CWK Show #832: Top Five Favorite Musical Tracks From The Star Wars Prequels

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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(00:24):
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(01:08):
It is a show of the CWK prover variety. That's right.
If you are a member of the CWK alliance, then
you are a part of the CWK Coffee with Kenoby
Patreon family. And I want you to get a chance
to listen to this show if you're somewhat curious or
intrigued by what is on CWK prover. So this is

(01:31):
a show we recorded a few years ago. It's myself,
Tom Gross and the co creator of Coffee with Kenoby,
Corey Club. Both of them, of course, are very dear
friends of mine, and we looked at our top five
tracks from the Star Wars prequel series. It's great fun,
should include some great debate opportunities for you. So pull

(01:52):
up a chair, grab your favorite coffee mug, and let's
have some coffee with Kenoby. CWK porover style.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Coffee. T Well me b wo Kenobe. It's Coffee with Kenobe.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Hello, Welcome back to stib K Prover, our weekly show
for our Patreon listeners. We love talking to you guys
each week, and we're excited to talk to each week.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
We're back in some many of the things here we are.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
This is a show four I'm messed up with. Let's
see one fifty four we're not two hundreds yet. We'll
get there and we'll get to take but one four
is the show here. We're excited to be back talking
to you guys about all kinds of crazy things and
returning to a familiar topic. We want to kind of
play out the rest of the the musical elements of

(02:48):
Star Wars, and tonight we're gonna be tackling.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
The prequel original soundtrack.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
So before we do that, though, we want to introduce
our co hosts, and I'll start off with dan Z.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Well, look at you wear in your One Nation coffee
hat boom. Did you order that? Did they send one
to you?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
No? I ordered it. I thought it was cool.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I thought was love it, pretty cool looking so very stylish,
my friend, very stylish. Well, it's great to be back.
I just got back from an amazing vacation in Walt
Disney World and it was I'm looking forward to uh
more conversations about that and sharing tips about Disney in
the near future. But tonight we're gonna talk all about
the prequel trilogy soundtracks and get our top fives, and

(03:30):
that's gonna be fun. A lot of people ask for
this after we did our original trilogy one. So hey,
let's go backwards to go forwards.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Might start with the originals, then you go backwards and forwards,
like that's the.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
That's the way it's set up, lu kesse and yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
If you have to keep the team really so excellent. Well,
let's also introduce our other guest host. Guest host, I
already messed up. I tried so hard by all right,
Tom Gross, Hello everybody.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
It's great to be here as always, talking with my friends.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
And I got my lineup set.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Okay, I'm not saying anything else.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
The lineup is set. I'm not changing the scorecard. We're going.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I like it.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Wind is blowing out. Let's do it.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Let's talk about let's we'll go on order of let's
go or of introductions, So Dan, Tom, myself, and let's
talk about a little bit. Maybe let's let's just pull
back the nostalgia curtain and think about like when we
kind of first heard this music.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
And making your list.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
This is a different type of list, I think, from
what compared to the original trilogy list, because that's the
original list really kicked.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Everything off for Star Wars.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
This is something a little bit different, I think, But
I want to hear you guys, tell your stories on
how you came with your list and some of the nostalgia
feelings you had as you created that list.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yes, my Well, the prequel trilogies soundtracks are wonderful, but
they don't hold the same emotional resonance with me that
the original trilogy does because that's not the Stars that
I grew up with, but it's the Star Wars that
I absolutely love. I love the prequels, I've I've always
been a big fan of them. But the difference is that,
like if I heard a song besides select significant couple

(05:17):
of them, I wouldn't necessarily tell you the names of
the songs. So what I did was I got on Spotify,
I flipped through all the soundtracks again and reinforcing what
I thought to be true, how they thought they might sound.
It was typically accurate in what my brain had thought.
In placing it with the scenes in the films themselves,

(05:38):
Mason helped me and I feel really good about them,
but they're definitely heavily centered on one specific movie of
the prequel trilogy.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
I will say that, Okay, Tom, how about you.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Yeah, So, listening to these I really felt like they
had a different tone to them than than the original trilogy.
So you know, looking at and looking for things that
really resonated with me was different. Some of the qualities
of the instruments was different. The stop I thought, even

