Beautiful Sounds – Musical Saw and Volume Swells

It was back when I was a teenager that I first saw the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The story impressed itself upon me deeply. I could relate to the main character, who became my personal definition of an anti-hero, and his fight against a system that appeared to be doing good but may have been a tad misguided. Although his methods may not have been correct, his actions brought hope to the struggling people around him. I still identify with the main theme of freedom of the human spirit. But more than the plot or message of the movie, today I’m thinking about the intro music. It was the first time I heard the unique, beautiful sound that is the musical saw.

Somewhat related but not entirely, there’s a song intro which I absolutely love. I think part of what I like about it is that it reminds me of a musical saw. The other part I like is that it’s music straight from the soul of John Frusciante. Here’s a clip of the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing “Don’t Forget Me” live in France. The song itself is alright, but I’m much more taken by the intro and guitar parts. I’ve been known to watch the first 1 minute of this video over and over — you can see the peace and love on John’s face as he’s playing.

If you want to hear the other guitar parts, they occur:
from 2.44 – 3.00
from 4.01 – 4.33
from 5.03 – 5.37
Or you could also watch the whole video (please disregard people fighting invisible ninjas).

And last but not least, here’s a moving rendition of “Ava Maria” by Austin Blackburn on the musical saw.