Roddenberry's lyrics
- Thread starter Trekker09
- Start date
That's how director Robert Altman's son Michael ended up earning more on the movie M*A*S*H than his father ever did. Michael Altman wrote the lyrics used in the theme song "Suicide is Painless" and earned more than $1 million in royalties on the TV series because it used the theme, even though his lyrics were never heard. Not bad for something a 14-year-old dashed off in five minutes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Is_Painless
At least those lyrics actually had their moment on screen though (in the movie version of MASH)
Thanks for sharing this. It's posts like this that keep me coming back to the Trek BBS
It's a depraved song, probably did a lot of harm to some families.
Still weirded me out to learn the title of the opening theme of my favorite TV show of all time.
You must be a relative youngster. I knew the M*A*S*H TV show theme was an instrumental version of "Suicide is Painless" because I saw the movie first!
I mean, maybe. Depends on who you ask. One client guessed I was 50 last week.
But, I never got in to the MASH film, found it rather unpleasant. The TV show was much more my speed.
I recall my parents saw the film. My dad, a Korean War veteran, had a mixed reaction.
It does seem the words were trying (unsuccessfully) for the same vibe as “Beyond the sea” --even more so in Gene Coon’s lyrics to “Beyond Antares” which Uhura sang a couple times.
I've read that there were at least 3 space tv shows before Trek - Space Patrol, Buck Rogers, and Lost in Space. None of them had melodic theme music, mostly eerie electronic sounds strung together. So Trek was the first to have a memorable instrumental - which also became a radio hit. The theme has several chromatic shifts but ends in major chords, suggesting a more upbeat, optimistic tone than the earlier shows.
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Courage's theme was a radio hit?
Todd Rundgren & Utopia recorded a disco version in 1976, though it wasn't released till an archival album in 2001.
Thanks very much!
The movie is not endorsing the POV of the song. The Swampmen all work to prevent the camp dentist from committing suicide.
But that single didn't chart [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meco#Charted_singles].
So, no example of a radio hit has been produced so far. I'm highly skeptical that there even is one.
I never would have heard that part if you hadn't mentioned it. I was even afraid you were kidding, to trick people into sitting through the whole thing, But you weren't kidding.
