Jeff Alexander - Dirty Dingus Magee (1970)

EM/f.PC/LP 0015
DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE (1970)
UN BEAU SALAUD
Real. Burt Kennedy
Mus. Jeff Alexander

LP MGM Records ISE-24 ST – Stereo (US)

Side 1. 

1. Dirty Dingus Magee (David-Curb) 

    Int. The Mike Curb Congregation (2:36) 

2. The Rounders (1:55) 

3. Strum ! (2:00) 

4. A Very Square Dance (1:05) 

5. Indian Made (1:28) 

6. Rip Snortin’ Main Title (David-Curb) (1:10) 

7. Trouble at Yerkey’s Hole (1:25)

Side 2. 

1. Dirty Dingus Magee (David-Curb) (3:10) 

2. Little Big Horny (1:58) 

3. Ring-a-Ding Dingus (David-Curb-Alexander) (2:09) 

4. Hoke-y (1:08) 

5. Raunchy (2:26) 

6. No Trouble at Yerkey’s Hole (David-Curb-Alexander) (1:41) 

7. Who Says a Horse Can’t Talk ? (2:14) 

8. Rip Snortin’ End Title (David-Curb) 

    Int. The Mike Curb Congregation  (1:26)

Album produced by Jesse Kaye

Notes Back Cover

SIDE ONE

1."DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE"- Sung by The Mike Curb Congretion. They sustain their gentle, but rhytmic style in the rendition of Mack David's Title Song.

2. "THE ROUNDERS". The happy, hard-driving quality of this western waltz is mostly due to the use of a rhytmically new and unrelenting Fender bass beat.

3."STRUM!". When a scene requires one continuing mood, Jeff Alexander finds it helpful to think in one color of the spectrum. His color for this piece, involving a graveyard at night in which the stillness is broken at the end, is "Smokey Blue". It was scored almost exclusively for classical guitars.

4."A VERY SQUARE DANCE". This is indeed a happy hoedown intentionally played "against the scene" with maximum effect.

5."INDIAN MADE". This is the scene where Chief Crazy Blanket (Paul Fix) is willing to barter any, or all, of his three beautiful daughters for Dingus' (Frank Sinatra) rifle. This subtle, campy little piece utilizes a campy little combo consisting of soprano recorder, Indian drums, finger cymbals, amplified alto flute and a bass accordion with "Fuzz/Wah" attachment, the latter describing the four Indian squaws' enjoyment of Dingus' making love with the Indian maids.

6. "RIP SNORTIN'MAIN TITLE". The title itself explains the character of this version of "DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE".

7."TROUBLE AT YERKEY'S HOLE". There has to be a chase in every western film, and you can bet that you have one here.

SIDE TWO

1."DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE"(Jeff Alexander's Country Sound). A most distinctive approach to the Title tune is Alexander's easy-going country-western style that keeps the flavor of the relaxed moments of the picture.

2."LITTLE BIG HORNY". The elements are basic - Indians signals; Indians attack; Cavalry charges and quickly end skirmish so they can return to their favorite pad -Belle's (Anne Jackson) bordello.

3."RING-A-DING DINGUS". A wry, sneaky version of Dingus tippy-toeing around the boudoir of a lady involved in the world's oldest profession.

4."HOKE-Y". Hoke's (George Kennedy) Theme is introduced here and followed by a tricky variation of cross-rhythms played under the melody.

5."RAUNCHY". This may be the funklest, westernest blues to come out of a motion picture. It is in alternating 3/4-4/4 meter and Jeff Alexander wishes it to be noted that a complete musical non sequitur, i.e. two musettes accordions (used almost exclusively for Parisian cafe music) are involved in this very American idiom.

6."NO TROUBLE AT YERKEY'S HOLE". Still water and turbulent rapids are graphically described in this piece of scoring.

7."WHO SAYS A HORSE CAN'T TALK?". The title is self-explanatory except to comment on the fact that George Roberts is probably the greatest living bass trombonist today.

8."RIP SNORTIN' END TITLE". Mack David's song, Jeff Alexander's setting and the Mike Curb Congregation all meld together to create that end this motion picture.

MGM's "Dirty Dingus Magee" is based on the hilarious novel, "The Ballad of Dingus Magee", by David Markson, and stars Frank Sinatra, George Kennedy and Anne Jackson. Lois Nettleton, Michele Carey, Jack Elam, John Dehner and Henry Jones costar. Burt Kennedy produced and directed the screenplay by Tom Waldman, Frank Waldman and Joseph Heller.

The story deals with the misadventures during the 1800's of a slippery character names Dingus Magee, who is all heart, and whose heart it all larceny. A sly con man, who could talk a rabbit into spending his vacation at a greyhound track, Magee is as crooked as a corkscrew. He is a part-time ass-breaker for a mule-drawn stagecoach line called the "Jackass Mail" in Yerkey's Hole, a bustling Western town in New Mexico, which bustles mainly to service the needs of the cavalry personnel of Fort Horner, some two miles distant. The only industry in Yerkey's Hole, is Belle's Place, a sixteen-girl Pleasure Palace whose principal customers are the strapping young Bluebellies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry stationed at the fort. Magee's never-ending attempts to fleece a number of people out of their money, results in more situations than an employment agency and climaxes in an uproarious chase and shootout, with the principals being Magee, the sheriff, gunslingers, madames, prostitutes, townspeople, the cavalry and a tribe of Indians.