In this episode, Ryan and Justin discuss various topics, including the upcoming fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, the failed AI Willy Wonka event in Scotland, and the deployment of the National Guard in New York City subways. In this part of the conversation, the hosts discuss subway crime and its potential political motivations. They also briefly mention the TV show Shogun and their plans to discuss it in the future. The conversation then shifts to the upcoming Trump vs. Biden election and their thoughts on the candidates. The main topic of the conversation is introduced, which is their favorite 80s cartoon theme songs. They discuss the DuckTales, Thundercats, Gem and the Holograms, and Inspector Gadget theme songs. The conversation methodically reviews and discusses various theme songs from popular cartoons. The hosts analyze the quality and composition of each theme song, highlighting their unique features and nostalgic appeal. They also reflect on the golden age of theme songs and the factors that contributed to their excellence.
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Ryan (00:29)
Welcome to the Portable Hole podcast. I’m Ryan George and I’m here with my good friend Justin Gild. Cynic is out for the week, but hopefully he’ll be back next week as we talk about Shogun, which we were supposed to talk about today, but we’ll get to that. Justin, how you doing?
[email protected] (00:43)
Not bad. Not bad. I’m in Nashville just taking care of various assortments of different businesses.
Ryan (00:49)
Yeah. Cool. Good. Good. I just, I got back from, um, Uganda. So that’s why we, uh, had a bit of a hiatus for a couple of weeks, but I was, uh, the trip of a lifetime was kind of, it was crazy. Um, uh, you got, you know, we did a, one of my, like a bucket list thing, which was, uh, gorilla tracking. So we tracked into the forest and found a family gorillas, and then you just follow them around. And it was, uh, just an amazing experience, you know, one of the best experiences ever.
[email protected] (00:56)
Yeah, that’s crazy. Wow.
That’s wild. So a question. How close were you to that hip?
Ryan (01:19)
Okay, so that’s funny experience. So one of the cabins we stayed at or the lodges we stayed at, so one, it was a tent. It’s like a tent, but it’s a large tent and very nicely laid out and they have, you know, modern plumbing and modern bathroom kind of attached to it. And the first night, so they, at the lodge, after dark, they have to escort you to your tents because there are hippos out that just kind of roam on the grounds. So the first night,
[email protected] (01:20)
Hahaha.
Ryan (01:47)
we heard this loud noise that sounded like it was right outside of our tent, like, you know, just this crazy sound. And it’s, it’s secure. It’s, it’s pretty secure. And it’s also a little bit elevated. So the, and so, and we’re right on the river. So, and the hippos, like they, they spend the day on the river and then at night they come out to graze. So the next night I was kind of like, I want to see these hippos. I want to see these hippos. So we, we were out kind of late with, um, with some of the other people on our tour group and I don’t know, so maybe 11 o ‘clock.
[email protected] (01:53)
And when you say tent, like how secure is the tent?
Okay.
Ryan (02:17)
that we headed back to the cabin or to the tent. And, you know, one of the people that works there walked us down and it’s kind of pitch black, but then he flashes his light right in front of our tent. And again, a little elevated, but there’s like six or seven hippos just grazing right outside of our tent. So we were really close to them. What they were saying is that they’re generally fine. And if they charge you, like the flashlights are so powerful that they would flash it in their face and it kind of scares them off a little bit.
[email protected] (02:43)
Does that do that really make you feel confident that a that a hippo like how many tons do they wear charging you the most?
Ryan (02:46)
I mean, look, I, like, I’m a little like, it’s weird when it, when, when there are like animals involved, my like fear senses, like become a little diminished or depressed, which probably is not what you should want. So I would, I just wanted to see the hippos. Yeah. You know, but like, we were like, we had, you know, like when we did the gorilla tracking, we did, we were right, literally right by, um, you know, um, like a silverback. I mean, I was like, you know, a couple of feet away from a silverback. Um, they’re totally hanging out.
[email protected] (02:58)
especially around hippos. Yeah, no, hippos are awesome, but…
Ryan (03:15)
They don’t care, no care in the world. You know, we did chimpanzee trekking, you know, same thing. We’re just kind of like feet away from chimpanzees. It was pretty crazy. You know, when you’re doing it, you’re with guides that have like weapons, you know, if need be. And they, you know, they’ve got a lot of experience, obviously. It was interesting with the, the, with the gorillas because.
while we’re doing it, the Rangers that were with us, like we’re making weird and like grunts and noises. And I’m like, what are those noises? It’s like, oh, we’re like communicating with the gorillas. We’re basically telling them like, hey, everything’s cool. We’re fine. And so like, oh, do you, you know, do you understand like how they’re, what they’re communicating? It’s like, yeah, we understand a lot of their communication. So at one point, the silverback is on the ground, like we’re following him and he’s on the floor, you know, eating. And there was another gorilla like kind of up in a tree.
And the gorilla makes some kind of like noise. And I’m like, Hey, what’s that one saying? Kind of jokingly. It was like, Oh, well, he’s telling the silverback that, um, and this is like the dominant male of the group. He’s like, yeah, he, you know, this one’s telling him that the good food is up here. So the silverback is probably going to go up there. And sure enough, within a few seconds of that communication, silverback gets up, walks over to the tree, starts climbing that tree and starts eating from that same spot. Um, so yeah, it was pretty cool to see that. But, you know, we saw one of the coolest things we saw.
[email protected] (04:08)
Yeah.
Ryan (04:33)
I mean, there’s a lot of great things that we saw on the trip, but they’re like, so we saw a herd of elephants. So was two of the coolest things actually involved elephants. One was, we saw about, not a lot, maybe it was like seven or eight elephants. And then there was a little, a young one, like, I don’t know, young elephant basically. And we were doing a cruise. So the boat kind of gets very close to where they’re grazing. And they’re just kind of grazing, you know, not paying mind to us. One of the guys in our group was a little loud.
[email protected] (04:57)
Yeah.
Ryan (05:00)
So he starts kind of speaking loudly and the, and the elephants, they didn’t warn us like the elephants are very sensitive, you know, hearing. So the elephants got spooked by the noise. And so what happened is one of the elephants kind of charges towards us, not aggressively, but like enough to say, Hey, back off. While the other ones all surrounded the little baby elephant, like they all just surrounded it. Like we’re going to protect the little one. It was crazy to see, you know, it was like both like, yeah, okay, not good. You don’t want to see a bunch of scared elephants, but.
[email protected] (05:07)
sure.
That’s really interesting.
Yeah.
Ryan (05:29)
It was a really cool like experience, you know, to see, you know, the, the, the behaviors in the wild. And then the other part was it wasn’t really behaviors. It was just like at another point we, we’d gotten to a huge herd of elephants. I mean, it must’ve been like 30 or 40 elephants and they were just like the noise. Like there was some point where we’re all sitting in silence, just listening to them as they’re like, they’re grazing, they’re in the water. We saw an elephant swimming. Apparently elephants are great swimmers.
like the little babies and the older ones and they’re like bathing themselves and throwing mud on them. And it was just, just the sounds of all this massive herd of elephants, all like doing their thing with something that was kind of like awe -inspiring. It was just really cool. But yeah, it was definitely like a bucket list thing. I, you know, I want to go back, you know, the gorilla track, the only negative was it was so short, but yeah, we really had a good time. I’ll give you one more thing that almost ruined my trip is I was grooming my dog and this is like a couple hours before we’re supposed to fly out.
And she shook her head while I was like using the clippers on her head on the electric clippers and it cut her ear. So she had this huge cut on her ear bleeding all over the place. So I have to take her to the vet. I get to the vet, the vet’s like, yeah, you we’re closing soon. So nothing we could do, but we can’t stop the bleeding. I recommend you take her to the emergency vet and she has surgery. They’re like cut this piece of her ear off basically. And I’m like, I can’t do this. I got a flight in a couple hours. Like, what do you, and so she’s like, okay.