(06:18):
though it's John willy mean, it's very it's very definite
John Williams, of course, but I felt like it just
it had a different flavor to it. And so when
I was picking out the songs, I went with, you know,
the things that I found to be unique as a fan,
but then also things there are two songs or maybe
three on here that are always like right at the

(06:42):
edge of my memory and anything could click it to
make it go and so so I don't know, like
that's kind of how I approached it. I found it interesting, Dan,
I mentioned to you that I had all these I
have the first two, but for some odd reason, I
did not buy the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
I don't know why, so but I had.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Them on I had the first two on CD, and
so I had to go through YouTube because I don't
have a Spotify account. I went through YouTube playlists to
listen to the Revenge of the Sith. So so yeah,
that's kind of how I came about it.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
What about you, Corey?

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, for me, I remember this music coming out kind
of from the trailer, and maybe it wasn't interestily used
in the trailer. I can't look back at that old trailer,
but it definitely has that nostalgia feel to it for me.
And like you guys mentioned, this wasn't really an easy
list to make. I can't really pop these off the
top of my head. There was like two solid that

(07:43):
where I knew right away like all these are definitely
on my list, and the others I had to do
a little research and kind of, like like you said, Dan,
think about the scenes that were played out and correlate
the music because I liked the scene and the music
plays along with that. Like you said, John's william is
still a mass what he does, but also tell them,
like you mentioned John Williams, there's some time that's passed right,

(08:05):
Star Wars is coming his own. John Williams obviously has
done more other films other than just Star Wars and whatnot,
But he's obviously a master at what he does, and
I think in some of these there's a lot more
of gravitas to him. You know, he's got a lot
more at his disposal to or to work with and
kind of tinker with and just you know, really grow

(08:27):
the franchise musically. So I think that's what we get
with these, uh these soundtracks, and I think.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
That's that's unique.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
But again, it doesn't stick out my mind a whole lot.
I can't name necessarily a bunch of them that were like, oh,
like I can listen to anything off The New Hope
and know exactly where that is, So they're not as
key for me for those reasons. But take into our list, right,
So let's start with number five and we'll go through
our sequence here.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Uh So number five, pick Dan to you.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Number five for me is a track titled Grievous Speaks
to Lord Sidius. It's basically kind of a choral thing,
very sweeping, kind of swashbucklery from but from the villain's
point of view, and it's whenever you see Grievous is
basically his theme as he is flying into talk to
Count Dooku, or whenever he's just planning or plotting with

(09:24):
the battle droids and he's sweeping his cape around and
it's a it's it's pretty fun, it's it's got an
epic kind of jaunt to it. And that's probably a
weird way to put up. I think it actually fits. So, yeah,
that's my number five. Nice.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
I like that one. I considered that.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I don't know that I consider it from a top five,
but it certainly was almost on my honorable mention. It's
you said exactly right, has that like jaunty feel, almost
like you can picture in your head the movement.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Of grievous of grievous.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, I like it all right.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
My number five comes from Revenge of the which I
find to be a really interesting album. And I don't
know if you if you guys noted this, or you
might talk about this later on, but when you look
at the album, the end of it are short bits
of songs.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
Just song after song after song a song.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
And they're all like three minutes long, and it's it's
very sort of disconcerting to me as a listener, because
you know, it kind of starts and it ends, and
it starts and it ends. But this one, this song
is early on the soundtrack, I believe, and this is
uh titled Palpatine's Palpatine's Teachings. It begins with that low

(10:42):
growled chanting that kind of brings that dramatic irony that
we know what's gonna happen, we know, and is this
the moment? And I can almost see the reds and
the blacks of the film, and I think it that
song actually begins when they're in the circus or whatever
that is, and they're having, yeah, the opera house, and

(11:03):
they're having that conversation and there's those bubbles and things,
and you get that kind of underneath and we all
know what's gonna happen. You know, the tension is and
the creepy factor with this song, and the music is
really thick. There's a low undertone a little bit later
in that track of the Imperial March kind of comes in.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
You hear that.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
But then you also get that that Twin Sun's theme
that follows the Imperial that gives you this sense of,
I mean, what what do we feel when the Twin
Suns song comes other than a touch of hope or
a feeling of hope, you know, as Luke looks across
at the Sun's the binary suns. But that that is

