t like them that much.

    Reply
  10. Rob G

    Yes, I vaguely remember that discussion about the Leone films.

    Reply
  11. jacobus

    “I’m not sure who first made public use of the association between this kind of guitar work and the desert”
    Duane Eddy

    Reply
  12. Mac

    Do you have an example? I’m not sure I ever heard anything but “Rebel Rouser.”

    Reply

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