Born on the 14th March, 1947, Roy Budd the musician was entirely
self-taught, and was hailed as a child prodigy. At the age of four he
began to play the piano, initially by ear and then by copying various
melodies he heard by listening to the radio. By the age of six he had
appeared in public at The London Coliseum, at eight he had mastered a
Wurlitzer organ and four years later was appearing on television, and
before Royalty at The London Palladium. On the latter occasion, he was
apparently so nervous that his piano solo was over at least a minute
before the accompanying orchestra had finished!
During his teens he developed a taste for jazz and formed The Roy Budd
Trio, with bassist Pete Morgan and
drummer Chris Karan. On leaving school at
the age of sixteen, he embarked on a professional career as a jazz
pianist and was so successful he won a UK jazz poll in the category of
best pianist for five years running. At the same time he became the
resident pianist at the Bull's Head, Barnes, London and met up with
songwriter Jack Fishman. Fishman
was so impressed with his musical ability that he secured him a
three-year recording contract with MCA, and although the company used
their option to drop him after only a year, Fishman bet the MD that
Budd would become an internationally renowned writer of film music - a
bet he was soon to win.
In 1970, Budd duly made his début in the world of film music, but this
was achieved in rather unusual circumstances. Hearing that director
Ralph Nelson was looking for an
English composer for his controversial film,
Das Wiegenlied vom Totschlag (1970), he was so keen
to get the assignment, he put together a tape consisting of music
composed by such greats as
Jerry Goldsmith,
John Williams,
Max Steiner,
Dimitri Tiomkin and
Lalo Schifrin, and sent it off to Nelson,
with the claim that it was all his own work! Shrewdly, he didn't pick
any of these composer's main themes, in case of arousing the director's
suspicion, and, not surprisingly he got the job. Soldier Blue was
filmed mainly in Mexico and was based to a large degree on a battle
which took place at Sand Creek in 1864, when hundreds of Cheyenne
Indians were brutally killed. Ironically, despite being intended as an
'anti-violence' Western, with the action showing the futility and
horror of war, the film was heavily criticised for its violence -
particularly the gory opening which was exceeded in blood-shed only by
the climax. Apart from the main theme, which he based on
Buffy Sainte-Marie's hit song of the
same title, he composed all the music required for the film, but then
encountered his second major difficulty. At the recording sessions, he
found himself expected to conduct the 65-piece Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra - a far cry from his jazz-club experiences! However, he
followed the advice offered by Fishman, which was to never look back to
the control room, and his first assignment was successfully completed.
The acclaim with which his score for Soldier Blue was greeted, led to
many more opportunities in the genre, and during the following year he
was able to score another six films. The first of these -
Flight of the Doves (1971) -
was, like Soldier Blue, directed by Ralph Nelson, but there was nothing
controversial about this sentimental film, in which
Ron Moody and
Jack Wild were re-united following
their huge impact together in
Oliver! (1968). Next up for Budd was the
score for a film which has since become something of a cult. Written
and directed by Mike Hodges,
Jack rechnet ab (1971) starred
Michael Caine,
John Osborne and
Ian Hendry in a thoroughly violent
story of a London based racketeer aiming to avenge his brother's death
at the hands of Northern gangsters. Budd's music admirably suited the
mood of the film, particularly his main theme, which incorporated the
sounds of Caine's train journey to Newcastle. The film's budget
reputedly allowed only 450 pounds for the score, but he overcame this
restriction by using only three musicians, including Budd himself
playing electric piano and harpsichord simultaneously.
Budd's innovative method of using the film's sound effects to
complement his music, continued with
Zeppelin - Das fliegende Schiff (1971). Set during the First
World War, this story of an attempt by the British to steal the secrets
behind the infamous German airship was noted for its special effects.