(11:48):
in there that follows the Imperial March. But you definitely
get the pull the light side and the dark side
as it as it comes to a conclusion, but then
it has this like heroic fanfare at the end, and
then it has a long tailing fade away.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
At the end of the song.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
I just, I just I loved it when I remember,
I remember vividly in the movie and uh.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
And it is one that stays with me.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Nice five is uh titled of the of the film.
I pulled it from Revenge of the Sith, and it's
kind of the one that comes off the Star Wars
opening uh role credits or world credits, the uh, the crawl.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
It goes right into this melody that's prevented, the Sith melody.
And this sequence pulls out for me because I can
almost I always remember the scene with the Jedi fighters
flying around Anakin Oban flying around through that great Star
sequence battleships and they're trying to get into maneuver in
h for kind Dooku.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
And it's just a really upbeat.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
It reminds me of the many Falcon scene the asteroids
we talked about on the last time we talked about
music tracks that bump bump bump, bump, bump bum, You
know that kind of quick little motion and it goes
right along with the space fighters that are like, you know,
doing their thing, and they're you know, looping around and
doing the maneuvers and things and very engaging.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
And in this you kind of scale back to the
battleships and the daring numerous battleships and these two little
fighters going in and out of zipping and out, and
it plays along with that very well. It's really a
nice opening. It's one of the for me, one of
the better openings, uh in the prequels. Uh just kind
of just really kicking it off for this film and uh,

(13:36):
it just I think it's really engaging and energetic for
for a theme, uh, jumping into the film like that.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
So that's my number five.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Awesome cool.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
I you know, I have such a hard time not
choosing all these songs from fight fight scenes, like you're talking,
because they're all like energetic and and I don't know
all that kind of thing. But yeah, I love that opening.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Number four. My number four is from The Phantom Menace.
I didn't say the last ones from Revenge of the Sith,
but I thought it was obviously because it's grievous and
that's the only one he's in. But my number four
is the Droid invasion and the appearance of Darth Maul.
This is the icon to me, the iconic music of
the opening sequence when the Trade Federation invades Naboo and

(14:26):
all those battle droids come out of their ships and
they use their STAPs and they they traverse the surface
of Naboo right before it's actually it's just the invasion
like this a droid envision d You know, I'm sure
that doesn't sound anything like it. In my mind, it
sounds exactly like it, but claims I'm not good at humming,

(14:47):
but she's not here, so but I I I love
this one. It was it was It was harder not
to put higher, but it'll be more clear why it's not.
But it reminds me very much of the PlayStation Phantom
Menace game that I played over and over again back
in nineteen ninety nine when the movie came out, and
that song was playing in the entron in the intro
to when you get your game ready to go through

(15:08):
most of that original board itself, when you're when QUI
got is on Naboo, and it's just it's just great fun.
It really speaks to the mirth and the unique tone
of the Phantom Menace, especially in comparison with the original trilogy.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Excellent.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
My number four is.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
I was I was torn between two of them, but
this one actually has that the song that I was
torn between, so I went with this one. It is
my only selection from the Attack of the Clones, and
that is the Love Pledge and the Arena. The one
that the one that I was I was bobbling going
back and forth on is the love theme from and

(15:52):
I think that cross call it ye it is okay,
So that's the other one that I was sort of
going back and forth between, but since it was in
this one as well, I went with it because this
one is more dynamic and has a little bit more
to it. So, you know, it starts off with a
feeling of the dire situation that they're in, Anakin pad
May captured and being sent out to this arena to die.

(16:15):
But then we quit. The song quickly turns to the
love theme from the Clones from the Clone Wars reprised
here and then and then it turns and I'm a
sucker for a great march, you guys, you know that
from my choice, my top choice from the pre or
from the original trilogy with the Imperial March. I just

(16:35):
love that that march that comes out and I think
it is is this is it the same march from
Phantom Menace? It's very similar.

