Tracklist
01. John Williams – Star Wars Main Theme
02. Nobuo Uematsu – Main Theme of Final Fantasy V
03. Nobuo Uematsu – The Veldt
04. Jethro Tull – Bungle in the Jungle
05. Nobuo Uematsu – Mambo de Chocobo
06. The Rubinoos – Revenge of the Nerds
07. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Break So Easily
08. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet – Having an Average Weekend
09. Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song
10. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – So Sad to Say
11. Nobuo Uematsu – Pirates Ahoy!
12. John Williams – Imperial March
01. John Williams – Star Wars Main Theme (Star Wars, 1977)
Naturally, our opener. The Omega Opener. I never owned this soundtrack on CD, so there is a very good chance this is the first thing I looked for on Napster.
It’s been a weird time to be a Star Wars kid. I used to be nuts, absolutely nuts for the stuff. Then the Prequels happened. Then Serenity happened, and I was eventually able to move on in my life without a Star Wars. Then Episode VII happened, and while I did sincerely enjoy it, I’d been hoping for something inside to awaken with the Force. While I wouldn’t exactly call what happened in the theatre an awakening, I was brought to a certain lucidity at the very start, on command, because of this, the theme to theme them all.
Okay, I admit I did get choked up seeing Chewie flying the Falcon alone. I knew Han was gonna die, but I wasn’t prepared to see Chewie on the other side. Perhaps something did wake up…
02. Nobuo Uematsu – Main Theme (Final Fantasy V, 1992)
Nobuo Uematsu. The John Williams of video games.
Well, no, that’s not true. The John Williams of video games is Koji Kondo. Mario and Zelda are household names like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and their themes enjoy the same celebrity. Final Fantasy, though legendary among gamers, still lives at least one layer beneath the status quo. Rest assured, though, that any Final Fantasy kid worth her salt knows the composer of the lion’s share of its music, Nobuo Uematsu.
Nobuo. Fucking. Uematsu. Remember the name. If I knew it before Napster, it’s because I read it in the game booklet. I certainly never got far enough in these games to see the credits. When it came to RPGs, I spent more time as a kid watching my brother play games than I did actually playing them. I guess that’s why I came to appreciate the art and especially the music of the games more than the games themselves. Final Fantasy V was the first Final Fantasy I tried in earnest, and long after I got bored with it, the songs went over and over in my head, never to leave. The Final Fantasy Anthology for PS1 came with a compilation CD of some FFV and FFVI tunes, no doubt where I found this and the rest of the Uematsu songs on Volume 1.
This song, though? Legendary. If I could do it over, it’d be the first track. If Star Wars is the Omega Opener, this is the Alpha. The track itself is a promise, one of adventure and fulfillment. I don’t doubt that Nobuo and his contemporaries envisioned movie music for epic sagas like the Final Fantasy games when they first got into the business. The physical limitations of computer music made it difficult, but by the 16-bit days, they were amazingly close to emulating the full studio orchestra experience, provided the listener was willing to cover the tonal gap between a bleep and a violin.
Enough parts in this song fit the profile of the grandiose theme: a flying harp in the intro, a majestic horn melody, and waves and waves of strings in various roles (supporting eighths in the chord progression, countermelody, acrobatic sixteenth-note climbs). In the second part, we have a Nobuo staple: the rising and falling marimba (Nobuo so loved his scales that he built the theme to the whole FF series on one). The rhythm section is where we diverge from tradition, with only an electric bass and drum kit to cover the foundation. No timpanis, no additional bells or blocks or contraptions commonly found in the pit. As best as my ears can tell, the percussion on this song can be covered solely by an adept rock drummer, particularly one who can properly wield the hi-hat. The bass is sparse, holding to eighth patterns that line up with the kick drum. The result is a light, efficient engine with a lot of horsepower. Nobuo made frequent use of this engine throughout the FF catalog, and his skill in employing it proves of his affection for the genre. He would later take it a step further with his own band, the Black Mages.
I couldn’t tell you if Final Fantasy V delivered on the promise of its theme. I never got past the pirates. I can tell you that when my life feels too much like a slog (that is, too much like life), when I need to feel like there is still a promise of adventure and fulfillment, I can find it in this song. On the right day, it’s bottled magic: balm for the spirit like no game I’ve ever played. FFV on the whole is a mixed bag musically, but this is a desert island track, no question.
03. Nobuo Uematsu – The Veldt (Final Fantasy VI, 1994)
And now we trade the rock engine out for some deep, tribal beats, ominous strings, and…an oboe? English horn? What the hell is the difference between those two, anyway?
Everybody got that?