[email protected] (06:36)
Eee.
Ryan (06:55)
will bandage her up. So they bandaged her up. Like they kind of bent, like basically shoved, put her ear against her head and wrapped up her face. I felt so bad for her. She looked so like sad. And then basically I had my stepson take her on that Monday back to the vet and they were going to do surgery. It was going to cost a ton of money. And I guess they looked at it and said, okay, let’s hold off. And we’re still in the process of, as she’s growling, we’re still in the process of them holding off.
Um, I have to take her again on Monday and the hope is that she doesn’t need surgery, but they basically, she was saying, I guess it needs to see if like, you know, if that piece of skin is kind of necrotic and rotting, they’re going to have to cut it off. But if it’s not, then, you know, we’ll just keep her and she’s just going to have a permanent like split in her ear. So we’ll see. So yeah, exciting journey, uh, all around, uh, unfortunate for my dog. I felt bad for her because yeah, she was on medication and ear and all that stuff. But.
[email protected] (07:23)
sure.
You have to chop off, yeah.
Ryan (07:52)
Anyway, enough about me. Let’s let’s get to let’s get to the news. It’s funny. I always think there’s no news stories and a bunch of things pop up. So, um, all right. So the big story of today, um, which I, I’m interested to see what you think about this is, uh, it was announced today that Jake Paul is fighting Tyson Fury in July on Netflix. I’m sorry, not Tyson. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sorry. Why am I saying? Hey, Jake Paul’s fighting Mike Tyson. Yeah. But size and fury, I’d be interested, right? Like,
[email protected] (07:53)
Anyway.
There’s always something.
No, no, not Tyson Fury, not Tyson Fury. Yeah.
Ryan (08:21)
So Jake Paul’s fighting Mike Tyson on Netflix in July. Your thoughts?
[email protected] (08:27)
You know, I knew it was going to happen. It was it was only a matter of time. Like Mike Tyson is still is is still captures people’s imagination. Well, like like objectively, when you look at him, he was a very he was a great boxer, but he wasn’t the best. Like objectively, like you can say that right there have been of, you know, a few boxers that are better than him overall. But just something but.
on even probably more so than Muhammad Ali. No one has sort of captured the imagination of like of the public like he has, even though he was only champion for four years. Um, it was, it’s, if you, you know, on social media, people still ask questions about it, still writing about him, like everything, you know, it’s just, just, he ha he is a legend and there’s just some mystique surrounding him. So it would only make sense that he would fight Jake Paul.
you know, and make a, it’s a cash grab and they’re going to make a lot of money. And it’s just, it is what it is. It’s like, I get it. Like, look, you know, Mike Tyson was at one point very, very wealthy, like hundreds of millions of dollars. And, you know, it’s all gone now. Like he has maybe a few millions, but.
Ryan (09:40)
Yeah.
I mean, we don’t, we don’t know people’s, we don’t know their financial situations, but I feel like Mike Tyson is doing okay. He’s got his podcast. He does his weed. Like, like, I mean, I know it’s a cast grab. It’s, it’s, it, it makes, I don’t know. It’s, it’s just such a weird thing because like Tyson’s nearly 60, you know, you know, like, you know, in some ways, I think, I mean, Jake Paul is nothing, if not like a brilliant businessman, right? Like what does he, what’s his career been? Like he’s a guy who’s like, I give him a lot of respect for learning the art of boxing and becoming a decent.
[email protected] (09:49)
He’s doing okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, he’s okay. He’s good. Yeah.
Ryan (10:13)
and training like a pro fighter, right? But he, it’s like every fight, it like nudges him forward. You know, it’s like every fight is like just interesting enough that like you can’t help but want to see the spectacle, but he’s not doing, but it’s clear that he’s not really doing it to say I’m the best boxer or whatever, you know, I’m a legit contender. You know, it’s like, you know, first it’s like washed up MMA fighters. Then it’s like, you know, okay, but not.
[email protected] (10:27)
Yeah, sure.
No, he’s not. He’s not.
Ryan (10:41)
you know, MMA fighters. And then it’s like, you know, boxers that are very low, you know, low level. And then it’s like fighting names. It’s just like, he’s, you know, this is such a weird fight because like, he’s, he, he, he’s significantly younger and bigger than Tyson. He’s been training like a pro fighter for the last 10 years. Tyson is not. Um, yes, Tyson’s obviously, you know, got power and, and, and has the skill that, you know, doesn’t completely leave you, but he’s almost 60. You know, now the only, the only hope, only hope is.
[email protected] (10:53)
Yeah.
He’s still in good shape though, if you’ve seen him, he’s in good shape.
Ryan (11:09)
He looked good against Roy Jones Jr. a couple of years ago and maybe, you know, but, but like every year when you’re past, you know, you’re, you’re north of, um, 50 every year, it was kind of exponentially, you know, more difficult than the next physically for you. So like, I don’t know, but that’s the thing. It’s like, he did look okay. A couple of years ago, he’s probably still in decent shape. So it does make you think, okay, maybe he’ll give him an interesting fight. Like, who knows? You know, it’s like, oh, it’s just so, it’s just so weird. I guess, but like.
[email protected] (11:11)
Yeah.
JBL.
One thing he still has is knockout power though. Oh, he definitely does. Like that’s something that’s not gonna go away. Like whether he has the setups to land it is a different story. Like.
Ryan (11:40)
Yeah, but ugh.
Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it’s more an endurance thing. It’s like at the end of the day, like he’s not going to have a gas tank to go with, with somebody that much younger, right? Like it’s just going to be, it, it, it, you know, it ends early or it doesn’t, or it’s going to look bad for him. And I think that’s the, you know, hard thing. It’s like, you know, for, uh, Jake Paul, it’s like, I know. And that’s like such a, like, it’s a lose lose. I mean, except that he’s going to make millions of dollars doing it. And for Netflix.
[email protected] (11:48)
Yes.
I know it’s just like, oh, Jake Paul knocks out Mike Tyson, finishes him and that’s, I don’t, but it’s like, no one really.
Yeah, Tyson doesn’t care, like…
Ryan (12:12)
And you know, I think Netflix with, with them getting WWE raw and like, they’re trying to push into like the live sports, um, you know, realm. And I guess this is huge for them. So they must’ve just backed up a boatload of money to them. And it’s like, look, everybody’s going to watch, like, look, I wouldn’t pay for this fight, but I have Netflix. So I’ll certainly watch it, um, because it’s a spectacle. And it’s like, there’s that off chance that we get, you know,
[email protected] (12:19)
Yeah.
Of course, that’s what they did.
No. Yeah, well everyone’s gonna watch it. Yeah.
Ryan (12:40)
Tyson, you know, obviously not going to get a vintage Tyson, but at the end of the day, he’s still Mike Tyson. And maybe we get like a performance that, um, you know, is good, but it’s like at the end of the day, like, you know, if Jake Paul, like we, I was talking to a friend today, like, why, you know, why does he fight Francis and Gano? Like take that fight, you know? All right. Yeah, exactly. Like, like that, you know, that would be the fight that would impress me. He would, you know, he obviously he won’t take that.
[email protected] (12:44)
No. Yeah.
He would never do that. He would get…
Yeah, but it doesn’t… Yeah, it’s…
Ryan (13:08)
Cause then you look at like what Francis Ngannu is doing, right? Like he’s just out, I’m going to fight the best guys. And you’ll fight. If Jake Paul doesn’t want to fight him, fight, fight the best middleweights, you know, fight somebody good, you know, and yeah.
[email protected] (13:17)
Yeah.