Speaker 5 (16:44):
If not, it's got that it's very similar.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
But what I love about this march is about five
different times you're solid into that march and then there's
some kind of an interlude where I can't picture what's
happening on screen, but to listen to it, like there's
a change in the music and something happens, but then
the march kicks back in and you're back into the
march again, and then there's another interlude, and it goes

(17:12):
through about four or five of those passages where march interlude,
march interlude, march interludes, and it just and it's like,
oh my gosh, when is this gonna end? You know,
and you just sort of get a feeling of what
they are going through in that arena, and of course
you know they come across obi Wan in there and
they've got the battle with those three creatures, which I

(17:32):
love the monsters and star Wars, So this really helps,
you know, give the sense of.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
Of urgency to it.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
So that's my number four, The Love Pledge the Arena
from Attack of the Clones.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Excellent.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
You just did a real mantic, aren't you.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
Well.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
My next selection, number four is not romantic. It's called
Battle of the Heroes. This one is really interesting because
I had to go back, Like I said, I had
to go back and do a little research. And I
was whistling through this and I was kind of like
at play and doing some other things, and I thought,
what song is this? I had to like look at
it and I was like, oh, I was like, this

(18:13):
is really intense. And I went back and found the
scene that plays in. It's right after they open on
and Anakin and Padme are on that like landing pad
He strangles her and like kind of condemns her and
they argue and have that big blow up fight you
know Freeze company, right, So then they start battling and

(18:35):
it's like you can tell what the music. It's like,
the music is like unsure what it wants to do.
It's like these back and forth kind of gestures almost, and.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
You can that's what they're doing with life.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
They're going to the hallways, going through like command centers
and walking into this this lava pit in this area,
and you can tell that with the music too. There's
a struggle. There's a struggle almost with the music itself.
And I think that's unique about that because there's, like
you said, Dan, there's such a a lot of conflicts
and these three movies that are are The music really
sweeps us up into it as well. It's not what's

(19:05):
going on the screen with what else what we're hearing
and this is part of it, I think for this
this track, and it's cool to hear it because it's
not when I would necessarily pick out all the time,
but you're hearing going, man, this is this is really good?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
You know why?

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Why don't like this more often? But yeah, I think
it was a cool pick and I have to add
to my my normal rotation battle of the heroes.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
For nice, nice cool.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
That's when I was humming before we started recording. YEP
number three for me is similar to yours, but it's
called Anakin versus Obie one. They both have the same

(19:51):
you know the same, but the Anakin versus Obie one
is more focused, more intense, and there's no kind of
prelude to it. That's more soft, it's just the all
in action stuff. And this one is that's when we
listen to pretty regularly at our house, between this one
and Duel the Fates and the Return of the Jedi Song.
When those three songs come on, Mason and I are

(20:13):
got our lightstters out and ready to battle across the
Zaire household. And it's just a tremendous one. It's frenetic,
it's intense. It's somewhat sad because these two friends that
are like brothers are having this duel to the death.
But at its core, it's it's one of the best,
arguably one of the best action sequences in the entire

(20:34):
history of Star Wars. It's and this soundtrack is the
pulse of that. It's like you put on cruise control
kind of ah nice. It's called Anakin versus obi Wan
Cruse Control.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
I like that's the way you described that. That's cool.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
It is cool.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
So my number three we are in tune, gentlemen, we're
into stan my number three, Anakin versus Obi Wan. Can't
you believe out of all the music in these three films,
that's that's what we both came up with. But yeah,
I did o everything you said. The one thing I

(21:11):
would add is that it throws in the well. It
brings back several different themes. It's got the Imperial theme
in it, it's got the Twin Suns team in it.
And then it has that high choral music that you
referred to earlier that I through these, through these Peak prequels,
I came to associate that high choral with the syth
and I could be way off on that. That's just

(21:33):
where my brain goes. And to hear that, you know,
like like drama, something bad is going to happen or
there's a bad feeling going on, and so all of
that is in there, and chords in it too.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I believe it.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
Yes, I think you're right it does. And so I
just I thought that that was that is definitely definitely
a solid number three for me because as the first
two are.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Are way ahead, way ahead. Wow yeah wow, Yeah, I
like mineter way, but they're ahead. You know, it's either
to yeah, a big gap.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
See for me, it's a big gap. But I don't know.
We'll see what you guys think when we get up there.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
My number three, uh is the confrontation with Count Dooku,
and I wanted to be I wanted to I want
to include all attract from each one of the movies
because I just want to be nice. And I was
trying to think of other things that happens to the movies,
what what scenes do I like? And this one came

(22:42):
up because I remember watching this on my first midnight
showing of a Star Wars movie was Attack of the Clones,
and it was with my girlfriend and wife now Holly,
and she she fell asleep during it. But first day, right,
it was the first date. It was later on, but uh,
we're a waking umber. We've tried to watch Fantom Menace
and then because we're gonna go see Attack the Clones

