Star Wars – Episodes VII-IX Music Scores Review

Hey, this is Steve Blum, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. This is Craig

Miller, director of Star Wars Fan Relations,

and you are listening to Studio 2009, only on

the Geekcast Radio Network. This is I'm of course

TF2. God fuck I'm starting over so yeah, please

There is nothing wrong with your podcast players

in an attempt to adjust the volume Hello and

welcome back into studio 2009 only on the GeekCast

radio network This is our 110th episode. It only

took us four years to get there. I am of course

TF2 and Mike Joining me, as always, for Star

Wars stuff is Mr. David Draper. Hello, sir. How

are you? I'm hanging in there. How about you,

Mike? I'm hanging off a cliff, kind of, but I'm

all right. Today, we head once again to a galaxy

far, far away. That's right. We continue the

12 months of Star Wars Spotlight as we make our

way back to the beginning of the sky. No. No,

at the end of the sky. Yeah. Yeah. So this is

the end of the Skywalker Saga and we will be

discussing the music of Star Wars the sequel

trilogy, which is the farce awakens the lost

Jedi and Reign of Skywalker. Oh, wait, those

are the titles Force force awakens last yet I

didn't know if you were doing a thing or yeah,

I was doing a thing. Yeah So Dave, what do you

got for us? So, okay, I want to start with a

quote from Roger Ebert. Okay, and of course the

website has given me an ad that's very useful,

thank you. He's talking about Return of the Jedi,

actually, so it's somewhat appropriate, and he's

talking about the richness of the film and how

the camera in Jedi slides casually past forms

of life that would provide the centerpiece for

lesser movies. He's talking about what makes

Star Wars Star Wars. It's just so rich that,

you know... There's a random creature in Jabba's

palace that could be its own movie. And I thought

about that a lot, particularly during the Force

Awakens soundtrack, because I just felt like,

like, if this was any other movie, you know,

it's it's it's John Williams music. And, you

know, you'd be you'd be happy to have it. But

this was star. I mean, technically, this was

Star Wars. And I was bored. Like I you know that

I had never listened I I think force awakens

maybe I listen to the whole thing before but

I never listened to rise of Skywalker or last

Jedi all the way through before because I would

get bored yeah, and it was just You know, I mean

and Williams is like in his 90s now. He's you

know, so I mean you're gonna fall off at some

point in your life but it's just like You know

like with with there were there are a couple

of pieces in the early force awakens soundtrack

that were just like, I call them random running

around music. It's like they're running around,

running around, running around. And like I kept,

you know, I think in one of the other podcasts

I talked about Out to Sea from Jaws or the 1941

theme or even like Battle of the Heroes, you

know, or the Asteroid Chase. They build and they

build and the ones in The Force Awakens didn't

build to anything. They're just kind of like

treadmills. And then I was like, this is a metaphor

for the entire frigging trilogy. It's just, it's

just a treadmill. It doesn't go anywhere. I mean,

it's, it's, it's good. It's well done music.

It sounds well. I'm sure it goes over whatever

was on screen at the time. Well, but like, I

probably will never listen to these sound effects

again on their own. Cause it just, it was uninspired.

It was, it was work. It was, it was, it was well

done. It was workman like, but you know, like

you can't go like, there was no piece of music

that stood out like the asteroid theme. You know

I noticed like I you know I noticed like you

know a couple times and another thought I had

was during a Like it was again force awakens

was the one that I paid the most attention to

I'm gonna be honest because I got bored Yeah,

but I noticed like with the first order theme

It was like there was and they did man on the

moon the Andy Kaufman biopic which you carry

They wanted REM to do another song because the

name of the film was based on an REM song about

Andy Kaufman Right and like you do another song

and and the guy who I I don't know my bands but

the guy who's in charge of REM He's like, you

know, the problem is we already did one really

memorable song about Andy Kaufman How do you

do another one? Yeah, and it was like John Williams

already did the ultimate theme for an evil galactic

empire with the Imperial March Yeah, and now

he's got to do another one for the first order

and it's like yeah and it was it was the first

order theme is okay, like And I also noticed,

like, Ray has a whole theme, has a whole thing,

and that guy played really heavily in the third

one in Rise of Skywalker, I noticed. It got really

folded into the music more than it did the other

two. Like, Kylo Ren only got like a, I don't

know music terms, but he got like a sting. He

got like, and that's it. He didn't have a whole

piece of music to himself. Well, Ray did. Ray

had that whole Ray's theme, which is when we,

I mean, Spoiler alert like that is the best piece

of music from the entire Trilogy, you know the

entire sequel trilogy soundtrack because it's

the most original unique and interesting piece

of music from me everything else is just either

workman like or Kind of trying to retrace steps

Some I mean some of its good. I'm not saying

any of its bad like you can't right? No, it's

not bad, but it's just not magic Yeah, it's not

the magic that we had 47 years ago with the original

Star Wars or, you know, 44 years ago with, you

know, Empire. The prequels were like only 20

years ago. Yeah. I mean, you know, like, and

again, like, I mean, the prequels were actually

lusher than the original soundtrack. I think

the prequels were like maybe like the absolute

peak John Williams. Yeah. I mean this dude like

it's not like he slacked off after Star Wars.

