Freegal and the Movies: “The William Tell Overture” from The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) with his trusty horse Silver at Pleasure Island in Massachusetts.  image credit

Yesterday we went to the movies and saw all the previews for new ones coming out.
Disney is coming out with The Lone Ranger, and I drank up the scenery, since some of it was shot in Creede, Colorado, a bare 50 miles from my hometown. A childhood friend lives there now & says the crew was very nice. I don’t think he made a Depp sighting, though.

Creede, Old mine on Bachelor Loop tour image credit

You can’t think of The Lone Ranger without thinking of “The William Tell Overture.” It wasn’t written for the TV show, but pulled from a Rossini opera about a Swiss patriot.

So how did it come to be the theme song for the Wild West? First, it’s a rousing piece of music that certainly conjures up a horse galloping across the desert.

Second, and probably most importantly, it was in the public domain, which meant the studio wouldn’t have to pay the rights for it.

Freegal has dozens of versions of “The William Tell Overture” available for free download.  You can find Arthur Fiedler, Leonard Bernstein, the London Symphony Orchestra, and lots of others.

Word in the blogosphere is that Hans Zimmer will be the musical director (Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom called it “The best thing of 2013.)

And, according to HuffPost Jack White (whose other music you can download from Freegal) was hired to write & perform the score.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Colorado/Depp/Zimmer/White collaboration. It’s been a long time since a Western has come along.