(23:04):
and she ended up falling asleep, which was kind of joke.
But this is one where I we're also like cheering
out a movie theater because when this happens, this music
comes on, Yoda is coming out and he's doing his thing,
and you don't expect that, and you're like, what is happening?
You know, it's just like kind of mind blowing. But
it's kind of this quarrel of music and this battle

(23:26):
going on, but it's just like it's kind of it's
not like a Yoda theme, but it's it's it's kind
of like it's a lights for a battle. Like we've
said before, it's just kind of get this this community
of back and forth and struggle.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
But what's cool about it.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
I like about it is it plays up into the
very end theme where you know what was kind of
that that lit It kind of goes right into that,
and that's just like you're kind of like this the
same takeaway you get from Empire where things are kind
of on the down play, like we've kind of like
had a bad run of it and got his arm

(24:01):
chopped off, and you know, there's a lot of bad
things going on, and it's just this weird, intense moment,
but you're also excited.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Uh with this.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
And so obviously with my girlfriend being there, I was
a Star Wars fan, she really wasn't, and it was
just like this this moment of all coming together. And
so when I hear that, I'm like, this feels good,
this feels right. You know, it's it's me those nostalgic
feelings for that reason.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Cool love it. Yeah, I love when you tell that story.
It's pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Good story number two.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Number two is one that I typically don't aim for
these kind of feels, but this one's just too powerful
to me. There's there's a about an hour in Revenge
just sits where it's almost perfect and some of it isn't.
But this part is this is called Anakin's betrayal. This
is when things go very south, very very rapidly, and

(24:56):
there it's very very sad. It's very emotional. Everyone feels good,
trade everyone feels hurt. I think Anakin at his score
feels like he's let himself down, but he's too far
in to do anything about it. And obviously that's a
pretty famous thing when it comes to the history of
the Star Wars lore. But just very heavy and sad,
and you can hear the pain through everyone in this track,

(25:18):
and it's it's echoed a couple of times during the
immolation scene and when Padme realizes that her she's lost
her husband to the dark side of the forest, and ah,
no matter how many times I see it just rips
my gut apart. It's it's really it's really Shakespearean.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah, that Revenge of the Sith soundtrack is it's tough,
and I know exactly what part you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
That song as well. So great choice just.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Thinking about it.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, well there was that one you knew rof the
top of your head that was a choice with the
top No, I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
But then when when I was listening, like through a
little snippet of each one, I was like, oh yeah,
oh yeah, it's when I tried not to think about.
When you think about it just sticks with you.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Yeah, good call.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
And that's the when I listened to a lot. But
but it has an incredible emotional theft.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah it does.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Absolutely, So okay, we're gonna jump the chasm for me
because these two songs were when when we said that
we're doing the prequels, I was like, these are my
top two.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
I just wrote them down.

Speaker 4 (26:26):
I didn't even think about it, and then I went
and listened to the three soundtracks to remind myself of
whatever what else was out there, because I knew, you know,
obviously it's all great, but it's how do you how
do you start pulling out, you know, the stuff that
really means something to you. So number two was very
controversial when the CD came out because it came out

(26:47):
before the movie and it had it had a title
that gave away a major piece, and you all know
what it is.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
It's from The Phantom Menace.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
Qui Gon's Noble end yep this this song, man, You know,
just without the music, the two blades coming out of
Darth Maul's you know, dual lightsaber may not have had
the presence, you know, just that.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
You just I'll never forget that moment in the theater.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
And I will say so when I said earlier at
the opening that you know this this these three movies
or these three soundtracks have a different, different feel. This
song is one of the songs that really pulls that out.
And for me, I think John Williams used percussion particularly
in the first two movies. It's not quite so much
in Revenge of the Set that has a different feel,

(27:42):
but the first two movies the percussion is magnificent. I
love the way he uses different pieces, everything from what
sounds like. I'm just going purely by sounds here, you
guys not. I don't have any details. I haven't researched it,
but there are places where I hear finger symbols and
different times of rum and the xylophone use. And this

(28:02):
is one where the percussion on this one is magnificent.
You have the xylophone just going crazy, and this is
the one where there I'm almost certain there's a finger
symbol that the bings in there, the solo drumble drum
where everything's quiet and it.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
Goes bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
It's got that tribal feel that you know, we didn't
know much about the Zebrax at that time, at least
I didn't when I watch that, and it just, you know,
his look looks very tribal, and so it's really threatening
when that solo drum is just pounding and you're like,
whoa boy, it's something, this is this is amazing, this
is powerful and so and then of course you know,

(28:39):
we know what happens.