But he doesn’t want to, there’s no reason for him to fight anyone good. As you said, he’s not trying to be the best boxer. He’s trying to be the best businessman. He’s trying to promote his brand. He’s gonna do a few more fights and then he’ll, he’s smart. He’ll move somewhere else with it. He’ll be the promoter and he’ll get some other Jake Paul to start doing these crazy celebrity freak show fights. You know, you’re smart, right?
Ryan (13:26)
No, that’s fair.
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (13:49)
and why fight someone that you can’t beat? It doesn’t make sense. Do these, make good money doing it. Makes sense. I don’t fault anyone. I don’t think like, oh, this is pathetic. It is what it is. We knew it was coming. And it’s good for Tyson. He’s gonna make a lot of money. Good for him.
Ryan (13:53)
Yeah, I guess. That’s fair.
I mean, it’s like if he gets knocked out or if, you know, it’s just like a weird thing to do to your legacy, but yeah, we’ll see.
[email protected] (14:18)
Meh, I don’t think Tyson’s concerned about his legacy. He’s a legend. No one is, he’s not concerned. I think he would rather the whatever million dollars he’s gonna make off of this than his legacy. That’s not gonna really be tarnished.
Ryan (14:37)
Yeah. All right. Well, uh, next news story then, uh, did you hear about the whole AI Willy Wonka thing?
[email protected] (14:44)
A little bit, not too much.
Ryan (14:46)
Yeah. Yeah. So basically, um, you know, this is how not to use AI, uh, by the way. So there was a, it was a, like a Willy Wonka themed event. It was in Scotland and like, you know, we, there’ve been plenty of these like immersive experiences. Like we did one, um, recently with like, it was Van Gogh and a lot of these are very well thought out, very well done and beautiful, you know, you know, really engaging and immersive. So they kind of build it as an immersive experience. They described it as a journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises.
[email protected] (15:01)
sure.
Ryan (15:16)
Uh, but the re and they, they, um, use AI for a lot of it. So basically they used AI to create the flyers, which like, at the end of the day, it wasn’t like the flyers that I saw in the promotional materials I saw. It looked clearly like it was like, you know, animated, um, and, and looked pretty obviously like it was AI. So to me, it wasn’t like a re it wasn’t as if they made some realistic, um, a flyer that, you know, that looked like what the.
inside of this place would look like it was clearly, you know, designed, right? So, so for me, that part wasn’t like misleading. Cause when I was reading about it, it was like, as if that was misleading. No, I might, I might be missing something. Maybe there were, there were flyers that had that, but, but it was clearly like a design flyer, but, but instead of getting like, you know, this wondrous world, you know, they got a sparsely decorated warehouse with actors that looked like sad. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the pictures, but they looked really bad.
And really, you know, it’s just like they did not want to be there. There were characters that went from the movie. There was no chocolate. And they’re apparently like the actor playing Willy Wonka was given a script, an AI generated script that was just filled with, you know, what they called gibberish. It was so bad that apparently people called the police. Guests were terrified. Kids were scared. And it just gives this whole debacle where eventually the company that managed it, the House of Illuminati,
you know, accepted responsibility and said that they’ll be refunding everybody and apologize. And who knows how true that is, but, but just sounds like, you a complete mess and, and, and, uh, kind of cautionary tale of how not to use AI.
[email protected] (16:57)
Well, yes and no, right? What it came down to is it was not the use of AI, but that whoever, you know, the producer of the show, there’s no quality control, didn’t look at it. And like, no one said, wait a minute, this is terrible. Like they didn’t have one adult in the room being like, this is not professional, we can’t put that on. Like, you know, like who thought, you know, it…
reminds me of like, it’s funny because they did it AI, but back in, you know, sort of way back when they did these immersive, you know, you know, the same thing, immersive experiences, and they were really, really cheap. And the only reason why you went to it was like, oh, it had the He -Man on it. That’s why let’s go see He -Man or whatever it was. And it was just some garbage, but because it had the name of the thing, like the kids went and they and the parents paid the admission and they were like, wow,
Like this is really crappy. You know, someone, two people dressed up in some cheap costumes or something like that. You know, we’ve seen this before, right? But see with this, it’s different because now you can’t get away with it. Like then people just show up and they’re like, oh, this is terrible. Let’s go home. Like, oh, you can’t get your money back. Like, and then, then who, whatever Huckster was doing, it would just, you know, disappear. And it was, and we see that stuff happen all the time, but now.
When you advertise it and then you do this big AI thing with it and you know who’s, and now of course with social media and the internet and everything, now you have to have an adult in the room saying, wait, this is terrible. We can’t charge because this will backlash. We can’t just get away with doing this. So where is the adult in the room? Where was someone to say, how could we can’t let this happen? How did no one say,
Ryan (18:47)
Yeah, that’s fair.
[email protected] (18:52)
Wait, this is terrible. Like, I’m just wondering.
Ryan (18:55)
I mean, I’m, yeah, I mean, it seems like, you know, for what I’ve read, it seems like a cast grab and that the person kind of responsible has done similar things in the past and has used AI, you know, for kind of his own nefarious purposes. So it seems like just a pattern. And this is just one of the times where they really got caught, called out and, you know, a lot of bad publicity, but then, you know, it is its own neemable moment. And now, you know, millions more people have heard of the house of Illuminati for better or worse. So.
[email protected] (19:03)
Well, there we go.
Ryan (19:24)
You know, who knows? It’s a weird, weird situation and funny. And it’s again, become like its own meme and you know, part of the news cycle. You know, it doesn’t really, I think, I think it’s more that you write, like, I think AI has become such a big deal. Obviously we did a podcast about it and, and, um, you know, it’s become so kind of ubiquitous in our society now that any story that even is kind of, you know, Tendentially kind of related to AI is, you know, they’ll blow up that part. So yeah.
[email protected] (19:28)
It is funny, yeah. I just don’t even see that it has anything to do with AI except that they use it in part of their advertising. It’s…
Yeah, yeah.
Ryan (19:52)
I think that’s a thing for me too, right? It’s like, when I read stories about it, it kept saying, you know, they used AI generated images to promote it. So again, like I said, I was thinking because you could, you know, using mid journey, you can come up with very kind of photo realistic images. And so, you know, to me that was what was, you know, would really be fraud and misleading is if you came up with these photo realistic images that represent like what the thing is supposed to look like.
And then people show up and it’s a sparsely decorated warehouse. That’s bad. Um, I mean, it’s, it’s still bad the way it is, but to me it’s like the flyers were, yes, they were AI generated, but it was just, again, it was like, if I went and wrote, Hey, you know, create me in a, you know, a cartoony AI generated, you know, um, flyer for Willy Wonka. Like that’s what you’re going to get. And so, so like, to me, the flyer wasn’t representing, you know, an expectation of what you were getting outside of it being kind of colorful and Willy Wonka being on it. So.
[email protected] (20:44)
what they were actually doing. Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan (20:49)
But it’s, and then the other part, I guess, is like the script being AI generated, I guess, again, is another thing. So I think it was more that like, people were quick to tack on the AI part, but reality is everyone’s using AI, like for imagery. Now it’s like, I’ve seen, I see, I’ve seen subway ads that are very clearly AI generated. We’re seeing ads all over the place, you know, that so, so it’s like, everybody’s using it. So to tack it on just because they did something nefarious. Yeah. It’s like, he said, yeah, it’s like.
[email protected] (20:58)
Yeah.
Sure.
I know.
Ryan (21:15)
the AI is just kind of part of it, but it’s not the story, but that again, but it is become like the story because it was AI, you know,
Okay, so the next story is a New York centric story. So have you have you found the subways to be particularly or more dangerous or scary, you know, in recent months?
[email protected] (21:26)
you
No, I haven’t really. Look, there’s, I think that there are, look, there’s always been a lot of homeless people and interesting characters on the subway as long as I can remember.
Ryan (21:39)
Yeah. I mean…
Yeah.
