A Boy Scouts ½ Christmas
(Original Soundtrack 3)
-Not Yet Complete-
Artwork:
The Music:
Coming soon.
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Coming soon.
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Coming soon,
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Liner Notes:
Episode 10:
(Coming soon.)
Episode 11:
(Coming soon.)
Episode 12:
(Coming soon.)
Episode 13:
For the sake of prosperity, some context on these notes: While for the most part, I am trying to stick with story order in producing these soundtrack videos, in this case I did jump ahead. Quite a bit. This one was made when so far all else that had been done was parts 1 - 6. (And the first Perspectives album, but that's more Jason's child.) So these notes were written prior to the rest of the notes on this album, and indeed prior to most of the notes on the previous Boy Scouts ½ album.
Anyway, on with the notes.
Christmas! That is why I jumped ahead. I had quite intended to take a break from the Soundtrack Project, and indeed get back to producing stories! But then Christmas all came up on us, and I felt a strange compulsion to make a video for part 13, which of course is Boy Scouts ½'s Christmas episode. So, here we are.
I was rather surprised by the length of it when I finished... Almost an hour all together! I suppose now, unless I want to re-do the cover art I'd already made for this hypothetical album and the surrounding albums to re-jigger which episodes are included within each one, I shall have to present this one as if it were a 2-disc set. (Either that, or keep the combined lengths of the soundtracks to parts 10 - 12 to around 20 minutes, but I'm sure that ain't happening!) I suppose such a thing is acceptable when a Christmas episode is involved.
In general, while there are some exceptions, I tried to maintain a more orchestral feel all around with this episode. I ended up combining elements from many different sources. (Sometimes within the same track!) So hopefully it all meshes well, and doesn't sound too much like a hodgepodge of unconnected pieces randomly thrown together.
Some notes on individual tracks:
Track three. Well, the text of the story made a reference to a certain long running animated series on Comedy Central, I decided to carry that over to the soundtrack. I'll admit this one wasn't from my personal collection, and came from an online source. This was a surprisingly difficult piece of music to track down! I ended up having to just snip it out of a longer clip from the show it was from, as I sure as heck couldn't find it on its own.
Track six was my first try at blending two pieces of music together in a way that presented them not as two things that just happened to be one directly following on from the other, but combined so that the end product seemed to be one continuous piece. It helped that they were two pieces from the same source, by the same composer. Anyway, I think the result came out pretty good. (Hopefully, you'll agree.) I guess my music editing skills, which were almost non-existent at the start of this project, are gradually getting a bit better. Yay.
Tracks nine and ten also combine music from multiple sources, this time not from the same composers! (Well, track nine does combine two James Horner pieces, but with a third non-James Horner piece.) But since this was scoring a dream of Mike's, that seemed to quite randomly jump from one thing to another, the shift in musical styles seemed to fit with it.
Track nine opens with a piece of stock music, and track ten closes with such music as well. Both pieces were once upon a time used in the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus, hence their inclusion in Mike's dream.
The second half of track nine is scored from the soundtrack to Aliens. In an ideal world, I'd have used music from Event Horizon, as it is from that film that Mike's nightmare imagery comes from. But that is not a soundtrack I possess, so hopefully Aliens is an acceptable substitution.
Track twelve is a piece titled Powerhouse, and is intended to be the music that Kenny is playing on his way down to his laboratory. The text of the story references a piece titled Assembly Line. Alas, I am not in touch with Mike with any great consistancy these days, so I cannot ask him what Assembly Line is, and searching the internet was little help. And searches in multiple places online for big band or jazz pieces titled Assembly Line kept bring up Powerhouse. (Likely from that piece's iconic use in many cartoons.) So I can hope one of two things... One: this was actually the piece Mike meant, and he just misremembered the title when he was writing this story back in '99, or two: we can all just assume that, in the hypothetical world where Boy Scouts ½ was actually animated, Assembly Line was for some reason unavailable, and Powerhouse was just substituted in its place.
