The other is Bob James's theme for Taxi.
Both are at least jazz adjacent. James was in fact a well known jazz musician and composer from the early 60s onward. Taxi's theme was really an excerpt from a song called "Angela" from one of his own albums.
It's also noticeably the softer of the pieces, compared to the brash, bass-driven Barney Miller. Could be that it was a sign that the national mood or at least aesthetics was changing. Or it could have just been an in-studio choice.
2 comments:
They do evoke very particular memories, don't they? The jazz component is evident but that was the general mood in America at the time when it appeared that progress had been made at long last.
Jer noticed that the Barney Miller cast missing Harris, Dietrich, and Yemana and Rev. Jim hadn't yet shown up in Taxi.
As early Baby Boomers there are a few tv themes we remember too, some of them quite well. In fact I wonder just how many shows we'd recognize just from the opening music.. a good topic for a Trivial Pursuit reboot (yes, you were a champion player).
Anyhow, when we thought about it the theme music of two shows stood out - the first was the Andy Griffith Show theme:
https://youtu.be/TvSXdO7SDCE?si=ktMVyZYXcykHZCQf
and the second was I Love Lucy (did you ever hear the lyrics?)
https://youtu.be/7fn7PKzf5tk?si=rC1SeS7XK0f9gQCd
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Yeah, they verge on two different kinds of jazz, I think. Barney Miller is an aggressive kind of soul jazz, the music of things going on in the street. Taxi has a more relaxed feel to its music.
Casting notes: I know Reverend Jim wouldn't be in the credits for the first season of Taxi. Christopher Lloyd joined the cast in season 2. Steve Landesberg as Dietrich was also a later add to Barney Miller, a couple of seasons in. Harris and Yemana were there from the time the show hit the ABC schedule. There'd been a summer pilot that they weren't in, but Wojo wasn't either and a different actress played Barney's wife. Weird. Maybe they were hired on a per-week basis at first?
The music on The Andy Griffith Show sounds nice. It made Mayberry sound like a fun place. And Ron Howard was little Ronnie back then.
I don't think I'd heard the I Love Lucy lyrics before. It makes sense that "I love Lucy and she loves me" would predominate. It fits the music. Desi Arnaz actually was a great bandleader.
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Nice to get another look at those vintage autos.
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