Speaker 5 (28:42):
In this song.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
So this this one can sit in my head and
haunt me. Want me, oh, I forgot the part. It
has that whispering chant. I don't know what they're saying,
but that's what I hear. So that's my number two, guys,

(29:04):
a noble end.

Speaker 1 (29:05):
That's good. That's very good.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Good one. Yeah, yeah, I agree to you. From my
one and two.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
They were immediately on my list because I was like,
oh yep, definitely these two and this one is just
to me a very just you're talking about romantic and
this and the Peopils have some obviously have some romance
to them, and this is, uh, this is one that
just really is just a bubiul track all around. It's
cross the Stars and it's a very popular track with

(29:35):
Stars fans, and to me, it's there's there's a there's
a there's a part in this that has I think
it's I don't know, musical instruments, but I think it's
the harps and has that sweeping motion and like breath,
you know, it's just like that. It's just really uh,
it's just I don't know, it just hits different on
this this track for some reason, but then also has

(29:59):
an ominant there's an dominance to this track to that
kind of gets later out and down in the in
the in the song, and there's a there's a there's
a heavy weight there. Like you mentioned, you had a
good part on saying like a lot of these these
these mucal numbers are there's there's a lightness to them,
there's action to them, and there's.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Also some this melancholy feel to them.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
And the cross Doors has a very sweeping, soga manic
feel to it, but then it does have this this
pull in where it's like, hey, this is some serious stuff,
something's going to go down, like something bad is happening.
It's always just this rain cloud almost if your hang
over you And but this this track alone is just
really uh, I think, just a beautiful piece. Uh. And

(30:42):
it has a lot of Star Wars elements in it,
but also I think I can pulled out of Star
Wars and just be just really I don't know, I
think I think it could be used in other ways.
I don't I don't know how you turn off the
Star warsness of it, but uh, it's just a beautiful
piece and I really always enjoyed listening to it, and
whenever it comes on, I just kind of I kind
of like, you know, just listen to it and just

(31:02):
really enjoy uh, the way it kind of moves through
the piece.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
So I like Across the Stars, you know. The the
third article I ever proposed to Star Wars dot Com
was about the Star Wars prom that I was in
charge of, and it was titled Across the Stars, which
was nice and subtle because if you didn't know what
you could say Oh, it's just a pleasant you know,
midnight sky prompting. But we played that song yet prompt

(31:30):
maybe everybody danced to it. It was super cool.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
It was super cool cool. Yeah, there's there's only a
lot to that like that is that's a That's just
the way to put that across the stars because it
goes again. It works on sewy levels. It doesn't say, oh,
this is Luke's theme.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
Where this is? This is something across the stars. This
is a love that stretches across sagas. You know.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
It's really interesting, like how time and I will feel
when you live in Tennessee, across the state. We're down
to number one, aren't we?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
We are? We are?

Speaker 2 (32:07):
This is a very easy one, easy one.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
This is the way I didn't I didn't have to
look up. I had to look at that what is
titled But it's actually your number five, Corey's, But that's
my number one. Star Wars and the Revenge of the
Sith to me and all the epic openings of the
Star Wars films, this is the best opening besides The
New Hope, probably of any Star Wars from the epic

(32:31):
sweeping score. It's the only time they take the Star
Wars heroes theme, and they darken it and they texturize
it and they make it match the tone of this film.
It's like a dark version of the heroes theme because
Anakin becomes sort of a dark hero, very evident about
fifteen twenty minutes into this film, and you know, the
pounding bass and the explosions in the background and the

(32:54):
lights flashing and them swooping in and out. It's very heroic,
but it's also very like you're little taken aback and
it's a little nerve wrecking because there's tension. There's great tension,
but it's just a dynamic version. And John Walliers never
did anything like this after that with the original, you know,
the actual Star Wars team itself. But man, when he

(33:16):
did it, it is so memorable. When you have that
cruising three year surround sound, there's just nothing like it.
I think it's a stunning piece of music that actually
matches a narrative tone beat by beat with the dialogue
and the acting and what we are set up for,
which at that time that was the last Star Wars film.