Yeah, there was more recently. I mean, I think the thing is like there’s definitely more homeless people. I think you see more people like using, you know, using drugs and, you know, it’s not but like, you know, it’s like we’ve talked about before, like people kind of talk about New York being like this crime -ridden hellhole and it’s like, yeah, no, it’s not. It’s New York. It’s still one of the safest big cities. But there has been an uptick in crime in the subways, especially this year. And so the governor’s announced that they’re deploying, apparently, national guardsmen.
[email protected] (21:54)
There’s more, ever since COVID, ever since COVID and they displaced all the shelters.
Ryan (22:22)
and state troopers in the subways to help combat like this crime upswing. So it’s interesting because like, I don’t know how much of it is politics, like how much of it is like, hey, people keep saying there’s, you know, people keep saying crime is crime, crime, crime, crime. So let’s just do something extreme. I don’t know that we need that. But again, like, yes, there has been an uptick in crime. Yes, there was a shooting recently, but like, you know, in a big city, you’re going to have certain certain amounts. I don’t know how much of it is like, is it an anomaly? Is a really an upswing?
[email protected] (22:31)
That’s the first thing that pops into my head.
Ryan (22:52)
But yeah, just to me, it always seems like it’s politics because like, yeah, like it’s not, at least from my experience, I have not seen it that bad. But again, like, you know, it’s hard for me to say that to somebody who has been a victim of a crime on this whole thing.
[email protected] (22:55)
It sounds it.
Well, look, there’s a lot of the so well, interesting, like a shooting would be different than the issue because that requires like, you know, people that are active criminals, right? Most it seems that a lot of the the the issues on the subway were from people that are not sort of calculating. I mean, they are, but they’re also, you know, either mentally ill. They’re not like it’s not like gang members. It’s a different.
Ryan (23:26)
and well, yeah.
[email protected] (23:31)
sort of thing, yeah, people might be calculating, they might be bad people, you know, that are also homeless or something like that, or have been displaced. That’s different from like gang members having a shootout. They’re two different things. Not that, you know, both are bad for sure, but this is, you know, it sounds political, it reeks of being political. First off, there’s the whole thing in New York where there was criminals being let out on
bail or no bail or things like that or perpetrators being let out. So there’s a big sort of side to that. What’s going on? The governor doesn’t, I think, appointed the DA, right? Who was doing that?
Ryan (24:22)
Well, I’m not sure. No, no, you think you get elected. The DAC get elected here, I think.
[email protected] (24:24)
Oh, no, no, not. Oh, no, no. So the governors are not appointed, but they were working. Yeah, they were the idea is to be elected, but they were working together. I remember there was, you know, they were they were definitely allies of sorts. And I know Governor Hokel went under a lot of scrutiny for what was going on there. So and there was a whole it’s a whole political show.
Ryan (24:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, but I also, I think, I feel like with the, like with the cat, with the bail stuff, I think a lot of that gets kind of twisted and turned to fit whatever narrative, you know, it needs to fix. I think it’s not like we were just like letting, you know, you’re letting hardened criminal, you’re like letting violent criminals out and you know, they like just, just without, you know, I think it was a situation of like, it gets twisted, however it needs to be twisted. But then like a lot of like our politicians have very little backbone, don’t fight back against it. They just kind of.
[email protected] (24:55)
Oh absolutely, absolutely.
you
Yeah, of course.
Ryan (25:17)
you know, freak out and like react, overreact to things. So, yeah, I wonder how much of like this subway thing is like an overreaction, but you know, if you’re not from New York, New York is a great place, safe, you know, it’s again, it’s a big city. So you’re going to have issues, but like still one of the safest big cities in the world. And it is not a crime ridden hell hole that, you know, and the subways aren’t either, but you know.
[email protected] (25:39)
sounds like a political thing. We’re being strong on crime now, you know, elections are coming up. Elections are coming up.
Ryan (25:44)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Coming up. So we’re strong on crime. And then, you know, yeah, that becomes becomes the issue. And as usually, the narrative gets taken over by.
[email protected] (25:51)
The question is, you know, there’s still a lot of police, like you could, you know, just up the police presence. All right. So.
Ryan (25:58)
Yeah, there are lots. I see them all the time on the subway. So I don’t know. Well, yeah, well, I guess we will see how this goes. If it’s a recipe for disaster or if things are okay. So before we get to our main thing, we were supposed to talk about Shogun. I have not watched it yet, but I intend on it. So I’m hoping that next week we can do episodes one and two, but are you liking it so far?
[email protected] (26:04)
We will see.
it’ll be okay.
Yes, I’m going to say I’m not going to speak too much about it. It’s funny because I had a nice little review and I had some talking points, but I’ll save that for next week.
Ryan (26:26)
Okay.
Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, we’ll do it next week. Yeah, that’ll be good. I’ll catch up. We’ll do the two episodes and we’ll talk about it because I’m excited. I started the first, you know what was, so we got back from vacation. I took a million photos and so we were editing, you know, going through photos and we started watching it. So I put my stuff down, but my wife, Anna, did not. And it was, you know, obviously a lot of subtitles. And so she was like, yeah, I can’t, you know, I can’t, like she typically will multitask, but you have to, yeah.
[email protected] (26:43)
you
you
Yeah, you have to pay close attention, at least, and that actually, it’s funny, that’s actually one of the points I wanted to talk about, but we’ll get there. But I will say this, it’s very Game of Thrones influenced. The way that it’s shot, the way the characters are conniving and scheming amongst themselves, the way it looks, the way that the cinematography, it’s,
Ryan (27:01)
Yeah, yeah, we’ll talk about it. Yeah.
Yeah, it seems like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[email protected] (27:25)
it’s cut from that cloth. So clearly they were influenced by it in a good way.
Ryan (27:25)
Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. Cool. So, actually one other thing without getting too political. So your thoughts on we were going to get Trump versus Biden too. You excited about that?
[email protected] (27:42)
I mean…
The long story short, I don’t
don’t like the corporate Democrats. I think they are in it for themselves. They funnel money. They don’t care about people. They’re in it to get wealthy. They’re in it to have power. There’s some newer, younger Democrats that I really like. But as far as those establishment Democrats, I think they’re terrible. But with that being said, Trump is the greatest traitor this country’s ever had. So anything is better than Trump. And I don’t.
Ryan (27:51)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (28:18)
You know, I don’t like that Biden, I don’t like the corporate Democrats, but as always, we’re forced to choose from the lesser of two evils. That’s how I view it.
Ryan (28:19)
Yeah, I would. Yeah, yeah, I’ll echo your sentiment. I think it’s it’s it’s it’s yeah, yeah, pretty much the same. I think, you know, we don’t really have many politicians that I think are really public servants. And there are some younger ones that are good, but I’m just saying in general, we don’t. And and it’s tough because like, how many times do you?
[email protected] (28:37)
There are some good ones like some of the younger Democrats coming up until they haven’t been corrupted yet.
Ryan (28:48)
we go through the process of like, you know, we got to vote for this guy because they’re, you know, they’re lesser, you know, two evils or they’re better, you know, and when do we have a chance to actually like really get behind somebody that we really want to get behind? You know, I think that’s frustrating, whether, no matter what side of the political aisle you’re on, I feel like we’re always kind of giving people that are, you know, yeah, I mean, they’re just, they’re there for corporations. And really it’s like mostly, you know, you know, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, like most of the politicians are basically
And, and, uh, we all get kind of screwed. And so, yeah, it’s like not an exciting election. Uh, yeah, exactly. I mean, the one thing I would say about Biden is the, you know, and it’s lowered expectations, right? But like, I think as a, as, as, uh, you know, as somebody who’s progressive or, you know, I think my, I had very low expectations of Biden. I think he’s done more than one would have expected.
[email protected] (29:21)
It’s the classic.
John Stewart say the rematch where none of us have been waiting for.
