@Joseph Bardsley - as our resident musician, you may get a kick out of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lk1d1PbHYY

This was really cool.

He asked for requests.
I was thinking about the theme to Takara's King of Braves GaoGaiGar. I
used to (try to) sing this at karaoke in Japan and it's nuts. Probably
the hardest song I've ever attempted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocX4vWBIdvg

I asked my brother to request it over Twitter, since I never figured out
how to use Twitter for anything productive.

On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 10:50:22 AM UTC-4, Travoltron wrote:
> This was really cool.
>
> He asked for requests.
> I was thinking about the theme to Takara's King of Braves GaoGaiGar. I
> used to (try to) sing this at karaoke in Japan and it's nuts. Probably
> the hardest song I've ever attempted.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocX4vWBIdvg
>
> I asked my brother to request it over Twitter, since I never figured out
> how to use Twitter for anything productive.

Very cool theme! Never heard this before but it looks like it's sung by the lead singer of JAM Project, who contributed the truly epic theme song for Transformers Animated in Japan. Which sounds even better with the backing of a symphony orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeHbg7wEb0A

(Original intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueQA3QUO-eY)

On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:17:29 AM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:

> @Joseph Bardsley - as our resident musician, you may get a kick out of this:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lk1d1PbHYY

He could have saved himself the trouble of making a 20-minute video if he'd just done some research. The theme song wasn't "wildly confusing." It was chopped down in the editing room to fit the length of the animated footage. The version of the theme song on the vinyl album release isn't all weird and choppy.

Zob (I sort of thought everybody knew this?)

On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:21:13 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:17:29 AM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
>
> > @Joseph Bardsley - as our resident musician, you may get a kick out of this:
> >
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lk1d1PbHYY
> He could have saved himself the trouble of making a 20-minute video if he'd just done some research. The theme song wasn't "wildly confusing." It was chopped down in the editing room to fit the length of the animated footage. The version of the theme song on the vinyl album release isn't all weird and choppy.
>
>
> Zob (I sort of thought everybody knew this?)

I admit I never thought about it before, but that makes sense. You should tell him - you're likely the most knowledgeable person in the fandom regarding the background music of G1!

On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 2:19:24 AM UTC+1, Codigo Postal wrote:
> On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:21:13 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> > On Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:17:29 AM UTC-6, Codigo Postal wrote:
> >
> > > @Joseph Bardsley - as our resident musician, you may get a kick out of this:
> > >
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lk1d1PbHYY
> > He could have saved himself the trouble of making a 20-minute video if he'd just done some research. The theme song wasn't "wildly confusing." It was chopped down in the editing room to fit the length of the animated footage. The version of the theme song on the vinyl album release isn't all weird and choppy.
> >
> >
> > Zob (I sort of thought everybody knew this?)
> I admit I never thought about it before, but that makes sense. You should tell him - you're likely the most knowledgeable person in the fandom regarding the background music of G1!

The only edit in the opening music is that the first six seconds or so of the album version (the bit with just the bass guitar, snare drum, brass stings, etc., before it loops back and the descending electric guitar line comes in; I'd count it as four measures, based on the kettledrum beat) don't appear in the version used in the animated series, although you can just about hear the fourth measure as the music is faded in when the laser flares appear and the Decepticon symbol passes. Everything else in the backing track is identical, and it's just the vocals and the SFX that separate the two. The album track therefore shows the time signature weirdness that he discusses with reference to the cartoon version. Try counting the measures on the album version and you'll still hit the same anomaly that he does when you get to 'Autobots wage':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpTgUEr398A&t=11s
You'll even hit it in the version used in the very first commercial (for issue 1 of the comic), which predates the cartoon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuYpXEimEA
I'd say that 'more than meets the eye' is being played in triplets over a straight beat, with the complication that the last bar is a beat short and that's why 'Autobots wage' arrives earlier than expected. I suspect that Anne Bryant, who of course had a lot of experience with jingles, did this deliberately, because it *really* makes that 'more than meets the eye' tagline stand out! So it seems more likely to be a feature than a bug.

The choppiness at the beginning of the cartoon's closing theme *does* sound like an editing artefact, although I don't think this track is on the album so we can't make a direct comparison, but it seems that the deliberately jerky quality of the opening music primed the guy in the OP's Youtube video to take this as deliberate as well, and it's caused him to panic at other timing shifts: he makes a meal of the time signature of the 'Autobots wage....' chord sequence, but to my ears it's simply being played in triplets over a straight beat again, and the regular beat then resumes with 'the Decepticons' with nothing dropping out this time.

