OFFICIAL BATMUSIC THREAD ADD TO IT WHEN YOU WILL

[John Mack]

Great! I have lots of questions and I hope Pat can answer them! One of my questions is about Johnny Green's claim about co-writing the theme with Hefti.
http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/local ... 1953a.html
When's the complete soundtrack release? lol

Sorry to add yet another question for you Pat. Green has his contact info on his site, even a phone number.

[Pat The Batman Fan]

Hey Everyone, catching back up with this thread... Wow! Lots of stuff happening!

First of all, not heard the Johnny Green thing ever before- he's never mentioned that to me. I've been talking to Johnny on the phone quite a bit and we're going to be doing an interview at some point for the documentary. I'm going to hold off commenting until I get some first person clarification.

I hope once the film really gets rolling, I can get some more answers as to the state of the music of the show- do separate tracks even exist anymore or is it all simply mushed into the mix for the show? This is a major goal of mine.

As for Warren Barker, I'm afraid the answer will probably turn out to be something pedestrian, like Nelson was unavailable for some reason and turned it over to Warren. Warren worked with Nelson quite often on different projects apparently.

That said, it is another goal to find out the definitive answer. Once I have a firmer timeline of the "Batman" recording dates I may be able to detective it out from there. But honestly, my suspicion is the answer is not all that exciting.

I will be making a trip to Arizona myself to dig into Nelson's collection of papers at the University of Arizona:
http://www.cfa.arizona.edu/riddle/colle ... S4NELS.pdf
If anyone wants to meet up for that I'd love it!

Also, I will be going to Kool Aid Days in Hastings, NE (Neal's hometown) this August to shoot some footage...and here's the REALLY crazy part: Every year they have a different T-shirt design featuring Kool Aid Man. Check out this year's design:

http://kool-aiddays.com/

Is that Bat-kismet or what?

As for the na-na-na vs da-da-da... I think I addressed it once before in this thread, but here it is: The da-da-das are sung by the chorus at the coda of the song. They are actually part of the composition as written by Hefti. When people sing "na na na na na na na na... BATMAN!" they are just phonetically sounding out the music, not misinterpreting the lyrics. Kind of like when when you sound out the Pink Panther theme... "Duh nuh, Duh nuh, duh nuh-duh nuh-duh nuh-duh nuh-duh nuuuuuuuuuuh, duh da diddle dah!" Well, that's how I do it anyway. Results may vary.

I had a great time talking with Tim and Paul... hope you all listen and I don't come of like too much of a knob!

And I'm very open to listening to suggestions and/or answering any questions any of you have for the film. I aim to make this the definitive piece on the subject, so if any of you have anything you feel is of value, by all means please share it.

[Jthree]

To the Bat-Music Bat Experts:

If you were going to say which cues from which episodes would have been mostly likely for a "Catwoman theme," which ones would they be?

JThree

[Dr. Shimel]

Great! I have lots of questions and I hope Pat can answer them! One of my questions is about Johnny Green's claim about co-writing the theme with Hefti.
http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/local ... 1953a.html

Somebody have some boots available? It's getting pretty deep in here with Johnny Green's claims. :

"He and his green-haired bandmates - Johnny Green and the Greenmen - acted as the Joker's henchmen in 27 episodes."--An amazing feat, considering Cesar Romero only appeared in 18 episodes.

[Ben Bentley]

I had a great time talking with Tim and Paul... hope you all listen and I don't come of like too much of a knob!

And I'm very open to listening to suggestions and/or answering any questions any of you have for the film. I aim to make this the definitive piece on the subject, so if any of you have anything you feel is of value, by all means please share it.

Really looking forward to listening to that episode of the "To the Batpoles" podcast, i've really warmed to it and some of the guest episodes are my faves so far, I thought the one with our pal Wally was great fun.

