High Ho, Silver!

Some of you young bucks might not know this, but the old "Lone Ranger" radio show was always opened with the latter half of the William Tell Overture.

You all know the song by heart, you might not know what it is.



The actual part you all know starts at 8:21.  If you listened to the entire thing, you'll have recognized other parts of the piece that are commonly used in modern day, either in commercials or cartoons.  The back-and-forth between the flute and the oboe at 5:35 has been used everywhere, although I remember it best in Loony Toons.

So, many years ago, the Ragin' Father was a huge Lone Ranger fan.  Had the mask.  Had the cap-gun pistols, for all I know.  Never missed an episode.

So my Grandfather pulls my father aside one day and tells him that there's a special edition of the Lone Ranger coming up on the radio, and it's so special that there's a huge musical intro to it.  So my father sits down, and Grandpa plays the entire William Tell Overture.  After it was all done, Dad looks over at his dad and says "So when is the Lone Ranger coming on?" at which point my Grandpa collapses into laughter.

I don't think my Dad ever forgave his father.

On the other hand, he's still a big Lone Ranger fan and loves the William Tell Overture like nobody's business.

All this came to mind because we went to the Long Beach Symphony tonight, and the opening piece was the William Tell Overture.  They did it proud.  Put shivers up my spine and across my scalp.