Matthew

On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 8:03:21 PM UTC+1, I wrote:

[snip]

> The only edit in the opening music is that the first six seconds or so of the album version (the bit with just the bass guitar, snare drum, brass stings, etc., before it loops back and the descending electric guitar line comes in; I'd count it as four measures, based on the kettledrum beat) don't appear in the version used in the animated series, although you can just about hear the fourth measure as the music is faded in when the laser flares appear and the Decepticon symbol passes. Everything else in the backing track is identical, and it's just the vocals and the SFX that separate the two.. The album track therefore shows the time signature weirdness that he discusses with reference to the cartoon version. Try counting the measures on the album version and you'll still hit the same anomaly that he does when you get to 'Autobots wage':
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpTgUEr398A&t=11s
> You'll even hit it in the version used in the very first commercial (for issue 1 of the comic), which predates the cartoon:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuYpXEimEA
> I'd say that 'more than meets the eye' is being played in triplets over a straight beat, with the complication that the last bar is a beat short and that's why 'Autobots wage' arrives earlier than expected. I suspect that Anne Bryant, who of course had a lot of experience with jingles, did this deliberately, because it *really* makes that 'more than meets the eye' tagline stand out! So it seems more likely to be a feature than a bug.
>
> The choppiness at the beginning of the cartoon's closing theme *does* sound like an editing artefact, although I don't think this track is on the album so we can't make a direct comparison, but it seems that the deliberately jerky quality of the opening music primed the guy in the OP's Youtube video to take this as deliberate as well, and it's caused him to panic at other timing shifts: he makes a meal of the time signature of the 'Autobots wage...' chord sequence, but to my ears it's simply being played in triplets over a straight beat again, and the regular beat then resumes with 'the Decepticons' with nothing dropping out this time.

PS: the missing beat between 'more than meets the eye' and 'Autobots wage' is also missing from the opening themes for seasons 2 and 3/4, and the season 2 theme takes it even further, dropping another beat after 'robots in disguise' and a third after the second 'more than meets the eye'.

And this seems as good a time as any to say just how much I appreciate the Transformers Music Restoration Project, which has given me hours of delight.. The Johnny Douglas rock piece (seemingly the only piece of music in the world of the Transformers until the invention of Instrumental Cold Slither in 1985) is a thing of wonder.

Matthew

On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 3:25:39 PM UTC-7, trib...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 8:03:21 PM UTC+1, I wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > The only edit in the opening music is that the first six seconds or so of the album version (the bit with just the bass guitar, snare drum, brass stings, etc., before it loops back and the descending electric guitar line comes in; I'd count it as four measures, based on the kettledrum beat) don't appear in the version used in the animated series, although you can just about hear the fourth measure as the music is faded in when the laser flares appear and the Decepticon symbol passes. Everything else in the backing track is identical, and it's just the vocals and the SFX that separate the two. The album track therefore shows the time signature weirdness that he discusses with reference to the cartoon version. Try counting the measures on the album version and you'll still hit the same anomaly that he does when you get to 'Autobots wage':
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpTgUEr398A&t=11s
> > You'll even hit it in the version used in the very first commercial (for issue 1 of the comic), which predates the cartoon:
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuYpXEimEA
> > I'd say that 'more than meets the eye' is being played in triplets over a straight beat, with the complication that the last bar is a beat short and that's why 'Autobots wage' arrives earlier than expected. I suspect that Anne Bryant, who of course had a lot of experience with jingles, did this deliberately, because it *really* makes that 'more than meets the eye' tagline stand out! So it seems more likely to be a feature than a bug.
> >
> > The choppiness at the beginning of the cartoon's closing theme *does* sound like an editing artefact, although I don't think this track is on the album so we can't make a direct comparison, but it seems that the deliberately jerky quality of the opening music primed the guy in the OP's Youtube video to take this as deliberate as well, and it's caused him to panic at other timing shifts: he makes a meal of the time signature of the 'Autobots wage...' chord sequence, but to my ears it's simply being played in triplets over a straight beat again, and the regular beat then resumes with 'the Decepticons' with nothing dropping out this time.
> PS: the missing beat between 'more than meets the eye' and 'Autobots wage' is also missing from the opening themes for seasons 2 and 3/4, and the season 2 theme takes it even further, dropping another beat after 'robots in disguise' and a third after the second 'more than meets the eye'.
>
> And this seems as good a time as any to say just how much I appreciate the Transformers Music Restoration Project, which has given me hours of delight. The Johnny Douglas rock piece (seemingly the only piece of music in the world of the Transformers until the invention of Instrumental Cold Slither in 1985) is a thing of wonder.
>
> Matthew

