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(c) 1963 by Ron Grainer |
By the time we actually got around to recording and releasing the theme to my favorite TV show, we'd been performing it for a few years - since 2008, as a matter of fact. But this arrangement is actually a bit older than that - it's based on an arrangement I did by myself, way back in 1988. I basically took all my favorite facets of the various recordings that had been used for the show's theme throughout the years, and set them in the original key of 'C'. All synth parts were played on my trust Ensoniq ESQ-1, and all drums were from my modified Roland TR-505 with the hi-hat broken out separately and run through a flanger with a lot of regen. (The original point of the exercise was to see what the theme would sound like with electric guitar, and so the original recording features me playing a borrowed Kramer guitar through an ADA preamp. Big mistake!) The only significant difference in the COG arrangement, aside from the markedly improved musicianship, is the addition of a partial quote of Gary Glitter's 'Rock and Roll part 2' in the middle, in an attempt to parody The Timelords' 1988 single 'Doctoring the Tardis'... except we dispense with the chorus; it's just a tease. This recording is augmented further by fellow Who fan Farrar Hudkins' horn on the bridge (my favorite part of the composition.) Instead of a heavily flanged hi-hat, the guitar is run through a Line6 delay pedal and heavily echoed. The video was staged just after recording (the wide shot), utilizing no camera crew, with additional closeups achieved by simply running through the song a couple more times with people taking turns holding the camera and photographing the opposite side of the room from where they were standing in the wide shot! Credits Drums..............Lewis D'Aubin (copied from my original demo) Bass...............Jim Fairchild Guitars............Chris Lenox Synthesizer........Billy Riecke Additional Synths..Lewis D'Aubin (copied from my original demo) Trumpet............Farrar Hudkins Recorded and mixed April 2011 at C.O.G. Secret Lab, Harahan LA |