# The Third Man music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 8, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944 "2010-07-08T10:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/21 "2010-07-09T03:44:48Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I’m going to go find some lists of instumentals from the early 50’s and hope there’s a YouTube version of it. I won’t leave you hanging if I can help it. Okay. After some serious digging on YouTube, following a hunch that Chet Atkins may have had a version of it, I did manage to locate [Chet Atkins “Armens Theme”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-MHiO0cug) which doesn’t quite have that “Middle Eastern flavor” I remembered, but that is the tune that I always tend to confuse with the _Third Man Theme_. Now I can rest! Don’t you just hate it when there’s something like this hanging over you? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/22 "2010-07-09T09:13:33Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Okay. After some serious digging on YouTube, following a hunch that Chet Atkins may have had a version of it, I did manage to locate [Chet Atkins “Armens Theme”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l-MHiO0cug) which doesn’t quite have that “Middle Eastern flavor” I remembered, but that is the tune that I always tend to confuse with the _Third Man Theme_. > > Now I can rest! Don’t you just hate it when there’s something like this hanging over you? 🙂 yes … a year or so ago I went nuts over [misirlou](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8)! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/23 "2010-07-09T12:36:24Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > yes … a year or so ago I went nuts over [misirlou](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8)! Are you thinking of the Dick Dale _Pulp Fiction_ version? That one stomps! I believe there’s something about music from the Mediterranean and Near Eastern countries that has a “grabbing power” unlike other music. Take Brubeck’s _Blue Rondo A La Turk_ as an example. He has another one called _Nomad_ that is similarly fascinating. I haven’t been able to locate a version of it at YouTube. Anyway, your thread has been great fun and maybe some other tunes on the edges of our consciousness will spring forth as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/24 "2010-07-09T13:33:51Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > **The Third Man** was directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starred Joseph Cotten. It’s reputation is only tangentially related to “worship of Orson Welles.” True, although Welles did create the “Swiss Cuckoo Clock” line, perhaps the most famous part of the movie, even though it is factually wrong on several points: The Swiss did not make cuckoo clocks and they were a strong and feared military force at the time of the Borgias. > **[The Third Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man#The_.22Swiss_cuckoo_clock.22_speech)** > > The Third Man (Der dritte Mann) is a 1949 film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, Alida Valli as Anna Schmidt, Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway. Set in post-World War II Allied-occupied Vienna, the film centres on American writer Holly Martins, who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime, only to learn that he has died. Martins stays in Vienna to investigate Lime's death, becom... ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/25 "2010-07-09T20:37:26Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Are you thinking of the Dick Dale _Pulp Fiction_ version? That one stomps! > > I believe there’s something about music from the Mediterranean and Near Eastern countries that has a “grabbing power” unlike other music. Take Brubeck’s _Blue Rondo A La Turk_ as an example. He has another one called _Nomad_ that is similarly fascinating. I haven’t been able to locate a version of it at YouTube. > > Anyway, your thread has been great fun and maybe some other tunes on the edges of our consciousness will spring forth as a result. I love how music can modify mental state, and I do agree that there is something compelling in middle eastern music, especially drumming. I actually have a list on my ipod of music that will relax me no matter what - and it is a blend of everything except rap, country and bubblegum pop. I have another fun piece that is one of my favorites - [Chira Xur](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiraiG_Rwok) you can just hear the horse =) The same guy has a cd out of his group covering modern rock music on mongolian instruments. He has a killer version of When the Levy Breaks =) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/26 "2010-07-09T21:10:53Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I have another fun piece that is one of my favorites - [Chira Xur](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiraiG_Rwok) you can just hear the horse =) The same guy has a cd out of his group covering modern rock music on mongolian instruments. He has a killer version of When the Levy Breaks =) Surely you’re familiar with Paul Pena and his _Genghis Blues_ documentary. You might find [Amazing Grace using throat singing overtones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFWYSW4vfcA&feature=related) and [5 Year Old Boy Throat-Singing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fOlyrQ2z1w&feature=related) worth a listen. ---
**Author:** ![banjoDavid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@banjoDavid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/banjoDavid)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944/27 "2010-07-09T22:26:45Z")
If you like that zither music, check out Bryan Bowers playing the autoharp. The autoharp is a chorded zither, and he’s been the best in the world for decades. His harps are modified for certain keys, and he uses fingerpicks, for both digging in and picking the strings, and slapping at the strings. Been listening to him since the early '70’s. David [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-third-man-music/545944.md?page=1)