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Carl Stalling - Unsung Musical Genius?


Dean1700
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I've just been watching some old Bugs Bunny classics on DVD and just laugh myself silly watching them. Having grown up with them for 30 odd years it surprises me that apart from The Simpsons and Futurama no other animated cartoon makes me laugh so much.

It is fair to say that any one who has watched them has also had their first experience listening to classic music that Carl Stalling ingeniusly incorporated into his own music. The stand out here is Rabbit of Seville but there are so many others that has classical music in them as well. I think he is an unsung genius in that he had to write music for the whole of the cartoon and not just part of it. Is there anyone else who would have been capable of writing so much music so often for short animated features like he did.

Does anyone else agree or do you disagree?

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Stalling's music plays a large part why I find the old cartoon's so funny. And I heard many classical pieces first in the cartoons as a kid. One of the funniest is the Elmer and Bugs Bunny cartoon where they parodied German Opera (Wagner to be exact). Ride of the Valkyries is not the same after you hear the tune sung by Elmer "Kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit!" :wave:

So I guess Stalling had an effect on me too. His music is half the fun of those cartoons.

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The master of "Mickey Mousing".

Perhaps not very deep or intellectual music, but unvaluable to it's art form nontheless.

:wave::wave:

That typo turns the acknowledgement into an insult.

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  • 5 months later...

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I am a huge Carl Stalling fan.

Yes, to answer your question. Carl Stalling was a musical genius. But even he was not as "unsung" as his friend and rival Scott Bradley. No one (save for Tom and Jerry fans) even knows his name.

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There are two CD that may still be in print that feature Carl Stalling's music to the Looney Tunes cartoons.

The Carl Stalling Project Volume 1

Tracklisting

1. Putty Tat Trouble Part 6

2. Hillbilly Hare

3. Early WB Scores: Depression Era

4. The Good Egg - a vintage Merrie Melody

5. Various cues from Bugs Bunny Films

6. There They Go Go Go - a complete Road Runner

7. Stalling Self Parody: Music from Porky's Preview

8. Anxiety Montage

9. Stalling: The War Years

10. Medley: Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals

11. Carl Stalling with Milt Franklyn in Session

12. Speedy Gonzalez Meets Two Crows from Tacos

13. Powerhouse and other cuts from the Early 50s

14. Porky In Wackyland/Dough For The Do-Do

15. To Itch His Own - Stalling's last score

The Carl Stalling Project Volume 2

Tracklisting

1. Zoom And Bored

2. Stage Fright

3. The High And The Flighty

4. Bad Swiss Band

5. Marching Pink Elephants

6. The Slap Hoppy Mouse

7. Orchestra Gag

8. Variation On Grandfather's Clock

9. Variation On Chinatown My Chinatown

10. Variation On Lucky Day

11. Wind-Up Doll

12. Guided Muscle

13. Fall And Splat (SFX)

14. Ghost Wanted

15. The Unexpected Pest

16. Drunk La Cucaracha

17. Flea-Ridden Sheep Dog

18. Golf Cue

19. Barbary Coast Bunny

20. Satan's Waitin' (excerpt)

21. Rubber Dog

22. Pappy's Puppy

23. Variations On La Danza

24. Variations On Johann Strauss

25. Kangaroo (SFX)

26. Mouse-Taken Identity

27. Variations On Mexican Hat Dance

28. Frazzled Coyote

I have both and they are well worth having.

Also the Looney Tunes DVD sets have isolated scores for a few of the cartoons.

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Stallings music is routinely performed live. It was even played in Philly last night. "Bugs Bunny on Broadway" is a lot of fun.

As mentioned above, Scott Bradley is the one who is really unknown and he wrote some wonderful music for MGM.

Neil

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Stallings music is routinely performed live.  It was even played in Philly last night.  "Bugs Bunny on Broadway" is a lot of fun.

I have that CD as well. :) It should still be in print.

As mentioned above, Scott Bradley is the one who is really unknown and he wrote some wonderful music for MGM.

Neil

;)

It would be nice to see a couple of CD's featuring Tom & Jerry.

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It would be nice to see a couple of CD's featuring Tom & Jerry.

It sure would. I'd buy them in a heartbeat. I grew up watching them on TV everyday before and after school. I haven't gotten around to getting the DVDs, which suffer from all sorts of problems, but I have the LDs, which are uncensored. The LDs were called, "The Art of Tom and Jerry" and that's exactly what those shorts were. To make hundreds of cartoons based off of the premise of a cat chasing a mouse and still be creative and funny is indeed an art. The glorious music also helps.

Maybe I'll watch "The Truce Hurts" on Monday, since it was originally released on July 17.

Neil

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It would be nice to see a couple of CD's featuring Tom & Jerry.

It sure would. I'd buy them in a heartbeat. I grew up watching them on TV everyday before and after school. I haven't gotten around to getting the DVDs, which suffer from all sorts of problems, but I have the LDs, which are uncensored. The LDs were called, "The Art of Tom and Jerry" and that's exactly what those shorts were. To make hundreds of cartoons based off of the premise of a cat chasing a mouse and still be creative and funny is indeed an art. The glorious music also helps.

:)

If you're interested, the Region 2 DVDs are completely uncensored.

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