And with that, another great one walked into the sunset on Monday. Ennio Morricone, the composer who scored Sergio Leone’s “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” as well as over 400 other films, passed away at the age of 91.
If you ever called yourself an Outlaw, one of Morricone’s scores probably played in your head more than once. They were the soundtrack to moments in life when we narrowed our eyes like Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” and faced the world — mundane as it was — as a cowboy with nothing to lose.
Everyone knows the “Ah-ee-ah-ee-ahhhh” of “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly,” but we dare you listen to “The Ecstasy of Gold” from the same film and not feel your heart explode out of your rib cage. His music could take the pains and triumphs of being human and amplify them so loud they pushed off the screen. Hey, what other piece of movie music grabs at feelings so universal it was covered by both Yo-Yo Ma and Metallica?
So yeah, we’re feeling the loss right now. He spun love and loss and joy and sorrow victory and defeat and everything in between into musical gold, and we’re sad to see him go.
Ennio, we’ll miss you. You were a composer of big passion and even bigger spirit.
And man, how badass to compose your own obituary?