[John Mack]

I understand Doc. There certainly needs to be more research on his claims. For anyone who doesn't know what Doc and I are talking about, here's the link Doc shared. It's from 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGu1Nm4l5jo

If you know anything about the music of the series, and the people that created it, the interview strikes one as curious to say the least. This link to a newspaper article is really contrary to everything we've heard over the years as well.
http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/local ... 1953a.html

Anyway, moving on...I wonder what the music for the new 66 animated movie will be like. Anyone think they'll have license to use the old villain cues?

[BATWINGED HORNET]

http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/local ... 1953a.html

Green comes off like Barris--taking credit for the work of others, or creating self-celebrating history. Woodstock? The Bat-music?

Anyway, moving on...I wonder what the music for the new 66 animated movie will be like. Anyone think they'll have license to use the old villain cues?

At best, expect sound-alike music. I doubt this cartoon's production went out of its way to dig into the whereabouts of the tapes. If they made that kind of effort, I would expect some party to finally produce a series soundtrack, but....

[John Mack]

I agree BWH. On both points. The Green thing will or has exposed itself, so no sense even taking more space and time on that.
The new music will most likely be NEW and that's ok. My only hope is that whomever does the music gives us a nod to the overall flavor of the original series. That's all I am hoping for.

[Progress Pigment]

http://m.bismarcktribune.com/news/local ... 1953a.html

Green comes off like Barris--taking credit for the work of others, or creating self-celebrating history. Woodstock? The Bat-music?

Or Bob Kane taking full credit for anything connected to Batman. In interviews, "When I created Robin .." , "When I created The Joker ..", or "When I created Two-Face .." all of which he did not do!

http://comicsalliance.com/ty-templeton- ... -kane-art/

Comics writer Ty Templeton: "All Bill Finger really did was come up with the color scheme, the costume, the cape, the cowl, the idea that he shouldn’t have any superpowers, the origin story about his parents being shot in an alley, the idea that he’s a detective, the words “Batmobile” and “Gotham City,” Robin, the Joker, Catwoman, and a few other minor elements.”



http://theobscuregentlemen.com/2015/09/23/015-bob-kane/
***admin edit***
Careful. Phrasing is everything to stay within the rules (even if I may agree with a certain sentiment). No bashing or name calling. And please keep this thread on topic. Music. Thanks!!

[bat-rss]

To the Bat-Music Bat Experts:

If you were going to say which cues from which episodes would have been mostly likely for a "Catwoman theme," which ones would they be?

JThree

I assume you've got the discs available, so pop in "The Purr-fect Crime". You can hear the Catwoman theme during the robbery in the first scene. Later, in her hideout, the theme is being played on trombones while her henchmen talk, and then it goes to that screechy sound -- a keyboard instrument, I think, but couldn't swear to it -- that slides down to the second note.

You can also hear it played by brass when Lee Meriwether is shown during the credits of the '66 Batman movie.

[bat-rss]

Really looking forward to listening to that episode of the "To the Batpoles" podcast, i've really warmed to it and some of the guest episodes are my faves so far, I thought the one with our pal Wally was great fun.

Glad you're enjoying it!

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

It's probably been addressed somewhere, but if you guys are interviewing people behind the scenes involving the Bat-music, I'd be interested to hear the process of getting the music synced with the fight scenes. Some episodes, such as Archer's, have unique musical 'stabs' during punches that land.

I imagine the music was recorded first and the film editors were left with the task of synchronization. They did a marvelous job, especially on 1960's technology. But I'd still be curious to hear what problems they encountered, and such.

[John Mack]

It's probably been addressed somewhere, but if you guys are interviewing people behind the scenes involving the Bat-music, I'd be interested to hear the process of getting the music synced with the fight scenes. Some episodes, such as Archer's, have unique musical 'stabs' during punches that land.

I imagine the music was recorded first and the film editors were left with the task of synchronization. They did a marvelous job, especially on 1960's technology. But I'd still be curious to hear what problems they encountered, and such.

You should listen to the podcast

http://tothebatpoles.libsyn.com/037-pat ... of-the-bat

They discuss how the music was probably scored after the episode was filmed, rather like a Warner Brothers cartoon, and give examples of this. I agree with the premise, unless we learn otherwise of course.

