3 x Grammy, 3 x Academy, 4 x Golden Globe award winning Hansjörg Moroder, better known to the music, movie and composing world at large as simply “Giorgio”, is undoubtedly one of the most influential songwriters/composers of this modern age. With good reason too as his musical architectures have been crux in pop culture for the last 40+ years.
From being a force during the Disco and early Pop eras and elemental in the careers of heavyweights like Donna Summer, Irene Cara David Bowie and Blondie to name a scant few, to scoring hit songs and complete soundtracks for iconic films like Scarface, The Neverending Story, American Gigolo, Top Gun, D.C. Cab and of course the movie that this source track comes from, Midnight Express, Moroder is nothing short of an authority within the audiotory landscape of as a great portion of the songs we have enjoyed in the last 10-15 years have a direct correlation to a plethora of Moroder’s craftmanship.
Rather than give a lengthy detail for each track that samples “Theme From Midnight Express” as I normally would, I thought in honor of the producer’s 72nd birthday (April 26th), it would be more fun to take an audiotrip through the various incarnations of just this one track. Click the players below for the time travel and be educated.
“Theme From Midnight Express” (circa 1978)
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/Giorgio%20Moroder%20-%20Theme%20From%20Midnight%20Express.mp3]
Outkast – “Return of the G” (circa 1998)
[audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/Outkast%20-%20Return%20of%20the%20’G’.mp3]
J. Dilla – “Phantom Of The Synths” (circa 2005)
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/J.%20Dilla%20-%20Phantom%20Of%20The%20Synths%20%5BInstrumental%5D.mp3]
Jay Electronica – “Dimethyltryptamine” (circa 2006)
[audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/Jay%20Electronica%20-%20Dimethyltryptamine.mp3]
DOOM – “GazillionEar” (circa 2009)
[audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/DOOM%20-%20GazillionEar.mp3]
Kami de Chukwu – “Mimosa Hostilis” (circa 2012)
[audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/625065/Saturday%20Sample%20Sessions/Kami%20de%20Chukwu%20-%20Mimosa%20Hostilis.mp3]