(33:37):
We're finally going to see how Darth Vader became Darth Vavor,
What his actual fall from Grace was because we had
no actual idea, and I feel like this music brought
up It almost took us out of the film to say, hey,
we as the creators of this story, we have the
same anxiety that you have. We're leading you to a
dark place. Hold on tight and boy did it deliver.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
Of it good pickol cool.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
I love that explanation.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
By that way, Thank you, Okay, my number one. This
song to me defines the Prequels. This song comes to
my mind at many different times in totally unrelated events
to Star Wars. Sometimes when I'm mowing the yard and
I just want to get it done. This song comes
to mind when I'm out on the on the road

(34:25):
and I'm on mile like fifty four on my bike
and I'm getting tired. This song comes to mind, and
it is the duel of the fates from the Phantom Menace.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
To me, I just I don't know.

Speaker 4 (34:38):
I can't think of a song that that that fits
the prequels better. And so you know this this sets
the tone for the whole trilogy. It's a high, powerful
chorus that again, like I said earlier, that I start
this is where it began for me. This is where
I started associating the syth with this chorus that we

(34:59):
would hear and and then uh and then of course
you get the low strings.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
Then do do do do do do do? I mean,
how do you not get that stuck in your head in.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
The most powerful ways, whether it's Star Wars or just
something that you need to get done. Man, that that's
the underlying song that's going behind me when I'm trying
to like focus and get get something done.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
And what's so cool about it is in my re
listening to it, re listening to it. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
After I listened to it again, you think it's over.
It has the dun da du dun dun dun and
then and then before you know it, it's one more
look at them. I looked at the time on the
on the on the on the player and it said
forty seconds and it does another quick dun.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
Dun dun dun dun boom, and it's done. Holy cow,
I'm exhausted.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
But it's because something for just happened, because I listened
to Duel of the Fates. It's just it is just
a most magnificent song. It Maybe if we ever do
a top five of the whole nine movies, that might
still be my number one.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Wow wow spoiler alert, spoiler alert.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
I'm going to comment on that after we hear Coy's
number one.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Okay, that won't be hard because my number one is
also a duel of the fates. I agree with you, Tom,
You put in a good sense of if this is
the the finning song from the prequels. I think I
like you said, like when I hear the song, I
think of Prequels obviously, but I think it's because this
is a piece we had never heard before. Again, like

(36:45):
I said at the beginning of the top of the show,
was John Williams had a lot to work with here.
He didn't just say, have you know a small amount
of time and like a small little orchestra. He was
using everything as a disposal. And this song we hear
these voices these you know, no, no, no, you know,
the the humming.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
And the voices. Oh you know, there's a there's a
video out there.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Somebody had put the words to it, silly words and
it's not the words, but uh, it gets caught in
your head sometimes. But that had never been using Star
Wars before though, those those voices uh, the kind of
the I don't know what you called the operatic not operatic,
but I don't.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, it works, it works. I just those haunting, it's
very haunting voices. But it's that it's funny. It's a
funny connection.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
But there's a movie, a comedy movie called Spinal Tap
from the I think it's the eighties or seventies to
eighties where the guys talk about their amps going their
volume level goes up to eleven, which is not true
Spinal Tap, Yeah, and it doesn't doesn't go to eleven.
But in this duel the fates, I feel like John
Williams has turned up to eleven.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
And that bomb bomb look great, blow your hair back
and like what because the entrance of Darth Maul and
those doors splitting open and there he is. He just
looks up with his hooded robe. And then it's like
this changed the movie entirely. You know, it's just like, okay,
this has got super serious, Like I'm getting goosebones right now.

(38:17):
It's it's such an entrance and you think about just
other films where the villain enters or there's a you know,
there's this you know, captive moment. This is one that
really stands out. Like you said, this is a really
powerful theme. And again it's never done for in Star Wars.
So to kick this off in the first prequel movie,

(38:38):
it's like setting the stage, like going, oh my goodness,
this is crazy, Like this is a brand new character,
brand new sith uh and he's dangerous. You lead it
to about Qui gon so again, this duel of fates
is it is a Star Wars staple in my head,
coming from the prequels.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Number one pick for me.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I mean it's a slam dunk, right, I mean, it's
noticeably absent from my list, and Mason was.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Like, what what do you mean?