Final Fantasy VI is often touted as the crown jewel of the series, and its soundtrack may well be the crown jewel in Nobuo’s discography. I can say that with relative objectivity; as previously mentioned, I did not make it far enough in this game (or most others) to associate the music with pivotal moments in the story. So I can’t tell you what’s going on in “The Veldt,” or what the Veldt even is. I can tell you based on its location in the tracklist, the second half of disc one, that you probably already have too many people in your party to keep track of, and this is probably some spooky technomagic dungeon background music. Good guess, right? How’d I do?
The Veldt is a region in Final Fantasy VI. It is a seemingly endless plain which attracts monsters. Gau lives here, and learns his various Rages here. The Veldt lies to the south of Baren Falls, the town of Mobliz lies on the eastern coast while Crescent Mountain is near the southern tip of the plains.
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Veldt
Dungeons, plains, whatever. It’s a fine song from a fine album. And it’s only the second of many video game songs to come in this collection, so rather than blow my limited budget of words on the genre three songs in, I’m moving on.
04. Jethro Tull – Bungle in the Jungle (Warchild, 1974)
It was weird watching my brother transition from a punk phase into a progressive rock phase. I guess somewhere in there was a darker, more metal influence that made the shift into, say, King Crimson, a natural one, but where in God’s name did Jethro Tull come from?
Jethro Tull’s only appearance with Tony Iommi and it’s a MIME. Go figure.
Oh, that’s right, Middle-earth. That explains it.
Okay, that’s not a fair assessment. For as earthy and folkloric as Tull can be, they have quite a large catalog spanning a variety of sounds. And though the evergreen stuff may be more representative of the group’s overall character, the similarities to fantasy foolery are strictly thematic. This ain’t no Battle of Evermore. Similarities they remain, though, and being a Tolkien nut, my brother took to them swimmingly. Being his annoying little brother who spent too much time loitering in his room, I took to them on my own through osmosis…eventually. On the one hand, it was my duty as a little brother to take the piss out of the things he loved, and on its face, Tull is an easy mark. Look at this man.
On the other hand, Tull rocks. SO HARD. And in between the straight up rockin’, the earlier bluesy stuff, the 40 minute masterpieces, Ian Anderson’s rich tenor, the heavy classical influence (we are talking prog rock, after all), and the earthy folkloric stuff, well…Jethro Tull is a band with so much to offer. Hell, I even still like Steel Monkey.
And if you can love a song like that, well- AW CRAP I FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT “BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE.”
“Bungle in the Jungle” was not the first Tull song I loved. I’m not sure why it was the first one that made it to Mr. Brick list. I was well sold on Jethro Tull by 8th grade. I actually still have never heard the rest of Warchild. I love Tull, but you do have to watch where you step sometimes. It is sort of a jungle. But “Bungle,” yes, what a charming thing. Strong, patient tempo, solid beat. Full arrangement of acoustics and electric guitars, piano, strings, and just a few tasteful dashes of the old flute. A fine first Tull for rockers of any age.
05. Nobuo Uematsu – Mambo de Chocobo (Final Fantasy V)
I’d only ever heard the famous theme of the Chocobo in Final Fantasy VII, so it was a treat to discover Nobuo spent the length of the FF series rewriting it for as many genres and styles as possible. The mambo is fun (the “huuh!” is a nice touch), but I defer still to VII’s surf rock as the greatest Chocobo.
06. The Rubinoos – Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
In the Year 2000, I realized I was inexorably a Different child. Though I adapted well to the fact later that year (thanks, internet!), the growing wasn’t without its pains. I identified strongly with 1984’s cheeseball classic, Revenge of the Nerds, at the time getting serious airplay on Comedy Central. For better or worse, it informed my picture of nerdery at the time. Being 13 years old, nerdy and angsty, I felt I’d been deprived of…something?? and made a pathetic attempt to wear my nerdery as a counterculture. Nerds were not just the oppressed underclass; we were the ones who deserved to rule. I looked upon the rest of the 8th grade population as subhuman mouth-breathers. Hormones, man. Bad hoodoo. I remember picking a fight with a cheerleader one Saturday night over ICQ. What about? I never want to remember. Why did I feel so disenfranchised? Nobody ever dunked my head in a toilet. Nobody cared enough to do so. Maybe that was it. Being a glutton for suffering at age 13 is hardly unheard of. Whatever my real problem was, by 9th grade, the popular kids and the nerds pretty much stuck to their own and stayed out each others’ way. It was just so much easier. For all the vitriol I felt about the other half, I didn’t have much cause to feel it. I would not learn until well into adulthood that, all along, the real enemy was myself.
