1977 Jazz-Funk Musical Adaptation of Dune | Hacker News Reader

1977 Jazz-Funk Musical Adaptation of Dune

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100 pointscainxinth30 comments

I've got this on vinyl! Definitely one of my best record-store finds.

On the subject of weird Star Wars musical adaptations like those on the second half of the album -- I've recently discovered the track "Dark Vader" by Instant Funk from 1979. I love this track as it really feels like it captures a moment in time, right before The Empire Strikes Back was released and Star Wars really became a franchise.

- The misunderstanding of the name, which was exactly what I called "Darth Vader" as a kid, seemingly was more prevalent back at the time

- The feeling of absolute hype that he was going to return on screen (I assume this track came out after initial marketing for Empire began)

- The popular conception of Vader as a Black man -- something that must have seemed obvious at the time with the voice of James Earl Jones, that was really thrown away with his reveal as Luke's Father in Empire

For fans of this there's another '70s-era LP similarly inspired by the novel: Bernard Szajner's "Visions of Dune" from 1979. It's proggy, synthy, psychedelic, and just a weird fun listen.

https://bernardszajner.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-dune

Nice one. Another Dune-concept French progressive album from around the same time is Eros, by the band Dün: https://www.discogs.com/master/122007-D%C3%BCn-Eros

This made me think of Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds, which is one of my favorite albums. It’s really great for road trips.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ktYPoln1n-WvUNOQOW...

In a similar vein, I recommend checking out Bo Hansson's Progressive Rock/Space Rock album interpretation of The Lord of the Rings from 1970:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Inspired_by_Lord_of_the_...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs0AmruS8Ro&list=PL9DD02F58F...

The article mentions MF DOOM's sampling, but for fans of RJD2, the bonus track on the original Deadringer CD (Here's What's Left) is built on a sample from David Matthews' Silent Running on that album.

Oh man what a throwback. I played the FUCK out of deadringer back in the day but haven't thought about rjd2 many years. Going to go see what he's been up to.

Ah thanks for this one, I spent a good half hour earlier today trying to recall where I know that intro from. Whosampled doesn’t have it

The thing I find appealing about Dune is how WEIRD it is. There's depth too, but it's weird and it really lends itself to all sort of styles and IMO they all kinda work.

I’ve started showing my kids, Herculoids, thundar the barbarian, he-man, and other sorts of just really weird old cartoons. There’s not a lot today that’s being produced. That’s just fun and weird and gets the creative juices going. There are a few weird kids books too like the skull and the queen in the cave that I highly recommend.

Culture quickly defined by what has already been created could definitely use a shot of weird injected.

Love The Skull, I'll have to look up Queen in the Cave

My preschooler enjoyed Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis. The characters are insects who talk in an unintelligible language.

On the less weird, but still interesting side there's what's known to English speakers as Adventure Box - it's a translated version of the French monthly magazine J'aime lire which is published since 1977.

Du Iz Tak is amazing!

I think there's some weird stuff still.

I ran across Gravity Falls with my kids not long ago, that was great.

Seconded! Also, Adventure Time and its spin-offs are fantastic and deeply weird at times. Over the Garden Wall is another one.

IIRC He-Man was pretty merchandising driven so maybe not the best example. Except for Skeletor. That IRL origin story is priceless.

The nice thing about going back to those old toy driven shows is that you can’t get them anymore.

Back in the old days authors didn't know how anything worked and there was no Internet to look things up and no budget to do research so they were forced to make a lot of the stuff up on the spot. In retrospect a lot of those choices were weird and often blatantly unscientific, but they worked in context.

I sometimes wonder what He-Man would have been like if they had spent more than 5 seconds coming up with character names and concepts. The whole universe feels like a rough draft/outline where someone went "we're out of budget, this goes into production as is."

"Aquaman: King of Atlantis" hit some of those notes for me. I didn't particularly care about the story, but the animation was captivating.

Along similar lines - it's worth seeking out Kurt Stenzel's – Jodorowsky's Dune (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).

https://www.discogs.com/master/921405-Kurt-Stenzel-Jodorowsk...

An imagined view on what this OST would have sounded like to accompany to documentary (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1935156/).

If any Apple employees are reading this, the Apple Music page for David Matthews https://music.apple.com/au/artist/david-matthews/616619 mixes up 3 different people:

1. Keyboardist David Matthews born in 1942 who made the album "Dune" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Matthews_(keyboardist)

2. Rock musician David Matthews born in 1967 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews

3. Jazz saxophonist David Matthews born in 1911 (the bio section of the Apple Music page is about him) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Matthews_(saxophonist)

I have submitted a feedback ticket to Apple but I thought I would also leave it here.

Wow, this is excellent listening, instrumental funky jazz... at least the first 20 minutes until the cheesy "Space Oddity" cover starts. No ties to Dune necessary to enjoy it.

Cross genre jewel: London Symphony, Symphonic Led Zeppelin (1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOAZVxLsF4&list=OLAK5uy_nSl... nice arrangements orbiting the essential themes, a voyage from begin to end

Exhibit #432 in "Why Punk Happened", just after the Bee Gees movie based on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and right before "The Wiz."

I suppose Emerson, Lake and Palmer and the rotating suspended piano is not far behind.

For something a little more updated, a partial list of tracks that sample dune: https://www.whosampled.com/search/?q=dune+david+matthews

Not to be confused with a list of tracks which sample Dune (the 1984 film):

https://www.whosampled.com/movie/Dune/

From what I've read, the tie-in with Dune is ostensible at best. Plus, the suit by Herbert is why it wasn't released in the US

I preferred Toto

Atreides his name. Atreides his game. The Harkonnen wanted Arrakis back, they got Atreides up to here!

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