I mean, he's not at all Yeah, I mean he still

the directs park. He's I mean, you know the Indiana

Jones films the We thought we mentioned catch

me if you can which is has a great jazzy kind

of soundtrack. Oh So it's just like but it's

just like these don't feel like the entire sequel

trilogy It's an appropriate soundtrack because

it doesn't feel inspired or magical And that's

how this whole thing feels. It feels like something

they did. The sequel trilogy feels like a sequel.

And I mean that in the harshest possible way.

Like Jaws 2, there's another shark that attacks

Amity Island. Die Hard 2, there's more terrorists

that bother John McClane. Force Awakens, there's

another evil galactic empire that needs another

band of plucky heroes and a young Jedi in training.

It's like, it's what a sequel is, which is why

it has no oomph. You know, sequels are more than

the same, but slightly different. And the best

sequels are ones that continue the story, like

Empire. Yeah. So we've both already stated, and

this is still true, folks, here in Dark Side

December, seeing as how that's the only forced

theme I can think of to name this thing. But

we've already decided, and you already have already

known if you've listened to any of our other

12 months of Star Wars series, we are not...

Covering the acolyte. However, I think I put

my commentary in one of the previous episodes

we did at the at the very end is an outtake because

Somebody basically paid me 50 bucks and I sold

myself to the devil and I watched I want 50 bucks

And I watched the eight episodes of the acolyte

and I counted I cut all of my I literally sat

here for eight hours Almost all at once I recorded

every episode as an audio track commentary And

that's what you would have heard the the 20 -minute

version of it So basically I recorded eight and

a half hours of audio Cut all the blurbs and

blips and blah -blah -blah and all that out of

it and made it a 20 -minute clip for an eight

episode television show the end of the day the

story point was Spoiler because I know you're

not gonna watch I know you don't care But in

case anyone that doesn't I'm like really interested

in what you have to say about it. So okay. Well

When I realized like three seconds after like

the last one of the I think it was episode seven

or eight What what they were going to do with

the twins? I'm like, oh you but they were twins

They were the same person right? The point of

it is, the good one... Let's just imagine in

the Star Wars universe that they were actually

twins because twins has been a thing in Star

Wars for 47 years. We've got some very big expectations.

Yeah, well, yeah. Okay, I'll be good. I'll be

quiet. The good one went evil and the evil one

went good. Did the evil one go good or did the

evil one just be less evil? I thought it was

like they mind -wiped her and she sort of surrendered

and she was going to come back someday. But the

I think the major point for me is the good girl

went bad and i'm not saying that's a bad thing,

but i'm literally like The whole and people can

i'll i'll send you the 20 minute clips You can

hear it by yourself and you don't have to worry

about it. But like the whole time that I spent

watching that show I saw that coming a mile away.

