6 March 1970
You may remember a great Simpsons bit where Homer and Bart sit down to watch violent shoot-’em-up western Paint Your Wagon, only to discover to their horror that it’s actually rootin’-tootin’ comedy musical western Paint Your Wagon. I already knew that, which is why I’ve never watched it. I’ve heard enough snatches of ‘Wand’rin’ Star’—the record that kept ‘Let It Be’ off the UK number one spot—to know the gist of it, though, but this is my first time giving it my full attention.
And I must say, I’m surprised that this is a not-entirely-disagreeable listening experience. Marvin can’t really sing, but his gravelly voice stays in tune and has a certain charm. However, some occasionally gruff lyrics can’t keep the song from its true nature as Broadway schmaltz, while the arrangement, despite being by the great Nelson Riddle, is pure Hollywood campfire-cowpoke hokum. Rather than a calculated movie marketing juggernaut tie-in, I imagine some high-profile English daytime radio DJ—or Terry Wogan—thought tough guy Lee Marvin singing a sentimental ballad would be gas crack to spin on air, and the whole thing snowballed into a novelty hit. Not the most irritating or egregious of novelty hits, I grant you, but a gimmicky curio all the same.
The B-side of ‘Wand’rin’ Star’, from the same movie, is Clint Eastwood singing ‘I Talk To The Trees’. So, to say there’s no murdering in Paint Your Wagon isn’t strictly true.
