Thursday, November 11, 2010

Dr. Who



I was reading in the latest issue of The Atlantic about the return of the British hit TV show "Dr. Who." It has gone through various incarnations over the years, and the current guy playing Dr. Who is the eleventh one. I have never seen the original series, which broadcast in 1963, but after reading about the theme song for the original, I was intrigued, and had to look it up on YouTube. This is how James Parker describes the theme in his article:

"Composed in 1963 by Ron Grainer, the score was handed over to the dreamers and techies of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where a futurist named Delia Derbyshire did some serious time travel with it: oscillator banks, multitracking, filtered white noise, the works. ("Did I write that?" Grainer is said to have asked upon hearing the finished article. "Most of it," Derbyshire replied.) A galloping heavy-metal bass line preyed upon by E-minor zoomings of electronic melody, it sounds like a nervous breakdown in the middle of a flying saucer attack. It sounds like Hawkwind performing Gustav Holst's "Mars," the Bringer of War."

I think it sounds cool as hell.

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