The Theme Tune
- Thread starter MikeS
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they're both good to me, it just works.
I won't. I hated the wailing as well.
It's called singing. And the reason they used a singer is that it's essentially a song. The TOS theme is structurally in the style of the popular songs of the era; in fact, it's something of a pastiche of the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon." (This is something overlooked by the people who thought it was wrong for Enterprise to use a pop song as its theme.) Roddenberry even wrote lyrics for the theme, though they aren't very good.
Thank you.
In fact, most TV themes of the 1950s and '60s are structured like popular songs. As for the Star Trek TOS theme, I always thought it sounded a little like Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine," with a flowing melody of long legato notes over a busy background rhythm.
Most Trekkers know the story about Gene Roddenberry putting words to Alexander Courage's theme music. That entitled Gene to a co-writing credit and half the royalties from the theme's use — even though the lyrics were never used in the show. And what's more, they don't even scan properly. Just try singing them.
Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.
Yes, that was definitely an influence as well.
There's also a resemblance to the song "From Out of Nowhere," which uses the same changes (chord progressions). In TNG: "The Big Goodbye," when Picard first steps into the Dixon Hill holodeck scenario, that song was playing on the radio in Hill's office, which was a double in-joke by composer Dennis McCarthy (because Picard had stepped into the holo-environment "from out of nowhere," and because the tune resembled the Courage Trek theme).
I think it may have been in Solow and Justman's "Inside Star Trek" that I read this in. The theme was supposed to be a little wierd and to that end a combination of sounds was to be used to make it sound somewhat ethereal. Roddenberry heard and insisted on a woman's voice being used, simply because he couldn't get enough of women.
Nichelle Nichols:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGehZDGBaM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhGehZDGBaM
OMG! I love the version with the woman singing. In fact, while we've been watching our new TOS blu-rays we miss the "wailing". I had forgotten that it wasn't in the first season.
Anyone remember what show it was that had Shatner saying the opening "Space, the final frontier" lines with the female opera star "singing" the song? That was hilarious.
It was a couple of years ago....maybe the golden globes?
Anyone remember what show it was that had Shatner saying the opening "Space, the final frontier" lines with the female opera star "singing" the song? That was hilarious.
It was a couple of years ago....maybe the golden globes?
Uh, wow. I've seen the lyrics, but never heard it until today. I'm glad they went the other way.
I did find it a bid ironic how some of the lyrics ended up having deeper meaning for Trek, such as "remember," and
"His star trek
Will go on forever,"
since Star Trek really does seem to be going on forever.
I'm happy they didn't go this direction for the show, but never the less, a very interesting version indeed.
The Lola Bombay version would have been great as cocktail party music, like they did in "The Conscience of the King."
Theremin, heh. And yeah, it does, almost.
The rest of the site looks worth a read or a glance.
http://www.projectpimento.com/html/projectpimento.htm
So, in other words, the lyrics describe Kirk's desire to fly around the galaxy in a complicated space vessel, requiring the use of hundreds of crew members, risking destruction and death at every turn, just so he could get laid each week?
The site I linked to features a theremin. (It's actually the weakest thing in that version.)
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