Three Days of the Condor

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Music by Dave Grusin

 

 

 

 

Two soundtracks of Dave Grusin at his prime on the same release by Film Score Monthly. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) is a police/drama with Robert Mitchum intermediating illegal arms trade. Grusin reveals unexpected swing on short tracks and edited vignettes.

The music is visibly influenced by blaxploitation, with its heavy swings, virtuous bass lines and much suspense of the percussion arsenal. Clean acid-jazz themes stand out on the work. Track Mr Connection alone, with saxophone, bongos and clavinette, is enough to identify the period. The flutes in eco also are quite characteristics of the police soundtracks. Lalo Shifrin used lots echoplex flutes in his police music. Eddie Coyle´s main theme is almost a preview of the Three Days of the Condor´s theme.

For its turn, Three Days of the Condor (1975) is a famous thriller of the Watergate era, was directed by Sydney Pollack. The soul influence is trimmed compared to the Eddie Coyle. The work is visibly oriented to the jazz-pop that became trademark for Grusin, here accurately dosing the romanticism, suspense and tension. It is an iconic soundtrack in his career. And even considering the pop lightness and fluency of the whole work, somehow Grusin could inject something of insecurity and lament. Maybe it's in trumpet phrasing or suspense effects (electric piano glissandos) perfect for the suspense of the political comment.