Well, the music editors didn't always do such a fine job. Watch the opening credits in the pilot episode. The trumpet blasts are way out of sync from the fight balloons. When I was younger, I always attributed that to them showing the episode over and over again. Which leads me to pose yet another question. When the pilot first aired, was the theme as we hear it now, way out of sync, or did it get messed up over time and they copied it to DVD that way?

Also, if you wondered why track 16 on the Batman movie soundtrack sounds all wonky, it's because the master was really in bad shape and was degenerating. I spoke to Lukas Kendall about that, and he took my question as a complaint and said he almost left it off the CD completely so be satisfied with what we got. It's strange that one of only a few Batman themed cues that were in the movie got messed up. But I digress.
And speaking of the movie:
Finding out information on the music is like pulling shark's teeth

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

It's probably been addressed somewhere, but if you guys are interviewing people behind the scenes involving the Bat-music, I'd be interested to hear the process of getting the music synced with the fight scenes. Some episodes, such as Archer's, have unique musical 'stabs' during punches that land.

I imagine the music was recorded first and the film editors were left with the task of synchronization. They did a marvelous job, especially on 1960's technology. But I'd still be curious to hear what problems they encountered, and such.

You should listen to the podcast

http://tothebatpoles.libsyn.com/037-pat ... of-the-bat

They discuss how the music was probably scored after the episode was filmed, rather like a Warner Brothers cartoon, and give examples of this. I agree with the premise, unless we learn otherwise of course.

Well, the music editors didn't always do such a fine job. Watch the opening credits in the pilot episode. The trumpet blasts are way out of sync from the fight balloons. When I was younger, I always attributed that to them showing the episode over and over again. Which leads me to pose yet another question. When the pilot first aired, was the theme as we hear it now, way out of sync, or did it get messed up over time and they copied it to DVD that way?

Also, if you wondered why track 16 on the Batman movie soundtrack sounds all wonky, it's because the master was really in bad shape and was degenerating. I spoke to Lukas Kendall about that, and he took my question as a complaint and said he almost left it off the CD completely so be satisfied with what we got. It's strange that one of only a few Batman themed cues that were in the movie got messed up. But I digress.
And speaking of the movie:
Finding out information on the music is like pulling shark's teeth

Thanks, I will definitely check it out.

I'm always amazed at the results, though imperfect, given the technology they had to work with in the 60's. Even something like I Dream of Jeannie and all the blinking. Sure there are errors, but all things considered, it's usually very good.

If indeed the music was scored after the visuals, I can't fault the music editors for the out-of-sync fight balloons. Unless the video editors had them appear in a strict rhythm, it would have been difficult if not impossible to have the music stabs sync perfectly without the tempo of the song fluctuating.

Of course they'd run into the same problem with the fight scenes during the episodes!

[Pat The Batman Fan]

Hi guys- good to see so much activity here. Right after that podcast I had some crazy things happen... including a hospital visit and some other stuff I'd rather not get into at the moment. At any rate, the film is moving forward, just did my first interview in the new "Pat Cave" and I am VERY happy with how the 66 set decoration plays on camera. Worth all the endless nights spent setting it up.

That podcast was great fun, I was so happy to be able to do it... the brothers really know their stuff and asked awesome questions. Hope we can do it again soon with some updated info for you all.

I have spoken with Eileen Horta daughter of Sam Horta, who was one of the show's music editors and a noted working sound editor herself. She made mention that her father really had to do a lot of crazy stuff to make things work on the show and I'm really hoping to speak to her on camera about it. She's a busy lady, hopefully we can make it happen cause it sounds like she has some great info.

I've been getting fairly in-depth with the analyzing the fight scene stuff as quite a few of them have motifs related to the episode's villain. I think there may be a few more "villain themes" than I initially realized as well... King Tut and Clock King for example. Hey, Kings should have themes, right?

I'll also be posting a short teaser of material I shot in England while I was there. Fun stuff.