I’ve never heard a note of the Rubinoos outside of this song, and I’d bet most other people (except for nerds, maybe) haven’t, either. It’s got a decent hook, though, and a nice, well, nerdy sheen to it. The Kraftwerkian synths and the guffaws are rather on the nose, but what the hell, it was 1984. The raspberry-guitar bends are still slick. It made a perfectly functional counterculture anthem in 2000, but I’m happy to say I don’t need it today. It holds up substantially better than the film, too. I’m not a fan of The Big Bang Theory, but far as I can tell, Sheldon’s a better role model than Lewis Skolnick. Not only did Sheldon not waste his time trying to win over someone as certifiably mismatched for him as the cheerleader captain, he didn’t do so by raping her in the spacewalk. Nerds are better off these days.
07. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – Break So Easily (Let’s Face It, 1994)
It couldn’t be Mr. Brick’s Top Picks, Vol. 1 without the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The Bosstones were far from the first band I liked or the first CD I owned, but they were my first Favorite Band. “The Impression That I Get” blew up the charts, my brother bought a copy of Let’s Face It, I stole it from him, and by the 8th grade, my cousin sold me his entire Bosstones discography for beer money.
Hence, a representative of Let’s Face It makes it to Volume 1. Not the rep I expected, but I guess it was my favorite song from the record at the time. Even at 13, I knew that putting a chart topper like “Impression” on the mix was a predictable plebeian move. Listening to full albums helped me appreciate the great songs that weren’t hits, as well as the smell of my own farts. Farts had to be what I was huffing back then, cause this is not a takeaway song from this album. Despite being a band that has a member strictly for dancing on stage at every show, the Bosstones regularly turned dark corners away from the usual party-friendly sounds of third wave ska. Makes sense when you’ve got a good growler like Dicky Barrett, but rarely, I find, do heavy and horns jive well.
On “Break So Easily,” though, the horns sound out of place, and without them, you just have bland, borderline nu-metal with a bunch of vague drivel about vulnerability. Not at all a good fit for the Bosstones.
08. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet – Having an Average Weekend (Kids in the Hall, 1988)
I’ve only just started to seriously appreciate the genius of Kids in the Hall, a whimsical blight too good for this world. Without a guest host or guest band to suck off on a weekly basis, KITH had a freedom and identity all to itself, and their house band, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, was an integral part of that identity. This could be argued on the strength of the theme song alone, with its instantly memorable bassline. It’s one of the first licks I ever learned on bass. Even the interstitial music between sketches had a consistent flair to it. If you’ve got one sound, this is the best way to use it.
As I’m Googling around, though, apparently they have a song called “We’re Not a Fucking Surf Rock Band,” so I guess they didn’t have just one sound. Maybe they stuck to the surf for the sake of the show’s identity, then got typecast as surf guys? Or maybe they’re in denial. Sorry, Shadowy Men, I still think you’re great. I’ll try to do you a favor:
Decidedly NOT surf.
But please remember that when you bend a clean electric guitar like that at a fast tempo in conjunction with a thin, punchy bass and drums, everyone is gonna think you’re a surf rock band. It’s okay, though! You were the house band for the fucking Kids in the Hall!
I love Kids in the Hall.
09. Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song (Purple, 1994)
Absolutely a stowaway from hanging out in my brother’s room too much. I still love the song, but nothing about it ever set me on fire to go find more. I know only the STP singles, and I need only “Interstate Love Song.” Tough luck about Mr. Weiland, though. Always did love his voice.
10. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – So Sad to Say (Pay Attention, 2000)
Even as a diehard Bosstones fan, I knew the follow-up to Let’s Face It was doomed from the start. They managed to push out this one single before fading away, and, well, it’s just a shame it wasn’t on Let’s Face It, because it’s a good, lonely song.
11. Nobuo Uematsu – Pirates Ahoy! (Final Fantasy V)
This is video game song about characters which are pirates. The captain turns out to be a lady. It’s a good song with a pirate banjo.
12. John Williams – Imperial March (Star Wars)
The awkward truth about the full soundtrack versions of these legendary tunes is that they’re front-loaded. They usually wear out a minute after the first verse, the only part you heard in the movie, is done. “Imperial March” is an exception to the rule. Because it rules.
Volume 1 was obviously, to borrow a phrase, a vulgar display of power. I was too hungry to just make a CD to have any regard for the rules of a good mix. Looking at the list, though, I can see the real impetus behind Vol. 1 was getting my favorite Nobuo tracks off of the Final Fantasy Anthology bonus CD and into my own collection. At first I was going to give myself shit for burning songs I already owned onto new CDs, but nope, “Break So Easily” is the only offender in that category. I wouldn’t start amassing full game soundtracks until…late, late in college. We’ve a long way to go.