Track fifteen is, of course, an instrumental version of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Perhaps an obvious choice, what with the text of the story noting that Matt was humming this song to himself at this point. This particular arrangement of the song is one I found on YouTube, and if you wish to listen to the full version of the piece, you can find it by clicking here.
Track seventeen is, of course, a direct reference to Jason's recent offering of a soundtrack for Perspectives. He used a piece called Minimum Wage as the "Holyoke Mall Theme." I thought the piece, if further edited from as it appeared on Jason's album (to remove the vocal and extend the length) could work nicely as score for the scene where Matt bravely (or foolishly?) ventures into that very same mall on the eve of Christmas.
Track twenty-one is a piece I found on the internet years ago (and have had in my MP3 collection ever since) called Christmas de Chocobo. It is, of course, an arrangement of the Chocobo theme from the Final Fantasy video game series. I felt the fact that it was the Chocobo theme, while not hidden, was subtle enough that it could be used to score something else. In fact, just to give you an idea how long this Soundtrack Project idea has been in the back of my mind, since first hearing this piece it has always been in my head as the music that plays over the scene when we first burst into the decorated interior of the Church in the Acres.
Track twenty-eight. Ah, Jim Anderson. For some reason, it became a thing in my head that his fictionalized representation would only ever be able to utter one line of dialogue, which has been the case across all three of his appearances (thus far) in Boy Scouts ½. I thought it would be fun to play with this a bit, by re-using the same piece I'd used for his first appearance in part 4, which I'd titled after his line of dialogue. It could conceivably fit here to, so why not? (I don't know if it would work with his next appearance... I suppose we'll see someday when I get there.)
Track thirty-three features an arangement of Follow Your Dream that, while still edited down from its full length, is longer then usual in Boy Scouts ½. My intent here was that, in the hypothetical animated version of Boy Scouts ½, when the music starts we don't go directly into the credits, but instead have a scene of the characters at the party gathering together outside and watching the falling snow, kind of presented montage-style giving the characters close-ups in turn to see "the spirit of the holiday" or some such on their faces.
Then we fade out to the credits.
That's all for now. Now maybe this time I can actually do what I say and put this project down for a little bit.
Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone!
(Coming soon.)
Episode 11:
(Coming soon.)
Episode 12:
(Coming soon.)
Episode 13:
For the sake of prosperity, some context on these notes: While for the most part, I am trying to stick with story order in producing these soundtrack videos, in this case I did jump ahead. Quite a bit. This one was made when so far all else that had been done was parts 1 - 6. (And the first Perspectives album, but that's more Jason's child.) So these notes were written prior to the rest of the notes on this album, and indeed prior to most of the notes on the previous Boy Scouts ½ album.
Anyway, on with the notes.
Christmas! That is why I jumped ahead. I had quite intended to take a break from the Soundtrack Project, and indeed get back to producing stories! But then Christmas all came up on us, and I felt a strange compulsion to make a video for part 13, which of course is Boy Scouts ½'s Christmas episode. So, here we are.
I was rather surprised by the length of it when I finished... Almost an hour all together! I suppose now, unless I want to re-do the cover art I'd already made for this hypothetical album and the surrounding albums to re-jigger which episodes are included within each one, I shall have to present this one as if it were a 2-disc set. (Either that, or keep the combined lengths of the soundtracks to parts 10 - 12 to around 20 minutes, but I'm sure that ain't happening!) I suppose such a thing is acceptable when a Christmas episode is involved.
In general, while there are some exceptions, I tried to maintain a more orchestral feel all around with this episode. I ended up combining elements from many different sources. (Sometimes within the same track!) So hopefully it all meshes well, and doesn't sound too much like a hodgepodge of unconnected pieces randomly thrown together.
Some notes on individual tracks:
Track three. Well, the text of the story made a reference to a certain long running animated series on Comedy Central, I decided to carry that over to the soundtrack. I'll admit this one wasn't from my personal collection, and came from an online source. This was a surprisingly difficult piece of music to track down! I ended up having to just snip it out of a longer clip from the show it was from, as I sure as heck couldn't find it on its own.