On this occasion, Budd took advantage of the distinctive sound of the
Zeppelin's diesel-powered engine to introduce his own stirring main
theme. When producer Euan Lloyd signed him to
score the Western, Catlow - Leben ums Verrecken (1971), it
proved to be the start of an enduring relationship According to Lloyd,
it was the film's director, former actor
Sam Wanamaker who wanted Budd for the
music, having been very impressed with his work on Soldier Blue. Lloyd
was not familiar with his work but was able to find an Elstree cinema
that were showing the film, some time after its release, and despite a
poor sound system in the cinema, he heard enough to convince him that
Wanamaker's judgement was sound. Catlow, the first of six films
(Papiertiger (1975),
Die Wildgänse kommen (1978),
Die Seewölfe kommen (1980),
Das Kommando (1982) and
Wildgänse II (1985) were the
others) on which Budd worked with Lloyd, starred
Yul Brynner in the title role,
Leonard Nimoy as bounty hunter Miller, who
is set on hounding Catlow to his death, and
Richard Crenna as Ben Cowan - once on the
opposite side to Catlow in the American Civil War, but now his friend
and partner. An authorised recording of the musical soundtrack,
consisting of just seven cues, was released only in Japan, but Budd's
main theme was also recorded for Pye Records.
Die herrlichen sieben Todsünden (1971)
was produced and directed by comedian
Graham Stark. This film apparently
had all the right credentials for box-office success, its writers
including those with vast previous success on television, together with
a cast consisting of the cream of British comedy actors. Despite all
this, however, the film didn't exactly set the box-office alight, being
more of a series of sketches - not all of them new - than a complete
story-line. Just two cuts of Roy Budd's score, which was co-written
with Jack Fishman, found their way onto record - 'Envy, Greed An'
Gluttony' and 'Lust'.
Amok (1972) was
written and directed by
Alistair Reid based on the
original novel by Nicholas Monsarrat,
and starred Peter Finch as Harry; a
civil servant who kills and buries his wife, then goes slowly to
pieces. Budd once again teamed up with Jack Fishman for the music, but
his magnificent 'Concerto For Harry' was entirely his own composition
and was the saving grace of a rather forgettable film.
Angst ist der Schlüssel (1972) was a
faithful film version of an
Alistair MacLean novel, directed by
Michael Tuchner, starring
Suzy Kendall,
Barry Newman,
John Vernon,
Ben Kingsley and
Ray McAnally. The story-line was about a
man who lays an elaborate plot to track down the killers of his wife
and children, who die in a plane crash. When recording the score, Budd
returned to his jazz roots by engaging the services of players of the
calibre of Ronnie Scott,
Tubby Hayes and
Kenny Baker. In fact, it was
Scott, the legendary jazz-club owner, who played solo sax for the
lengthy car chase sequence which took place alongside the Mississippi
River. According to director Tuchner, this sequence needed to be
recorded in a continuous ten minute plus take, whilst hitting
split-second action cues so as to blend perfectly with the chase sound
effects. Budd and his orchestra achieved this (on "Car Chase") in just
two takes!
During the remainder of the seventies, Budd continued to work on films
of widely different style and nature, which gave him the opportunity to
utilise his considerable gift for diversity. Outstanding amongst these
were Ein Mann geht über Leichen (1973),
Fluchtpunkt Marseille (1974)
and Die schwarze Windmühle (1974)
(two more Michael Caine films),
Sindbad und das Auge des Tigers (1977)
and the aforementioned Paper Tiger and The Wild Geese.
Moving on to the eighties, his film work also included the scores for
Mama Dracula (1980) and
Schlachtfeld der Ehre (1986), but he
didn't restrict himself to this genre. Returning to his first love, he
played regular jazz gigs at
'Duke's Bar' in Marylebone, London; as well
as partnering veteran harmonica player Larry Adler.
He also arranged for and accompanied such artists as
Bob Hope,
Tony Bennett,
Charles Aznavour and
Caterina Valente (who became his first
wife) in concerts all around the world. But perhaps his most ambitious
project was that completed shortly before his death. His symphonic
score for the 1925 silent film classic -
Das Phantom der Oper (1925)
written for an eighty-piece orchestra, was recorded and seems likelyto get a release one day.
Roy Budd died from a brain haemorrhage on the 7th August 1993 at the
tragically early age of 46. Fortunately for devotees of film music,
during a relatively short career he managed to cram in over fifty
films, several of which found their way onto LPs and latterly CDs.
