The GHZ Forum

Is it me or does Emerald Hill Zone's bgm sound more than a bit like the Specials' A Message to You Rudy?

Discuss.

Can't really tell, get me a "No vocal" version so I can focus on the composition a little bit more.
But I think its tempo is just barely similar and nothing more.

It's just you.

Stop your messing around
You'd better think of your future
It's time to straighten right out
Or you'll wind up in jail
...

I like that song.

I always used to come up with words to video game BGM when I was a kid. The Green Hill Zone's music from Sonic 1 was always something like "fire is the devil's only... fire is the devil's only... fire is the devil's only... only only only only..."

That's kind of embarrassing to spell out, actually.

I used to do that all the time with the Genesis games in '96, leading up to SA1 & 2. I had a shitload of lyrics lying about as a result, and took up songwriting to try to give them original homes.

Out of 24 or so "songs", only two of them survived both the "Can I really make an original song out of this" test and the "Is there anything clever in here, or is it just an eighth-grader's pathetic attempt at poetry" test. And even those two survivors got the ax in the end when I tried to integrate them with my wholly original material. But at least I got a career choice out of it.

PS - On the topic at hand, you could easily lay the melody to Emerald Hill over this riff, but that's about where the similarities end. Usually in cases like this, the similarities come from an identical chord progression (the most recent example I remember is Springsteen's new song "Radio Nowhere" and Tommy (ha-ha) Tutone's "Jenny / 867-5309". But this is obviously a I - IV - V progression, whereas Emerald Hill is, if memory serves, a I - IV -♭VII - I progression (I know the ♭VII's there, I attempted to do this for a project once), meaning it doesn't even stay in the same key.

So there's definitely similarities, but I certainly wouldn't put money on it being inspired by this tune.

You want an example of something obviously borrowing from something else? Listen to the ending theme of Blade Runner—heard that elsewhere?

Bo wrote: I always used to come up with words to video game BGM when I was a kid. The Green Hill Zone's music from Sonic 1 was always something like "fire is the devil's only... fire is the devil's only... fire is the devil's only... only only only only..."

That's kind of embarrassing to spell out, actually.

When my sister and I were young, back in the Sonic 1 days, we used to sing words to the Special Stage tune: "Spangly, spangly, spangly jewel / spangly, spangly, spangly jewel / In the middle you will find a / in the middle you will find a / in the middle you will find a / spangly, spangly, spangly jewel."

Made more sense than yours, dipshit.

You guys are fucking retards.

DackAttac wrote:
You want an example of something obviously borrowing from something else? Listen to the ending theme of Blade Runner—heard that elsewhere?

Wow. It's even got the 'bom-bom-bom-bom' drums.

The Green Forest theme is an outrageous rip off of an Offspring song called Americana, if anyone's impressed by that.

Back on vaguer comparisons, I always felt the bridge of Muse's 'Hysteria' (which is, incidentally, one of the best rock songs ever written and if you disagree you're banned) was kind of Scrap Brain-esque. 2:25 to 3:05: http://youtube.com/watch?v=eIzfg1gdPw4

I think I've mentioned this before, but when "Live and Learn" kicks in while you're fighting the biolizard, I started singing "you can kill the lizard, you can kill the lizard" to the tune of the song's main guitar riff. Now it's all I can ever think of when I hear the song.

Segaholic2 wrote:You guys are fucking retards.

I'd have probably done the same thing if I played the first Sonic game back when I was 5.

Dammit Esrever now I hear it too.

The guitar in Final Egg's refrain (I think it starts about 5 seconds in) always sounded like it was meant for the words "Love is a wonderful thing, it's time to save the world."

A friend of mine just sings the name of the band to the tune of the music if she doesn't know the words. It's kind of fun to do...

I can't think of any instance where I may of done this, although it's something I would've done as a kid. Slightly off topic, but I used to hear songs in my head when one of my parents would have the turn signal on for several minutes.

Segaholic2 wrote:You guys are fucking retards.

THIS MAN LIVED A SAD AND BORING LIFE AS A CHILD.

Oompa Star wrote:I used to hear songs in my head when one of my parents would have the turn signal on for several minutes.

I still do this, except in my own car.

I hear Super Mario Bros. "World 1-2" theme whenever I'm in a dark place.
Well, actually not, but it would be really cool.

Oompa Star wrote:THIS MAN LIVED A SAD AND BORING LIFE AS A CHILD.

I'm amazed that holic (or anyone else) hasn't noticed Locit's typo.

Popcorn wrote:The Green Forest theme is an outrageous rip off of an Offspring song called Americana, if anyone's impressed by that.

My future's determined by thieves, thugs and vermin, it's quite an excursion

...And that's when I lose it. But yeah, good to know I'm not crazy.

The airship level theme from Super Mario Bros 3 draws a fair bit its colour from Gustav Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War.

Popcorn wrote:

DackAttac wrote:
You want an example of something obviously borrowing from something else? Listen to the ending theme of Blade Runner—heard that elsewhere?

Wow. It's even got the 'bom-bom-bom-bom' drums.

I didn't catch either before, but there's a track in The Big O that also sounds like it must have been inspired by this.

G.Silver wrote:I didn't catch either before, but there's a track in The Big O that also sounds like it must have been inspired by this.

The name of the track is 'Sin' and usually plays when Schwarzwald shows up / Flashbacks to the 'Event.' Most of the other tracks are similarly lifted, I think a few more are also from 'the Planets.' But I couldn't tell you for certain.

To be fair, The Big O is nothing more than a construct of various references, from Chopin to Batman to Blake to Lovecraft, and that's just scratching the surface. Not that I mind, it's sufficiently awesome and it's introduced me to various classical literature I would have ignored otherwise, so it's all good in the hood.

Isuka wrote:I'm amazed that holic (or anyone else) hasn't noticed Locit's typo.

What was Locit's typo before he edited it out? This is gonna drive me nuts.

"Muscial", wasn't it?

Mmhh... I think he wrote "Muscial". Neither serious nor funny.

EDIT: Wow, impressive synchro!

I still won the game.