He’s done an okay job. Yeah.
Ryan (29:48)
Uh, you know, from this side, but, uh, but yeah, it’s like, okay. Yeah, exactly. Like the rematch, no one’s really excited about, but, um, I, I’m not looking forward to just the wall to wall attention it’s going to get. And, uh, you know, just trying to like, I’ll shut shut down a little bit, uh, even though it’s like, yeah, like a lot, a lot is on the line in the next couple of, uh, over the next couple of months, but yeah, we’ll leave it, leave our political discussion at that. Um, so.
[email protected] (30:00)
I know. And it’s so grosser than ever.
Ryan (30:17)
Uh, let’s, okay, let’s get to our main topic. So today we are talking about our. Yeah. Like half of our, um, so let’s try to be careful with what we’re saying, but, uh, you can like us for, well, Hey, um, on my trip, uh, for what it’s worth, we were, we, you know, not to, I will get to, to too much detail in case any of the people that were on the trip find this podcast, but, um, we were, we were on a trip, right. And so there’s 10 of us. Right. There’s a group of four.
[email protected] (30:20)
while we’ve alienated half the listeners.
Ryan (30:47)
that were all, um, all kind of New Yorkers or New York adjacent. Like none of them were, it was funny cause they kept saying, kept talking about that they were from New York, but like one was from New Jersey. One was from Westchester, you know, one was from like, one was from Flushing. So I’ll give her New York, but it was just kind of funny. She kept saying New Yorkers was like, eh, you live in Westchester and have a house in Long Island. You’re like New York adjacent, but you’re not really, you know, you gotta be from one of the five boroughs. And that’s
barely including Staten Island to like say you’re in New York. But, but, but yeah, but anyway, so there was a group of people from New York and then there was another group. There were two, two couples. They didn’t know each other that were all kind of right of center. And from what I gathered, you know, kind of Trump supporters, you would have thought, you know, being the person, the political leanings I have that I would have gravitated towards the New Yorkers. And I absolutely did not. We were with the other group and had a wonderful time. You know, we didn’t talk much politics and when we did, it was actually like an interesting discussion where.
[email protected] (31:41)
Sure.
Ryan (31:45)
You know, I can talk to people about, you know, that disagree with me in a way that we can actually have a discussion and not be arguing with each other. But, but for the most part, we don’t, we just don’t, we avoided it. Um, where the, where the other, the New Yorkers who were all kind of liberals, um, we were bringing things up and it’s like, Hey, look, we’re on a trip. We’re supposed to enjoy ourselves. Like, I don’t want to hear about, I don’t want to think about this stuff because it’s all depressing and sad. Like, you know, so it stopped bringing it up. Like, I don’t care that you, you know, cause you, she would start saying stuff about Trump and this like, look, I don’t, nobody cares. Like.
this trip and not think about, I don’t want to think about politics. Like we’re here to be with animals, not to do it. So, so actually, yeah, like, like I had a wonderful time with a group of people who are, you know, pretty sure we’re all, you on that side, on the other side. So, um, so if you’re listening, you know, and, and, and, uh, we haven’t turned you off yet, like, you know, I’m okay. Anyway, uh, so our main topic today, we’re going to talk about our favorite eighties cartoon theme songs, right? Okay.
[email protected] (32:26)
Yeah, sure.
Ryan (32:46)
All right, so this is gonna be interesting. So we’ll go, we’ll just go back, back and forth throughout our top five and kind of good that Cynic’s not here, because this would have taken a long time if we had, if we had three of us doing this. But I guess the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to go over the honorable mention. So, and I’m interested because you, because this is your call for the honorable mention. So the honorable mention is Denver, the last dinosaur. And we’ll play that.
[email protected] (32:56)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan (33:35)
So, you know what’s funny is…
I have zero recollection of this song or this show. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s a catchy, it’s an eighties theme song, definitely. But, uh, you gotta talk like, what is this? What is this show?
[email protected] (33:49)
Hehehehe
So, and it’s funny just briefly because it just missed the cut. We would have never watched the show because we were all into like violence and wanted to watch those action shows. So this sort of show where a bunch of teenagers find a dinosaur, a cuddly dinosaur and go on these adventures with them would have seemed very wimpy to us. And sure, we did at the time.
Ryan (33:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (34:21)
And I remember probably seeing one minute of the show and just saying, this is terrible. I’m not going to watch it. But I remember the song. And for years, I remember the song because it’s very catchy. So based on that, I said, this needs an honorable mention because the song is so catchy. And I think what’s important is who wrote the song to it.
Ryan (34:50)
Who wrote the song? Okay.
[email protected] (34:51)
and that’s actually gonna come up. We’ll get to that a little bit later.
Ryan (34:56)
Okay. All right. So the actually for four and five for five and four, we have some overlap. So instead of like, I’m just going to, we’re going to do both of them together. So I’m going to change my list a little bit just so that we can, uh, we can over, we have the two songs that overlap. And I think, I feel like, you know, anybody that’s our age, right? Like, you know, early, early to mid forties, you know, late thirties to mid forties, let’s say, um, who, who w you grew up watching these cartoons in your top five.
One, if not both of these songs will be there. So we’ll just go right in, you know, we’re going to, we’re going to knock these two out. So, um, at the number five spot for both of us is, I feel, almost feel like it should be higher, but, but, uh, yeah.
[email protected] (35:36)
Oh yeah, all right, so let me preface by saying that any of these songs could be any list, in any order, they’re all great, and we’re trying to be as objective as possible, but once everything objective is, you know, once you look at it and analyze everything objectively and you see, all right, all of them are great, then it just comes down to which one you like best.
Ryan (35:45)
could in any given time could be in them. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So we’re going to go easily. Okay. So we’re going to start number five, DuckTales.
[email protected] (36:02)
And I think that this one is fantastic. This one could very easily be number one.
Ryan (36:20)
funny, I haven’t listened to this in a long time, but it’s like it definitely hits the nostalgia buttons.
It’s such a great chorus.
I don’t know. I feel like.
I feel like this should be one. I think I’m changing my list. All right. All right. So I’ll cut this off now, but no, I, yeah, I don’t know. It’s such a good song.
[email protected] (36:55)
Yeah, it really is. So, a funny story about the song, and it’s interesting that we both, so is it staying at number five for you?
Ryan (37:06)
I mean, I’m going to keep it at number five just for the sake of the, this podcast, but like, and maybe that’ll change as we go through the other songs, but that God, that’s such a good song.
[email protected] (37:14)
So a funny story about this song. So I’m looking at it. Let me get the guy’s name. All
Ryan (37:20)
Yeah.
[email protected] (37:28)
so the theme was composed by Mark Mueller is his name. And it’s funny because I was in a supermarket a little while ago and I heard this song called crush, I think it’s by Jennifer Page is her name. Ryan, we would have heard it at the gym when we were going there in the late 90s.
It was a hit, it was a dance song and I was listening, I was like, wow, this song is really, really good. It’s a real pop dance song, really with a great hook. And it turns out that he wrote that song as well. So it’s funny that I had been listening to that song as a throwback, be like, wow, this is really good. And then I was looking up DuckTales and it said, wow, this guy wrote that song. It’s just really interesting how that works.
Ryan (38:18)
Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, no, I mean, it is a fantastic song, great chorus and yeah, it could easily be in a number one slot.
[email protected] (38:21)
So as a quick musical analysis, obviously there are a couple, you know, there’s a song that it’s based off of, right? And that’s the song, the Hall & Oates song, You’re Making My Dreams Come True, right? Woo, right? You know, that part, woo, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, you’re making my dreams, boom, bam, boom, bam. It’s clearly based off of that song.