Track six was my first try at blending two pieces of music together in a way that presented them not as two things that just happened to be one directly following on from the other, but combined so that the end product seemed to be one continuous piece. It helped that they were two pieces from the same source, by the same composer. Anyway, I think the result came out pretty good. (Hopefully, you'll agree.) I guess my music editing skills, which were almost non-existent at the start of this project, are gradually getting a bit better. Yay.
Tracks nine and ten also combine music from multiple sources, this time not from the same composers! (Well, track nine does combine two James Horner pieces, but with a third non-James Horner piece.) But since this was scoring a dream of Mike's, that seemed to quite randomly jump from one thing to another, the shift in musical styles seemed to fit with it.
Track nine opens with a piece of stock music, and track ten closes with such music as well. Both pieces were once upon a time used in the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus, hence their inclusion in Mike's dream.
The second half of track nine is scored from the soundtrack to Aliens. In an ideal world, I'd have used music from Event Horizon, as it is from that film that Mike's nightmare imagery comes from. But that is not a soundtrack I possess, so hopefully Aliens is an acceptable substitution.
Track twelve is a piece titled Powerhouse, and is intended to be the music that Kenny is playing on his way down to his laboratory. The text of the story references a piece titled Assembly Line. Alas, I am not in touch with Mike with any great consistancy these days, so I cannot ask him what Assembly Line is, and searching the internet was little help. And searches in multiple places online for big band or jazz pieces titled Assembly Line kept bring up Powerhouse. (Likely from that piece's iconic use in many cartoons.) So I can hope one of two things... One: this was actually the piece Mike meant, and he just misremembered the title when he was writing this story back in '99, or two: we can all just assume that, in the hypothetical world where Boy Scouts ½ was actually animated, Assembly Line was for some reason unavailable, and Powerhouse was just substituted in its place.
Track fifteen is, of course, an instrumental version of It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Perhaps an obvious choice, what with the text of the story noting that Matt was humming this song to himself at this point. This particular arrangement of the song is one I found on YouTube, and if you wish to listen to the full version of the piece, you can find it by clicking here.
Track seventeen is, of course, a direct reference to Jason's recent offering of a soundtrack for Perspectives. He used a piece called Minimum Wage as the "Holyoke Mall Theme." I thought the piece, if further edited from as it appeared on Jason's album (to remove the vocal and extend the length) could work nicely as score for the scene where Matt bravely (or foolishly?) ventures into that very same mall on the eve of Christmas.
Track twenty-one is a piece I found on the internet years ago (and have had in my MP3 collection ever since) called Christmas de Chocobo. It is, of course, an arrangement of the Chocobo theme from the Final Fantasy video game series. I felt the fact that it was the Chocobo theme, while not hidden, was subtle enough that it could be used to score something else. In fact, just to give you an idea how long this Soundtrack Project idea has been in the back of my mind, since first hearing this piece it has always been in my head as the music that plays over the scene when we first burst into the decorated interior of the Church in the Acres.
Track twenty-eight. Ah, Jim Anderson. For some reason, it became a thing in my head that his fictionalized representation would only ever be able to utter one line of dialogue, which has been the case across all three of his appearances (thus far) in Boy Scouts ½. I thought it would be fun to play with this a bit, by re-using the same piece I'd used for his first appearance in part 4, which I'd titled after his line of dialogue. It could conceivably fit here to, so why not? (I don't know if it would work with his next appearance... I suppose we'll see someday when I get there.)
Track thirty-three features an arangement of Follow Your Dream that, while still edited down from its full length, is longer then usual in Boy Scouts ½. My intent here was that, in the hypothetical animated version of Boy Scouts ½, when the music starts we don't go directly into the credits, but instead have a scene of the characters at the party gathering together outside and watching the falling snow, kind of presented montage-style giving the characters close-ups in turn to see "the spirit of the holiday" or some such on their faces.
Then we fade out to the credits.
That's all for now. Now maybe this time I can actually do what I say and put this project down for a little bit.
Anyway, Merry Christmas, everyone!
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