For this month’s playlist I wanted to celebrate the first score that really grabbed my attention. Yes, John Williams’ Star Wars. I experienced it at an early age and it is such a vital part of something I love. Certainly, I’m not alone in this disposition. The themes and melodies from the score are embedded in our culture like grooves on a record.
To start, the legendary (this word feels inadequate) “Main Theme” and its inspiration, “Kings Row Fanfare”. Kings Row (1942) was scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the similarity to Williams’ opening is well noted by fans and critics. Williams is (in)famous for adapting older scores and especially classical pieces. I believe he is in good company – just take a deeper dive into how Bob Dylan did the same thing in his early songwriting career.
From here there’s a fun disco version originally released by Meco which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1977 ! Now that makes me wonder if the original film was released today: What cutting edge, hip, and youthful versions of the theme would we get now? Well, Rick Rubin and Kevin Kusatsu sorta answered that question in 2016 with the album, Star Wars Headspace. Although it doesn’t use any of Williams’ score, there are some cool electronic tunes by Flying Lotus, Royksopp, Lin-Manuel Miranda (co-writer with J.J. Abrams on “Jabba Flow”), and Baauer.
A lot of Star Wars fans condemn the prequel trilogy, but the cue “Duel of the Fates” is the ying to Jar-Jar’s yang. If you are raising a young Sith Lord, I found a great lullaby version of this cue – careful, as all Sith apprentices do, they will soon betray you.
The next few are covers of Williams’ score on various instruments: solo piano, cello, and bagpipes that transitions into dubstep/metal (sorry, but this was too interesting). They translate beautifully!
Other composers have been given shots at filling Williams’ shoes. A few of note are Jeremy Soule on the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Kevin Kiner on the TV shows The Clone Wars and Rebels, and most recently Michael Giacchino on Rogue One (John Powell will get his chance with Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018).
::Please ignore next song; insert into trash compactor on the detention level::
What do the Ryan Adams and Nas tunes have to do with Star Wars other than sharing the same name? Nothing, as far as I can tell.
There isn’t much source music in the films, but one notable exception is “The Cantina Band”. I always thought it reminded me of a ragtime tune – good to know I’m not the only one. Apparently the Ewok’s have a song too, it’s just as adorable as they are.
-Chris