Ryan (38:39)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah
[email protected] (38:48)
which makes sense, that’s what Disney did. They often based, they often requested that their songs were based off of famous songs for their themes. I forgot the guy who actually sang it, he’s not the same writer. He’s sort of like kind of singing like a Stevie Wonder type style of singing, which is great as well. The bridge is nice, there’s some great, the lyrics are, you know.
really hit the story well. Nice chord changes as well. Goes to that bridge. So it’s a little R &B, a little jazzy too. So yeah, just a good song. Even if it wasn’t a theme, it would be a good song by itself, right?
Ryan (39:27)
Yeah.
Yeah. All right. Oh, that’s it. All right. No, no, no, this one. I just, I just, it’s a great song. I feel like it should be. I need to rethink my list. All right. So let’s get to number four. So again, overlap for both of us and another fun one. So.
[email protected] (39:37)
Yeah. Do you have any questions about Livia, like musically what’s going on? I think you get the idea. Yeah.
Yeah, I know, it’s tough.
Ryan (39:56)
Number four is Thundercats.
[email protected] (40:19)
you
Ryan (40:46)
another great one. Like another another solid solid solid song.
[email protected] (40:53)
So for me, the best part of the song is the intro. And then that break when it goes like. And then it kicks in. That’s really, that’s epic. It’s really good. The music was written by Bernard Hoffer. And it’s interesting, there’s a documentary on ThunderCats.
Ryan (41:02)
Yeah. Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah
[email protected] (41:22)
And there’s a big section about the music. He was very, he wrote some other music as well. I think he wrote the Silverhawks theme. And he was very influenced by Star Wars. The same way that Star Wars had themes for every character. He was basing the show off of the, like the main theme. But if you actually look at the Thundercats soundtrack, there were.
Ryan (41:40)
Interesting. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh, interesting.
[email protected] (41:50)
Each character has its own theme. So that was the, he basically said, like, I was looking to make it very similar to Star Wars. I was influenced by that. And that’s how I did the music for this. And yeah, there’s some nice guitar work, right? That sort of, that they sort of slip in there, you know, a catchy line that you remember.
Ryan (41:57)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, no, that’s good. It’s interesting. So like the, cause it’s like, it’s really well done and the musicianship is obviously very, very good and they’re very well written. It’s like, it’s catchy, but it’s also just, these are just good songs.
[email protected] (42:17)
Yo.
Well, he talks about that as well. I think it was recorded in New York. He said he had a lot of great studio musicians that he was working with in New York to, you know, to do the, to do the song. It’s funny things you never think about back, back when TV shows and cartoons actually had a budget for you to hire professionals. The, um,
Ryan (42:27)
Yeah.
No, not at all.
All right, so now, okay, now we’re gonna get to where we differ a little bit. So we’re gonna start with your number three. So number three for you, what is it? Why don’t you tell me?
[email protected] (42:51)
a very cool show that I actually would have hated back then, but now I watch it, it was a good show, and it is Gem and the Holograms.
Ryan (43:01)
Thanks for watching.
mean, it’s definitely like an 80s song. And it’s kind of it has added pressure because it’s a saw a show about like musicians, right? So like, it has to be a little bit better. I never watched it, but obviously, like, had heard and knew of the of the theme song.
[email protected] (43:29)
Yeah.
I’m sure you’d seen it in all of these shows, they had toy lines, right? That was the big selling point. So I’m sure you had heard this theme many times, whether it was for a, like probably for one of the toys. Right, so let me see, I wanna find out this.
the composer. So what are your thoughts on the song when you hear it?
Ryan (44:02)
I mean, it’s a good song. It’s catchy. Of all the songs, it almost sounds the most like something you would hear on the radio, right? Like from that time. It’s the most poppy song, at least so far. I feel like all the other songs are like, like I said, again, like, DuckTales is a great song and like, you know, the Thundercats songs are really well done, but they’re very clearly like…
they are cartoon theme songs, right? I feel like this, this, you wouldn’t have been out of place, you know, on the, you know, top 10 charts in 1986, you know? So I think that’s the one thing for me, I guess.
[email protected] (44:32)
you
And it does, I’m trying to look at why I’m trying, why having so much trouble finding who…
But yes, it’s musically speaking, it’s a little jazzy, right? Yeah, it’s got a sort of, obviously the pop feel, like a little Madonna type thing, or like some Cyndi Lauper, like that sort of essence to it that would have been popular at the time. So, and the show is about a band. And what’s really cool is that,
Ryan (44:55)
Mm -hmm.
[email protected] (45:18)
There were a lot of songs and they had to churn it out pretty quickly. So they, yeah, they recorded quite a bit. There’s a lot of Jem songs. So the whole soundtrack was really professionally done. I forgot there was the woman, the voice of Jem. She a really good singer, if you listen to it, she nails that stuff and she had to do it quickly, no auto -tune. So like they were really sort of top notch.
Ryan (45:23)
Mm. Mm.
Yeah.
[email protected] (45:48)
people who are working on that show, I think that the song I like, it’s actually, if you listen to the instrumentation, it’s really funky. Like it’s sort of offbeat. Clearly the musicians and the people working on it were really good musicians. Like you would think about it all, like as a kid, we probably thought, oh, this is a girly show. But like when you listen to it as an adult and me as a musician saying, well, it’s really pretty interesting for a kid’s theme song, pretty…
Ryan (45:50)
Yeah. Yeah.
. .
[email protected] (46:17)
pretty intricate musically, nice rhythmic stuff going on, some nice chord changes, you know, interesting melody, and actually a fairly difficult song to sing, very high, goes up high in range. So, yeah, pretty well done.
Ryan (46:30)
Yeah. All right. So now we’ll get to my number three. And I’m playing around my list because I realized I did have DuckTales like at number two. So, okay. So my number three is Inspector Gadget.
[email protected] (47:21)
So sorry, first to jump in, the composer for GEM, his name is Robert Walsh. Just wanted to give him credit. So yeah, a lot of great music. All right, so now onto Inspector Gadget.
Ryan (47:39)
Okay. Okay. So first I would say about Inspector Hatchett, the production’s really good. Like it’s really good. Like, I don’t know, like listening to it on headphones, it’s like, oh wow, I never had that experience like necessarily as a kid. I don’t know that I cared that much as a kid, but like, I mean, all these are well produced, but again, another really good song. You know, well produced, good instrumentation, a lot of, a lot going on there. But yeah, you could probably speak.
[email protected] (47:46)
Yeah, it is.
Yeah. Nice voices in there. So interesting that when you were probably watching it, you’re hearing it through the television speakers as a kid. And it’s interesting that if you listen to different.
videos on YouTube that have it. Some of them sound differently. Some of them are even like pitch shifted a little bit, you know, because of how it’s really weird. But yeah, now you’re actually hearing what it actually was recorded like. That it didn’t sound like a tinny, thin song. So when you actually hear it, it’s interesting.
Ryan (48:19)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Oh, yeah. You’re thinking like 80s television sets is not gonna be very good. But no, I mean, you know, it’s like you hear the bass and like all the instruments like actually, again, really good song. Yeah, I was thinking that same thing. Yeah. Yeah.
[email protected] (48:40)
So yeah, and it’s also a little jazzy, right? Right, go Gadget, when it goes to that bridge, really nice. Right, that like nice little harmonic minor scale, which they use, which is interesting. Of all of them, I think that it, if there had to be a single best hook out of all of these, I would say that this one is it. It’s, it’s, it’s such a,
written hook that it’s just it’s a timeless hook that if you were there as a kid well I don’t know if it’s timeless but you can’t forget it it’s it was yeah really well written and sort of based off of the Pink Panther I think you listen to it that same sort of that sort of like a jazzy that sort of jazzy bluesy note vibe that they had
Ryan (49:28)
Yeah, I can see that.
