Tonight at midnight, you can catch me LIVE on Robert Daniels’ radio program VISIONS IN SOUND. Tune in locally on your FM dial to CKWR 98.5, or even easier, just click “listen live” via their website! The show runs from midnight to 2 am (ET). Needless to say I’ll be fueling myself up on coffee.
The subject: STAR WARS! The soundtracks specifically. Last week, Rob covered the music from the prequel trilogy composed by John Williams. Tonight is the original classic trilogy, also composed by Williams, so you don’t want to miss this. And if you do, it should be available online for streaming later on. Rob and I have been excitedly discussing the upcoming film The Force Awakens (only a week away!) and I can’t think of a better way to get ready.
I hope you’re able to tune in and catch some incredible music. I’ve reviewed all the classic trilogy soundtracks already, and you know you’ll be in for a treat.
STAR WARS: The Empire Strikes Back – Special Edition original motion picture soundtrack (1997 RCA limited edition with holographic discs, original soundtrack released 1980)
Composed and conducted by John Williams
When I was 8 years old, this was my favourite album. It was my favourite album for a long time. I didn’t have a lot of albums when I was young, but The Empire Strikes Back was a clear favourite. It was only usurped by Styx’s Kilroy Was Here several years later.
Even when I was a child I had a sense that this one was something special. The Empire Strikes Back contains one of the best known Star Wars anthems ever: “The Imperial March”. Hard to imagine today, but that piece of music did not exist when the original Star Wars came out in 1977. The character of Darth Vader grew tremendously in the second film, and I think “The Imperial March” helped drive it home.
As far as I’m concerned, composer John Williams is a rock star. He makes instrumental concept albums. That is exactly the way that my rocker ears hear this music. I cannot express how true to me that is. For me, this album (in its original double LP format) was like The Wall, Tommy, or Quadrophenia. It has always been a rollicking journey to listen to, preferably loud. It has swells and drops, peaks and valleys. It has memorable “songs” that you can go back to over and over and over again.
The original soundtrack from 1980 was a massive two record set, but it was still only long enough to contain 75 minutes of the film’s music. This double CD has a whopping 124 minutes — the complete score. Even all these years later, revisiting the soundtrack, I can immediately tell when a piece of music wasn’t on the original record. “Ice Planet Hoth” was the first such moment. Other pieces such as “The Magic Tree” are very familiar because I played those records so many times! As a kid, I don’t think I even realized that the LPs didn’t have all the music.
Having the whole soundtrack, in order, on CD, is a real treat. It makes me want to take a dig through my parents’ basement and dig up my old Kenner Millenium Falcon. Or even better, get the bigger, badder, awesomer new one. That thing looks incredible…but I digress. My point is, it reignites that feeling I had as a kid. I’d hear this music, and go grab my Falcon toy, and “fly” it around. That feeling hasn’t gone away. In fact, with this baby remastered the way it is, I’d say that feeling is stronger than ever.
Other honorable mentions: “The Battle of Hoth”, “The Asteroid Field”, “Mynock Cave”, and “Yoda’s Theme”. All these are almost as memorable as “The Imperial March”.
Since I’m not musically schooled in any way, I wanted to talk to someone who is. I spoke to world-renowned bass clarinetist Kathryn Ladano about the music:
This album is one of my favourite soundtracks, and I still listen to it often. In fact, when I got my new turntable for Christmas, the original LP soundtrack for Empire was the very first album I played on it. In terms of Star Wars soundtracks, I think this is the best one. I am certainly more critical of John Williams’ soundtracks in general now than I was as a kid because I now know that much of his material was “borrowed” from other composers, but despite that knowledge, this album still has a lot of iconic and evocative themes. My favourite is probably “The Asteroid Field”, but obviously “The Imperial March” is pretty amazing too.
If I had to pinpoint a favourite moment in this soundtrack, it actually appears during the track “Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader’s Trap/Departure of Boba Fett”. From about 5:10 to 5:20 is a series of dissonant chords that I have always loved the sound of (especially the one at 5:17 – 5:18!). Long before I studied music or played an instrument, those dissonant chords resonated with me and I still love hearing them.