Speaker 1 (39:05):
But I didn't pick it for the same reason I
didn't pick the Imperial March for the last one, because
I I've heard this song so much that it's lost
some of its effect on me. And except for when
I'm watching The Phenomenace that you could argue that that
scene with Darth Maul showing up and will take the
Long Way and all that great stuff that happens and
that exquisite build up. I mean, that's about as good

(39:25):
as it gets in cinema period. But I've just heard
that song so many times, and it's so many events
and it's so many things that it it doesn't affect
me the same way that I used to. And that's
kind of stinky, but I'm okay, well, I mean it's
just a part of it.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
I think that's really fair because we mentioned that in
the last review, you know, of our top five for
original trilogy. And I think that's an interesting argument to
put up because it's like, as Star Wars fans, we
tend to hear music more often than not. And you know,
you walk through Galaxy's ed or you know, you're in
a sequence of something and you're like, oh, I know it.
It almost take she pulls you out of the event,

(40:01):
or pulls you out of that motion goes Okay, you
know I've done this before.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Remind me of the episode one hype, which was so
huge beer than anything I think we've ever experienced since,
and then it became oversaturated and that's almost everywhere.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
It's like let it go from Frozen. That sounds dumb,
but that's very very true.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
No, I see what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
Yeah, yeah, oh, fair assessments.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
When I when I was playing it tonight, I Kaylee
was in the next room, and I said to her,
I said, hey, what character do you think of when
you hear this? I totally like she was doing math,
so you know, she's ripped her brain out of you something.
She be one and then I was like, oh okay,
and then not fifteen seconds later, she pops into the
room and she goes dead.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
I don't I don't know what I was thinking. That's
Darth Maul. I just it's Darth mall for sure. Yeah,
I said, okay, I was just curious.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
I just wanted to know who you thought of, because
that's why I think of when I, you know, anything
I hear that d Darth.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
Maul is is it?

Speaker 1 (40:58):
So you think they're close up?

Speaker 5 (41:00):
Then? Assessment?

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Fair assessment, dan, you know it just h yeah, maybe
overdone just in fandom. But I can't I can't set
it aside personally.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, it's free, it's fair. I mean it's it's great.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah, good picks you guys.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
I mean this is I will say, this is a
tough list, uh, you know it just to review it
and and it's it's nice to review this over time
because uh, the prequels, somebody don't get a lot of
love and walking through this list is like, oh man,
I need to watch movies again.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
You know, I need to revisit this.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
You know, I think it's because of your different seasons
of life and you kind of you see in different ways.
I know, Dan, for a longest time, you've made the
case for a Phantom Mess being such a great kids
introduction to Star Wars and I'm well to take my
kids in the theaters when they put them back out
and they had a blast at fan Mess and make
me love Phantom so much more. And these music obviously
has a lot to do with it. So yeah, that

(42:00):
does it for this show. This doesn't for pore over
any last thoughts out there.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
People who right when they saw the Phenomenace are now thirty.
That's that's my last thought. So for them, it's not
you know them, that's the stars they grew up with,
you know what I mean. Yeah, I've heard the prequel love.
The prequel criticism is definitely eroded since the sequel trilogy
has come out.

Speaker 4 (42:23):
Very good.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Yeah, well, listeners, uh, you know, we're excited to hear
your list your top five of prequel music tracks. Leave
them down below on the comment list. We'd love to
hear what you think or some of your favorites. What
are some that bring up great memories, good feelings and
where were you when you first heard these music playing
in theaters and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
So we'd love to hear that from you, guys. We
appreciate all the feedback. We appreciate all the great time
we have and dance taking a picture of me with
the phone for some.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Reason Instagram story.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Whoa Hey, we're on Instagram, So if you're hearing this now,
we were on Instagram, go check that out.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
If you haven't follow us there, check us out there
as well.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
So thanks again for our staying with us for this
weekly poor Over show, and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 4 (43:08):
Listening to Coffee with Knoby you are with dean Z
the podcast you're looking for this is.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
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(43:47):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}CWK Show #832: Top Five Favorite Musical Tracks From The Star Wars Prequels

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CWK Show #832: Top Five Favorite Musical Tracks From The Star Wars Prequels

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