[email protected] (49:39)
I’m sure it’s coming, I’m sure they were thinking that when they did it, but then it cuts into that really cool bridge, right, which is sort of out of nowhere. So once again, yeah, pretty, and then the ending is really nice. It does that sort of countdown clock type thing.
Ryan (49:46)
Yeah.
Yeah. It makes it, it does. They do a really good job with that and the video, the visual on that theme, I think is really, really well done. All right. So let’s go to number two for you. So yours is say, Oh, well, why don’t why don’t you call out what your number two is?
[email protected] (50:04)
Yes.
So, let me find my.
Oh, not that one. So first off the question, do you know this show? Oh, this is a treat. All right, so the show is Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs.
Ryan (50:30)
No, I do not. And I’ve never heard this theme. So, so this will be interesting. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Let’s go. The whole thing. All right.
[email protected] (50:44)
you gotta listen to the whole thing. Yeah. Not the whole, or, okay, yeah, just listen until you wanna stop listening, but.
Ryan (51:09)
Okay. This video is pretty heavy.
you
I have vague memories of this, but I don’t know.
No, did this entire theme play for the cartoon? Okay.
[email protected] (52:00)
No.
when you get to this.
So it just goes into this.
Ryan (52:08)
Ha ha ha!
I’m at this solo, okay.
Yeah
Now I see why you wanted me to listen to the whole thing.
[email protected] (52:33)
Yeah, sounds like an Iron Maiden solo or something like that. All right, you get the point.
Ryan (52:35)
Yeah, seriously.
Okay. Yeah, it does sound like an Iron Maiden. So wow. That’s so when did you like, I don’t remember this show at all.
[email protected] (52:51)
So I don’t either, it was pretty interesting. And once again, when we hear some of your selections, we’ll hit with the big reveal. But I didn’t know about the show. And it makes me wonder what we got. Like, because we had Cable, right? We were in New York, so you would think that all the shows, but.
I did some digging and there’s just so many shows and so many cartoons that I’d never heard of. So I’m just wondering what was licensed for our area. You would figure we would have gotten all the big shows. This obviously was anime influenced, which was cool for the time I picked the show, came out in 1987. And I was like reading YouTube comments, people said, oh, this was a great show. I don’t remember it all. And I’m wondering, did we get it? We must have.
I can’t imagine that we didn’t, but like when were these shows on? Like, you know, I did it just really be curious to know the schedule of television. Like, so, well, that was why I added it because I needed to look at things objectively. And I heard it. And as an adult, I said, this is really good. Like, this is like legitimately a good song. It’s got the, you know, the really cool.
Ryan (53:55)
So I feel like it’s a little bit cheating adding it to your list, because you didn’t really grow up with it, right?
Okay
Yeah, it’s a good song. Yeah.
[email protected] (54:16)
guitar solo in there. Sounds like an Iron Maiden song. And then it has a really cool vocal save. And it’s interesting rhythmically too, because it doesn’t follow a normal sort of a typical meter because they had to fit like Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. It’s hard to put into words. So he had to play with the bar count. Saber Riders and the Star Sheriffs. Right?
Ryan (54:17)
Yeah. Yeah. It was like, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
[email protected] (54:45)
It’s interesting, right? Clearly there was some, the guy who wrote it knew what he was doing. Like he was obviously very talented and he was able to put these in. It was catchy. The thing is when you, oftentimes when you write, when you have to play with sort of strange wording and strange bar counts, it sounds weird. It sounds awkward, but it doesn’t in this case. And that I think,
Ryan (54:45)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (55:13)
is the strength of it that he was able to put a very strange, you know, a weird title, but put it in and make it sound seamless. And it, and it, and it, and it sort of rocks, right? If once we get into the nineties, it’s kind of conjures up like mighty morph and power Rangers, right? Only for me, um, this is much, a much better song, right? Cause that had like a couple of fun parts, but this is much better. Um, throughout it’s like it, you know, it’s dynamic and you know, it’s a real song.
Ryan (55:33)
Yeah.
[email protected] (55:42)
So it’s funny that you first heard it. It’s pretty good.
Ryan (55:42)
Yep, all right, cool. Yeah, no, it’s a good song. All right, so my number two is Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Yeah, no, and this is another, it’s a fun song. Definitely this gets a lot of nostalgia points. I’m kind of thinking like, in hindsight, I probably would have had it closer to like five on my list. Maybe even behind, maybe even six behind something else. I think for whatever reason, Chipmunks are extremely like nostalgic for me. Like I remember, you know, just other songs from, you know, from the show and in various…
[email protected] (56:47)
Yep.
Ryan (57:02)
iterations of it that always kind of hit those nostalgia buttons for me. But in hindsight, I’m like, maybe I would have had a little bit, little bit higher, but still fun song. Your thoughts?
[email protected] (57:12)
Yeah, it’s definitely a well -written song, not my favorite of the bunch. To me, the best part are the harmonies, right? It’s disguised by the chipmunks’ voices, but it’s in three -part harmony. It’s interesting. It’s a nice vocal arrangement where if you actually analyze it, but it’s…
Ryan (57:22)
Mm -hmm.
[email protected] (57:36)
it creates some nice little chords within the vocals, that bum, bum, bum, bum, right? That it has that very 80s sort of thing that you hear on like Huey Lewis and those types of sounds where you would hear those types of hits on like either like a synth or something like that. Right? And yeah, I think it fits the, it fit for the time.
Ryan (57:46)
Ahem.
Yeah.
[email protected] (58:05)
Granted, you’re always gonna, when you hear, you’re always gonna hear the chipmunk voice, right? Because that’s the thing. So the question would be, how would it sound if it was just a normal person singing, right? Would it, I guess back then they had to stretch the tape or double it, right? To give it that sound. Now it’s just very easy to do it in Pro Tools or whatever to get the same effect. But I think the chipmunks go, they were originally from the 50s, right? It’s an old show, like, and they brought it back and they, you know, they sort of rebooted it.
Ryan (58:10)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (58:35)
for the time period. And I know they’ve done more recent reboots as well, right? I guess it’s one of those things. Once you reboot something, you could keep on rebooting it.
Ryan (58:40)
Yeah.
[email protected] (58:45)
Yeah, I think it fits. Once again, not my favorite out of the bunch, but a good song. It moves well, and I think it captured the essence of it.
Ryan (58:58)
All right, and okay, so next up is your number one, which is probably the catchiest of all these songs. What’s your number one song?
[email protected] (59:11)
Number one, to me, the granddaddy of all themes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Ryan (59:56)
Yeah, such a good song.
[email protected] (59:58)
Yeah, so the first thing about it is that it’s really really weird.
Like it’s a very strange theme, like with all the voices, it’s just, you know, in there, it’s weird. Like it’s like also the rhythm of it. And I just want you to hear, there’s sort of a sidebar to this. A lot of these themes were done in different languages. So like Ninja Turtles, for instance, was done in like a million languages and the themes are all very strange sounding.
Ryan (1:00:08)
meaning.
Mm -hmm.
[email protected] (1:00:37)
because of the English language, right? Like teenage mutant, Ninja Turtles. It’s very rhythmic and other languages don’t work the same way. So remember there’s a German one, which is pretty interesting where they changed Ninja to hero. And there’s one that was like for, like in Arabic, which is so bizarre. Like if you listen to it, you almost won’t believe it, right? They have one in…
Ryan (1:00:39)
Okay.
[email protected] (1:01:06)
so many in every language, so many in Spanish, different forms of Spanish, all over Europe. It’s really interesting. Something for you to listen to is just, and none of them really work the same way as the English one because of the phrasing of it, the English language. But yeah, it’s just the lyrics are so perfectly placed that they tell the story.
