[HN Gopher] Doctor Who theme: Ron Grainer (composer) Delia Derby...
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Doctor Who theme: Ron Grainer (composer) Delia Derbyshire
(musician, arranger)
Author : gnabgib
Score : 73 points
Date : 2024-12-12 07:35 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nfsa.gov.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nfsa.gov.au)
| eesmith wrote:
| For those interested in more about Derbyshire,
| https://hn.algolia.com/?q=Derbyshire has previous entries:
|
| * Delia Derbyshire - Sculptress of Sound
| [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0OGeEgwKNs)
|
| * Delia Derbyshire - The Delian Mode
| [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2dvGQ32q8g)
|
| * How Delia Derbyshire made the Doctor Who theme
| (1965)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRuhCflRyg)
|
| plus links to essays and other text about her.
| baruchthescribe wrote:
| Delia Derbyshire is one of my heroes: an electronic music
| pioneer way before her time.
| louthy wrote:
| Hear, hear. Daphne Oram too.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Oram
| rodgerd wrote:
| She is one of the featured artists in Sisters with Transistors:
| https://sisterswithtransistors.com/
| anonymousiam wrote:
| Orbital did it well:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H_o6ncUz3g
| drcwpl wrote:
| This is a superb version. Thanks for sharing
| senko wrote:
| The original is, well, OG, but I prefer the Orbital version,
| esp. when listening on something that won't butcher the bass
| (ie not a phone, laptop, or cheap headphones).
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| There's also a version arranged by Ron Grainer.
|
| Whatever you're expecting, it's not this.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1SZs4xudf8
| moomin wrote:
| It definitely wasn't what I was expecting BUT it is what I
| should have expected. It has a lot more in common with other
| TV themes of the time. It's also different enough to justify
| the legendary exchange where Grainger reportedly asked
| Derbyshire if that was really what he wrote. The story goes
| that she replied "Yes... mostly"
| 95014_refugee wrote:
| Worth reading his son @snakesofself's comment below that
| video for additional context.
|
| As a fan of the show, and what it did to advance the art of
| visual storytelling, learning more (and understanding
| less!) about the artists just makes the whole thing more
| interesting and more human.
| dhosek wrote:
| I always wanted to do a trio version of this with my brothers
| with me on double bass, one brother on banjo and the third on
| violin, but alas, my oldest brother died before it could move
| beyond just being a dream.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Doctor look out! is permanently burned into my brain from this
| for the past 20+ years
|
| edit: maybe it's the live version or a remix. there's a version
| in my inventory that definitely has that sample
| pvg wrote:
| KLF's more fun take https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsAVx0u9Cw4
| orblivion wrote:
| I heard this when I was young, and I wasn't that familiar
| with the Dr Who TV show. So when a hockey game was on TV I
| thought "oh cool they're playing the Dr. Who song".
| mzs wrote:
| And that hockey song was part of Gary Glitter's Rock'n
| Roll. Here's Part 2: https://youtu.be/Nras3c8r45k
|
| My personal fav hockey song is Chelsea Dagger by The
| Fratellis: https://youtu.be/2gDb_axpfeY
| orblivion wrote:
| > And that hockey song was part of Gary Glitter's Rock'n
| Roll
|
| Yeah that's the joke, that I was naive enough to think
| that American sports fans would be into Dr. Who or The
| KLF.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| This track is infamous for being the proof of concept behind
| the KLF's formula for writing instant #1 chart hits.
|
| Once it did indeed go to #1 in the UK, they wrote a book
| about how to do it, which several other artists followed and
| also went to #1.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual
| Fluorescence wrote:
| I was an Orbital fan back in the early nineties... and I really
| hate it.
|
| It diminishes the magic of the OG, the breakbeat is lazy and
| out of place and it has nothing of what made Orbital good which
| is how their layers would interact with each other in rewarding
| ways.
|
| It's a shame because I could imagine a mix working in their
| early 90s style like Remind from the brown album e.g. add more
| synth layers sympathetic with the OG mood/style getting
| increasingly richer and more intense and acidy until a beat
| starts emerging from between the layers.
|
| By the 00s, they just spin a beat on top like a DJ. Bleugh. Not
| quite as hateable as the KLF's version at least.
| woopwhoopwp wrote:
| Orbital has always been a lazy cut and paste band. I mean
| they have some bangers but their music is generally sterile
| IMO. Even their synth patches feel stock and uninventive.
| abstractbill wrote:
| Same, I was a huge Orbital fan back in the day but found
| their version of the theme lazy and boring.
|
| In contrast, around the same time they put it out, Plaid put
| out a track named Unbank that I'm convinced was inspired by
| the Doctor Who theme and is imo rather fantastic:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc39YRO8HM4
| timc3 wrote:
| As soon a I read Unbank I had the tune in my head, it is
| rather good.
| TiredOfLife wrote:
| https://youtu.be/M9P4SxtphJ4
|
| Craig Ferguson version of Orbital version.
| bagpuss wrote:
| ooh Ron Grainer also did the delightfully creepy theme tune to
| Tales of the Unexpected
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js7T-VTL91k
| FearNotDaniel wrote:
| As a child of the 1970s I can't begin to describe how evocative
| this is... absolute shivers down the spine on hearing this old
| school analogue version again, immediately summoning up both
| terror and excitement at what was about to come. That "opening
| sting" they describe in the notes (the dramatic descending sound
| before the main bassline kicks in) was usually only used at the
| end of an episode to underscore whatever dramatic cliffhanger or
| plot twist had just occurred. By which point my sister and I,
| along with millions of other British children, would be hiding
| behind the couch in fear... this is the days when, to quote
| National Lampoon, we had "only three channels and no MTV" and I
| "pity the fools" who tried to schedule any competing American
| action shows on the other major channel at the same time.
