Fistful Vocals.

[The Peacemaker]

In the end it doesn't really matter what they're saying, just listen to the great music for what it is!!!

Agreed.

[marmota-b]

In the end it doesn't really matter what they're saying, just listen to the great music for what it is!!!

Of course it doesn't matter, I only needed to add my ... how many cents you say?

[O'Cangaceiro]

Does anyone know the words which are being said in the music score at the beginning of this film?

Sounds vaguely like someone is saying, "We can win"......not sure if I am right.

There seems to be more than one version around. In the opening credits in the MGM DVD, the words sound like "we can fight", but I believe that in the version I saw many years ago (early 70s) in Spain the words sounded like "we can win", same as it now does in the rest of the movie. I remember this because at that time I had purchased the original movie soundtrack in 33-1/3RPM record, and in the record the words sound like "we can fight", which I noticed were different from the ones I heard in the movie opening title.

[Silenzio]

Yes, there must be more than one version.  Whenever i watch the dvd, it sounds EXACTLY like "We can fight! We can fight!" whereas on the version they have on my computer it says "With the wind! With the wind!" (and, if they were actually saying anything, they were definitely saying With the Wind and not We Can Win.  Listen to Peter Tevis' version of Pastures of Plenty for confirmation).

[The Peacemaker]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...


The vocals used in Leone's films are not words except for DYS with the "Sean, Sean, Sean."

[Mr. Pseudonym]

Ha-ha, when I have the closed captions turned on for my FOD VHS tape (hope to get the DVD soon), they say "weak men weep," I wonder where they get these ideas...

[O'Cangaceiro]

There seems to be more than one version around. In the opening credits in the MGM DVD, the words sound like "we can fight", but I believe that in the version I saw many years ago (early 70s) in Spain the words sounded like "we can win", same as it now does in the rest of the movie. I remember this because at that time I had purchased the original movie soundtrack in 33-1/3RPM record, and in the record the words sound like "we can fight", which I noticed were different from the ones I heard in the movie opening title.

This is the other version I was talking about over one year ago. However, I am convinced that a harmonica was also playing for about 10 seconds in the original I saw (starting at the 1:55 part of the theme in the link). I like this version far more than the one included in the DVD, especially the 15 seconds that go between 1:50 and 2:05. Have you guys (and gals) heard this version before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNogNtT0zA

Following is the version on the DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDavbqqRPyQ

[Cusser]

The version on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNogNtT0zA is on a CD I have, along with the "traditional" version from the film/DVD, and the Peter Tevis vocal of Pastures of Plenty.  The Pastures of Plenty track has same/similar music as that Youtube version, and no whistling at the beginning.  I'd need to check whether that CD was a bootleg someone ent me or the commercially-available update from Europe.

I've read here that Leone liked the Pastures of Plenty, got Morricone to ditch the vocals, which morphed into the the traditional theme.  The YouTube version may be an intermediate version.

[Silenzio]

Correct.  Morricone did the arrangements for Peter Tevis, and the version of Pastures of Plenty they did was later re-used for Fistful of Dollars (without the vocals).

Also, I thought you guys might be interested in knowing that, in the original Peter Tevis version, the chorus chants "With the wind."  You can tell because they immediately follow the line "We come with the dust, and we go with the wind..."


The version Cusser posted has a little instrumental section before the vocals.  This is the version I've always listened to (where the singing starts almost immediately):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAE9tFd6WkQ



For comparison, here is the original Woody Guthrie version of Pastures of Plenty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDKYkvuRXik

[O'Cangaceiro]

Thank you all for your enlightening responses. Now it all becomes clear to me.

[iceman]

Does anyone know the words which are being said in the music score at the beginning of this film?

Sounds vaguely like someone is saying, "We can win"......not sure if I am right.

As Sanjuro said it is "With the Wind"......but aren't these singers Italian so maybe not that good at English  so sounds like....

" Wi da Win"  " Wi da win" which sounds a little like We can Win.........Just my two penneth....


ICE

[archangel]

hi,
archangel here.
i'm an audio engineer.
the FOD title "titoli" uses the words "WE CAN FIGHT" in the male chorus and nothing else.
case closed.
Archie.

[sargatanas]

right, we can fight.

[drinkanddestroy]

Here is Peter Tevis singing Pastures of Plenty with the same musical arrangements used in FOD's main theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAE9tFd6WkQ&feature=related

As you'll hear, Tevis repeatedly says the phrase "With the Wind," so there is no doubt that the "unintelligible lyrics" heard in this song are "with the wind."

However, does that necessarily mean that the lyrics used in the theme song for FOD are the same? It made sense to use "with the wind" for Pastures of Plenty, cuz those are the lyrics that are part of the song itself. However, when Morricone used the same musical arrangements to create a theme song for FOD, does it not make sense that -- since the words with the wind" have no meaning to the FOD song/movie -- perhaps he would have changed those lyrics to something else (eg. "we can fight"?)

I am far from certain as to what the lyrics in the FOD song are (though IMO it sounds closer to "we can fight" than "with the wind"). All I am saying is that just because it is "with the wind" in the Pastures of Plenty version, doesn't necessarily mean that "with the wind" was also used for the FOD version.

[Cusser]

When I first heard Pastures of Plenty was the source material for Fistful of Dollars theme, I found Woody Guthrie version on YouTube, not so easy to tell the connection (at least for me).  So hearing Tevis/Morricone version was really helpful, and cool, as well.

In one of the Fistful tracks (not the title) one can hear very clearly the "with the wind" chant.  But I still don't know about in the film title music.  For years, my brothers and I thought it was "we can fight", and that sounded dumb to us.  But listen to the lyrics i Death Rides a Horse title: something like "who'll be the first to draw his gun" and "who'll be the first to hit the ground".  When I saw the Spaghetti Western Orchestra (look them up on Google or YouTube) play in Arizona, they held up cue cards with the lyrics for the audience to see how silly the lyrics really were !!!