My apologies, Codigo, for the later response on this - I was on holiday in Singapore, and then traveling a bit for work. (For anyone interested, I work for the provincial government, here in BC, as a music granting program coordinator. I help give artists money for projects when I can).

This is super cool, and I truly appreciate the shout-out. Going to dig into it now. :)

Out of curiosity, can the TF cartoon score be purchased anywhere these days? I assume it was released on LP only?

Amazing how these edits result in such different experiences, often, than what the composer intended.

Hope everyone's doing really well,

Joseph

On Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 12:13:30 AM UTC-4, Joseph Bardsley wrote:
> On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 3:25:39 PM UTC-7, trib...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > On Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 8:03:21 PM UTC+1, I wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> > > The only edit in the opening music is that the first six seconds or so of the album version (the bit with just the bass guitar, snare drum, brass stings, etc., before it loops back and the descending electric guitar line comes in; I'd count it as four measures, based on the kettledrum beat) don't appear in the version used in the animated series, although you can just about hear the fourth measure as the music is faded in when the laser flares appear and the Decepticon symbol passes. Everything else in the backing track is identical, and it's just the vocals and the SFX that separate the two. The album track therefore shows the time signature weirdness that he discusses with reference to the cartoon version. Try counting the measures on the album version and you'll still hit the same anomaly that he does when you get to 'Autobots wage':
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpTgUEr398A&t=11s
> > > You'll even hit it in the version used in the very first commercial (for issue 1 of the comic), which predates the cartoon:
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yuYpXEimEA
> > > I'd say that 'more than meets the eye' is being played in triplets over a straight beat, with the complication that the last bar is a beat short and that's why 'Autobots wage' arrives earlier than expected. I suspect that Anne Bryant, who of course had a lot of experience with jingles, did this deliberately, because it *really* makes that 'more than meets the eye' tagline stand out! So it seems more likely to be a feature than a bug.
> > >
> > > The choppiness at the beginning of the cartoon's closing theme *does* sound like an editing artefact, although I don't think this track is on the album so we can't make a direct comparison, but it seems that the deliberately jerky quality of the opening music primed the guy in the OP's Youtube video to take this as deliberate as well, and it's caused him to panic at other timing shifts: he makes a meal of the time signature of the 'Autobots wage...' chord sequence, but to my ears it's simply being played in triplets over a straight beat again, and the regular beat then resumes with 'the Decepticons' with nothing dropping out this time.
> > PS: the missing beat between 'more than meets the eye' and 'Autobots wage' is also missing from the opening themes for seasons 2 and 3/4, and the season 2 theme takes it even further, dropping another beat after 'robots in disguise' and a third after the second 'more than meets the eye'.
> >
> > And this seems as good a time as any to say just how much I appreciate the Transformers Music Restoration Project, which has given me hours of delight. The Johnny Douglas rock piece (seemingly the only piece of music in the world of the Transformers until the invention of Instrumental Cold Slither in 1985) is a thing of wonder.
> >
> > Matthew
> My apologies, Codigo, for the later response on this - I was on holiday in Singapore, and then traveling a bit for work. (For anyone interested, I work for the provincial government, here in BC, as a music granting program coordinator. I help give artists money for projects when I can).

Singapore sounds amazing. Hope you had a blast.

>
>
> Out of curiosity, can the TF cartoon score be purchased anywhere these days? I assume it was released on LP only?

Out of print at present, unfortunately: https://enjoytheriderecords.com/products/hasbro-studios-presents-80s-tv-classics-music-from-the-transformers

Vinyl only, which is strange considering Hasbro subsequently released the G..I. Joe score on all digital platforms. There's a lo-fi rip floating around the interwebs with the static noise from the turntable, but I'd recommend Zob's score instead. The vinyl is more of a greatest hits compilation that severely truncates several iconic themes. I did like the Transformers Medley though - very strong "Rebirth" vibes.