|
| There is of course, only one Doctor that counts, and it's Tom
| Baker all the way...
| chasil wrote:
| The Pertwee episode "Inferno" was the one that really
| frightened me as a child.
|
| The Baker era was more captivating, and less terrifying (for me
| at least).
| dewitt wrote:
| It may please and amuse you that this fellow child of the 70's,
| growing up across the pond in Boston, could have written that
| exact same comment, nearly word for word. The impact of Doctor
| Who was truly global, and for many of us Americans, our first
| introduction to the BBC (as rebroadcast via PBS affiliates in
| the States) and to British culture in general.
| markdomino wrote:
| Same, me as a child of the 80's in Delaware... inspired so
| much interest in tech, sound; even the old intro video
| effects were uncanny. It's a pleasure now to share new
| episodes with my kids and occasionally go on a run through
| some classic episodes for backstory.
|
| I haven't read through the comments fully, but check out "An
| Electronic Storm" by White Noise
| https://wikidelia.net/wiki/An_Electric_Storm
| dhosek wrote:
| PBS, back in the 70s and 80s used to broadcast so much
| British stuff. Not just Doctor Who, but Monty Python, The Two
| Ronnies, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served and so much more
| if I were to dig into my memory to find it. I still have the
| Tom Baker Doctor Who scarf my mom knit for me back around
| 1980ish. My kids love the new Who, but I've not been
| successful in getting them to watch any of the classic era
| stuff.
|
| Fun fact: my older brothers and a friend of theirs made a
| transcription of the theme for four-handed piano and were
| selling the sheet music at cons until they got a cease and
| desist letter from the BBC.
| dylan604 wrote:
| My local PBS did a BBC block on Saturday evenings, but on
| Friday night they did Red Dwarf on its own. The Saturday
| block was where I was introduced to Rowan Atkinson with
| Black Adder. I still quote "I have a cunning plan".
| leptons wrote:
| Also an avid Dr. Who fan in the 1970s, growing up on Long
| Island and watching it on my black and white TV on Saturday
| mornings on PBS. I was the only kid I knew that watched it
| though. Having my own television (mostly used for my Atari
| 400 computer) helped me explore all the channels, leading me
| to PBS. I loved Dr. Who so much, I couldn't wait for Saturday
| morning. Then it was followed by all kinds of other shows
| nobody else I knew watched, one of them was Computer
| Chronicles. It was all so much better than watching cartoons.
| shever73 wrote:
| > There is of course, only one Doctor that counts, and it's Tom
| Baker all the way...
|
| I could have written this entire post, but especially the last
| line. The 4th Doctor theme is my phone ringtone on the very
| rare occasions when it's not on silent.
| djbusby wrote:
| Thought I was the only one.
| dhosek wrote:
| While Tom Baker was the first Doctor I ever encountered,
| Peter Davison was always _my_ Doctor. The Time Crash mini-
| episode was especially delightful to me because (a) David
| Tennant is married to Peter's daughter and (2) he apparently
| has the same fondness for Davison out of the classic doctors.
| moomin wrote:
| Davison had the benefit of some truly great writing. Colin
| Baker got very badly served indeed.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| Dr Who gets labelled as SF, but it's really Victorian horror in
| the tradition of Wilkie Collins and Henry James, with a coat of
| silver science fiction paint and more than a few nods to
| Shakespeare. It's always had that terrifying aspect with its
| focus on ghosts, wizard, witches, and monsters, some of whom
| happen to be alien, all of whom are still recognisable as
| distorted humanity.
|
| For more mainstream _alien_ SF horror you want Nigel Kneale 's
| Quatermass series. If you squint hard you can see the influence
| of the original 1950s Quatermass episodes in Dr Who's DNA.
| mordechai9000 wrote:
| > Tom Baker all the way...
|
| The best, yes but William Hartnell defined the role and came up
| with the idea of regeneration if I remember correctly. It
| saddens me so many of those episodes are lost. I watched it on
| US public TV in the 80s, and I think even some of the episodes
| I watched then are gone.
| mordechai9000 wrote:
| I had some of those episodes on VHS, too, recorded at the
| worst possible quality to fit as much as possible on one
| cassette. Lost in the mists of time...
| whitehexagon wrote:
| well said. I always wanted his scarf, and even had a go at
| building a K9 at one point. I still have my Dr Who 1st Annual
| tucked away somewhere, and a Lego tardis. Some of the relaunch
| story lines were good, Rose Tyler, and Clara Oswin Oswald, but
| Tom Baker will always be the hiding behind the sofa memory.
| Jelly bean anyone?
| Finnucane wrote:
| Apparently Grainer thought Derbyshire's contributions were
| sufficient to warrant co-composer credit, but BBC rules didn't
| allow it.
| 00deadbeef wrote:
| What is this and why do I need to request access?
| anigbrowl wrote:
| It's an archive and you are requesting access to the original
| physical master recording.
| z303 wrote:
| Also Whomix for many more interpretations
|
| https://whomix.windbubbles.net/play
| arreyder wrote:
| Pretty sure this classic by Pink Floyd also pays homage to the Dr
| Who Theme. At one point they play the main phrase which makes it
| more obvious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-doD3VpyA
| arreyder wrote:
| More apparant here around the 3 minute mark:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48PJGVf4xqk
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(page generated 2024-12-12 23:01 UTC)