I now know what album I’m going to listen to today.
I’m fortunate to have the limited edition CD wallet version of this soundtrack. As with A New Hope, the discs are hologram etched. This time, instead of the striking image of the Death Star, it’s just a fairly flat Imperial logo. Not quite as awesome.
Some at the record store made fun of me for being such a serious Star Wars fan. I’m not a hard core fanboy; I don’t go to conventions or follow the books and TV shows, but I am pretty dedicated to the films. I booked May 19, 1999 off work well in advance to see The Phantom Menace on opening day.
I’m not going to turn this story into a review for Phantom Menace. That movie’s been reviewed by thousands of people and I’m not interested in contributing to the background noise. The only thing you need to really agree with me on is that there was a tremendous excitement for Phantom Menace back in 1999. I had been dreaming of what might happen before and after the Holy Trilogy since I was 5 years old. My sister was only a baby when the first Star Wars came out, but she did get to see Empire in the theaters. She is a slightly bigger fan than I am, but she doesn’t follow the expanded universe or any of that stuff.
We both booked the day off work and planned to go together. Our strategy was this: Since we knew that the theaters would be absolutely packed for the midnight opening, we picked an out of the way (but still THX) theater that had a noon showing. So, all we had to do was wait an extra 12 hours (at home), and we’d get in no problem!
We showed up at the theater and were, like, seventh in line. No sweat. Soon we had our seats in a sparsely seated theater. Then the trailers (something called Titan AE, which inspired a heckle of “What the hell was that?” from the audience). Then the Fox fanfare, the Lucasfilm logo and finally…”A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….”
136 minutes later (we stayed for the credits of course) we were pretty satisfied with the movie. Keep in mind that fast shit had been whizzing in front of our faces for over two hours. There were things that didn’t make sense, there were things we didn’t like much (the kid, Jar Jar) but we kept telling ourselves the same thing.
“Yeah, but it’s the first chapter. The next one will be where it really starts.”
As we were talking about it, I said, “Wanna see it again? It went so fast there was a ton of stuff I’m sure I missed.”
“Sure!” she answered. “Yeah!”
We went back out to the ticket counter. There were a few people in line, but not many. “Two for Star Wars, please,” I said as I approached the counter.
“Didn’t you just come out of Star Wars?” she said with that snooty tone.
“Yep. We liked it,” I answered.
“And you want to see it again?” We did.
We went back in. The second time lacked a bit of the awe. This time, I paid more attention to the details. Questions came to my mind. “If Yoda is the Jedi Master that instructed Obi-Wan, then why is Liam Neeson training him?” Stuff like that.
I still remember that on the way home, we stopped at the HMV store, and I bought Ed Hunter by Iron Maiden. When we got home, we were still excited about the movie, telling Mom and Dad all the details. My dad was skeptical.
“Does it have the emotion of the first one? Does it have the feeling?” he inquired.
“Well…no not exactly,” I rationalized. “This is just the first chapter. The next one will be where it really starts.”
My dad was onto something.
The hilarious Red Letter Media review
I also distinctly remember watching Phantom Menace again with Tom and a franchise owner, on VHS, shortly after it came out.
In 2005 I first met the girl who would later become my wife, but she had never seen Star Wars. I was really excited to be the guy that got to watch Star Wars with her for the first time. For some stupid reason that to this day I will never understand, I decided to start her off with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Bad idea.
“That stupid fucking dino-guy” is what she named Jar-Jar Binks. She hated it. (She liked Episode III though.) Then, her dad (rest his soul) decided that he wanted to see the Star Wars prequels too. One Saturday night I went over there with my DVD copy of Phanton Menace in hand. And so it was that Jen had to see Phantom Menace not once, but twice.
We’ll be married five years this August, more awesomer than ever, so “that stupid fucking dino-guy” couldn’t have been all that bad, right?
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