Ryan (1:01:20)
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:01:35)
the voices in between, right, the way they incorporate, because if you listen to the other themes, they don’t really, except ThunderCats does a little bit, they didn’t really incorporate the characters. Even the gem theme, I guess they have the misfits part, which are their…
Ryan (1:01:37)
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:01:56)
but it’s just the way they incorporate the characters into the song, I think is really smart. And it’s also very strange melodically. It’s weird. It’s not something that you would think of as a good song by itself. But in context, it’s really good and it’s really iconic.
Ryan (1:02:06)
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:02:22)
And it’s really, you know, sort of, it’s two notes. It’s two notes, but the chords are changing underneath, which is not uncommon that when you, you know, you have the chords move a lot. And then this sort of melody changes a little bit to fit with the chords as the, you know, as the progression moves on. So, yeah, weird, you know, weird theme. And as you can hear, if you listen to…
Ryan (1:02:44)
you
[email protected] (1:02:50)
The theme songs that I write, you could tell that I was influenced by that, like the Jim Witts theme, for instance, like the voices in between and where it moves and whatnot. Plus you can’t help but just conjure up the good time feelings of when you watch it, you know something good is coming. And the whole soundtrack to that show was good. The guys who wrote the music, I gotta look up their name too, they wrote a bajillion themes.
Ryan (1:02:56)
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:03:17)
And they’re actually like, the guy is like a huge TV, they’re both like huge TV producers now. Like, so they obviously had the foresight to see what the show was and how it turned into such a big hit at the time. Let me look up who wrote the, what was his name?
They did the music for this.
also our big producers so they did the music and they also had the foresight.
the, originally it was a very.
It wasn’t a kid’s thing.
Ryan (1:04:12)
Okay, so number one for me is, you know, I’m interested, interesting listening to this, because like, I wonder how much of it is like the nostalgia and like how much I love the show and how much is the actual song. So I’m going to play my number one, which is Voltron, Defender of the Universe.
[email protected] (1:04:13)
All right, so that’s that.
Ryan (1:05:40)
Yeah, another really good, you know, it’s good. It’s definitely a cartoon theme song. But yeah, it definitely is a really good song. What are your thoughts on it and how you know composition out that’s put together?
[email protected] (1:05:51)
So it definitely has a, so there’s a lot in there and definitely a very just as worthy of a number one. It’s clearly based on like the John Williams, that sort of orchestral type deal, which is.
Ryan (1:05:58)
Yeah.
Yes, that’s what, you know, it’s funny thinking, listen, it was like, it’s very heavily influenced by John Williams until it kind of shifts and gets almost like psychedelic, right? Like, yeah. Yeah, but you’re right. Like I was totally thinking, oh wow, this is really influenced heavily influenced by John Williams until it does make that shift. Yeah.
[email protected] (1:06:14)
until it shifts, until it goes into that sort of like a rock guitar, psychedelic, yeah, type thing.
which makes sense, which would make sense. So very interesting musically, if you listen to like a lot of the steps that, right, though the way there, it’s very strange because he’s doing what’s a rub where he’s, those are not normal harmonies. They are stepped up in notes that are very close to each other, which you don’t hear. So it’s called a rub when two notes are very close to each other.
and then a part of a, and as part of the harmony to the melody. And that’s what gives it this sort of, like you listen to it and there’s this melody, but you know, did you notice that there’s a jarring quality to it? Right? That’s what it is. It’s strange where you can’t put your finger on it. And it’s like, well, that’s what it is. Cause these heat, the harmony of the, of those notes are rubbing with each other. And then the, the bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, right. Interesting notes in the scale.
Right? So it’s not, the main theme is melodic, but that other part is not very melodic. It’s hard to sing and it’s jarring in a strange way, which I like. And then it cuts into this whole sort of like, sort of rock guitar thing. Sort of like 80s, like that sort of driving beat that you hear. Right?
And then it cuts back and then it gives you the release where it cuts back into the, you know, very John Williams, the triumphant, you know, that part with the, with the, and with the, like the trumpets playing and the, you this nice orchestral counterpart. So clearly good people and the, so, so here’s the interesting thing. That music was written by Dale Shacker. I think John Peterson as well. Dale Shacker also wrote the first one, Denver, the last dinosaur.
Ryan (1:08:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
[email protected] (1:08:23)
And he wrote the Saber and Star Sheriff theme. So this guy clearly had his sort of finger on the pulse of what was going on at the time and was able to produce and write a lot of themes. Clearly this guy was really good at what he did and to make a, yeah, with the Voltron theme. Another, it’s interesting that the, would you have thought that?
Ryan (1:08:27)
Oh, interesting. Okay.
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:08:50)
Do you hear any similarities between this one and the the star the saber theme does it sound like it’s from the same
Ryan (1:09:02)
the, in the complexity, maybe, you know, like in my limited like musical vocabulary, I’d say like there, there are layers to both of those songs. And I think I could see, you know, I could see the same person kind of composing them, even though they don’t really sound similar at all. Like I, so in that way, yes. Right. Like you have, you know, these obviously is a professional and obviously can, you know, switch genres as needed.
[email protected] (1:09:19)
They don’t sound.
Ryan (1:09:32)
So yeah, I I can see that makes sense.
[email protected] (1:09:37)
So yeah, I know Voltron is a great theme. And it’s interesting, the one that you were listening to that I had sent you was not with the voiceover. Because the voiceover to me, both are good, right? In context, because there’s no words in the song, there’s no lyrics, you need the voiceover to basically let people know what’s going on in the show, right? All of the other ones have words for the most part.
Ryan (1:09:43)
with Voicy Out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:10:05)
So if you listen to the one with the voiceover, it’s good too, right? The thing is you don’t hear all the cool musical stuff going on, because you’re focusing on the voiceover. So the musical thing just, music acts as a sort of background, as a palette for it, which is good in its own way. But when you actually listen to the music, probably now better version of it, more like a high -def of sorts.
Ryan (1:10:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:10:34)
that you can actually hear without listening to this voiceover through a tinny TV speaker, you actually hear, you’re like, whoa, there’s stuff going on here. So.
Ryan (1:10:39)
Yeah.
Yeah. No, cool. Yeah. No, that’s great. So yeah. So there it is our top five songs. And if you like this, definitely comment and maybe we’ll, we’ll, we’ll pull out our top. We could do top five sitcoms, top five nineties cartoons, you know, two thousand. Yeah. We’ve got a lot, a lot of potential musical kind of episodes we can do based on this. So definitely, you know, comment if, if there’s you’d be interested in.
[email protected] (1:10:57)
we’re definitely going to do all those.
And look, there’s other good themes too. There’s other good ones that we, it’s like, it’s tough because there was a lot of good stuff. There was a lot of, the kids market for these cartoons were very lucrative at the time. And so whenever something has money behind it, you get the best people working on it. And that’s why there were so many good themes, because it was like the golden age for that.
Ryan (1:11:11)
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:11:34)
where kids were watching it and you were like, well, everyone’s competing. We gotta get the best everything. So you have to have the best animation. For Voltron, they were like, we need something new. Let’s bring it to, obviously let’s take it from Japanese animation. And then a lot of the other shows.
They’re like, wow, this is a really new form of animation that we haven’t really seen yet. Let’s jump so you have that. You know, people, who’s the best theme writer? Like, where can we get from? What comic books can we draw from? So unfortunately, you know, I don’t know if there’s the money in it today for kids programming. Kids programming is very different. I don’t really know much about it, but it’s just different.
people that can work on on that sort of thing.
we’re going to get the same level. It’s just a different world now. So it was a moment in time where things were happening because there was money behind it. Sadly, that’s what drives things, but it is what it is.
Ryan (1:12:28)
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. All right. Great. Well, that is it for today. So as usual, if you want to reach out to us or find us on social media, we’re on all the social medias at portable underscore whole. You can email us at portable whole pub at gmail .com and check us out. Our website is portable whole publishing dot com. And that.
That’s it. So Justin, until next time.
[email protected] (1:13:07)
Watch out for the hole.