I oh they're doing that. Oh, this is what they're

okay Uh -huh. I see I see I see it was Again,

we've talked about on this podcast, on the podcast

with you and other people, how writing today

in this day and age is not what it was 10, 15,

25, 35, 45 years ago. And it's like, maybe it's

because we're so used to like, there are no quote

unquote, original plots there, people who start

writing. Well, there never were. Well, okay,

fine. I mean, if you study literature, Hands

up. I actually have a degree in that There are

only like what seven plots Yeah, there's there's

really only seven stories or whatever and it's

it's how you I I really think it's more a mix

of I hate to sound like a crouchy old man. It's

more a mix of These kids have been raised on

like every fart that comes out of their butthole

is praised every crayon scribble goes on the

fridge and and they they're never told that they

know and Used to be you'd think okay when they

get out in the real world, you know, it's gonna

slap them upside the head But the real world

has started accommodating them and so now we

get scripts that are very self -indulgent and

very sloppy and I mean what I know about that

show Like Leslie Hedlund kept talking about how

she was working through issues with her sister

through that show But from what I know about

that show if our sister I'd get out of restraining

order Yeah, because it's we're not we're not

really sisters. We're the same person, you know,

it's like that That the spongebob meme spongebob

meme where he like lifts up the shirt and he

and squidward are like attached. Yeah I'd be

like going into hiding like no, I'm my person

like because in the show there's literally because

the episode I want I watch one episode nobody

paid me and the quote good sister was like no

I want to be my own person and the back sister

was like no we're the same I'm like This is and

then literally it turns out she's right. They're

the same person. It's it's creepy Yeah, it's

very creepy like because I and I was confused

because I was like well I'm assuming that the

bad sister is right like because this has a real

anti Jedi anti conventional attitude But but

if that's right, that's a creepy attitude to

have about your sister that you're part of me

And and but it's also a very modern very Like

the kids today, it's like, you're mine, me, we're

together, we're not individual people. I mean,

first of all, I assure you, you don't really

want any part of this. You should be happy your

genes are distinct from mine. From what I've

witnessed of my parents and my family and my

medical history and my... Yeah, you don't want

any part of this. Trust me. Same. Yeah, no, same.

Yeah, no. Like, yeah. So getting back to the

music of... Getting back to the music. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. We're talking about those memorable

sequel soundtracks. And the funny thing is, like,

I understand what you're saying of there's no

real, like, other than race theme, there's no

real breakout, I guess, technically, Starkiller,

the Starkiller could. And I guess... Kylo arriving

at the battle, I guess that's kind of his theme.

But like, yeah, he doesn't have a whole theme.

He just had that stinger. Yeah, that stinger.

And then Snoke's theme or whatever Snoke was

like, oh, man, for me, what this was. And I think

because Disney was trying to recapture people

like us, the people that grew up with the franchise

and not the new people. Every piece of music

that. is a stinger or is a piece that is from

everything else. Like the Falcon, like the this,

like any time any of the classic Williams themes

pop up. That's when I popped listening to this

music on this specific score. Yeah, I mean, but

at the same time, like on the one hand, I, you

know, you forgive them that because I mean, You

would if you see the Falcon you're gonna play

familiar Star Wars music if you see a character

that you know Like like blaze theme shows up

at one point which makes sense because Leia's

in that scene Yoda's theme shows up when um,

he's burning down the the big stump Big stump

library. Um, but Yoda's it like it like that

makes sense. I'm fine with that I don't know

that I perked up per se it was just like oh,

there's Yoda's theme. That must be that scene.

Um Because I was know a lot of it when I was

walking. Um, so I couldn't like look at the tracks

I get what you're saying. It's a problem working

in this sort of sphere because on the one hand,

you're trying to make the fans happy and on the

other hand, in theory, you're trying to tell

a good story. What's best for them and I know

that there's a very That sounds very arrogant,

but that's also kind of true. It's very true

actually That's why you get more of the same

but different because they're just trying to

give you what they think you want You like the

last thing so we'll give you more of that Yeah,

but I mean, you know like and I think that was

one of the reasons that the prequels had a hard

time of it because they were very different and

you know, I mean that that was I mean I I when

when force awakens first came out. I've been

very harsh on the sequels in this podcast, but

we've got like four or five years of hindsight.

When it first came out I was very easy on it

because to me that was trying to win back both

fans and the normies to Star Wars because by

the time that you know the prequels were done

it was pretty much a niche Star Wars fan thing

where the general audience had been kind of lost.

They knew what Star Wars was and they knew that

remember that they like Star Wars but the general

audience was kind of like yeah now it's like

this weird thing and So The Force Awakens was

was trying very hard to be, hey, remember Star

Wars? I mean, the South Park did that whole member

berries thing, you know, remember Star Wars member,

the Millennium Falcon member Han Solo member

of lightsabers. And then was like, OK, I get

it. You spent four billion dollars on this franchise.

You want to get the people back. You know, I

was fine with that. And then I actually kind

of like Last Jedi. because they broke the toy.

And at the time, I really liked Last Jedi because

it broke all the toys. It put all the toys in

the driveway and then backed up over them and

crushed them. I was like, cool, where are they

gonna go next? And where they went next was into

complete panic mode and just a huge mess and

filmed like three films and just nothing worked

because they didn't have a plan. And I know that

she's a big punching bag for the fandom. but

oh my god Kathleen Kennedy was put in charge

of this thing and she did not have a plan and

Whether or not she wanted to skew the franchise

feminist whether or not she wanted to have like

a very liberal modern take on things Because

Lucas is a big liberal too. Yeah, I mean there's

liberals like Pat May's reaction to the Senate

turning over to Palpatine is Direct commentary

on the Bush administration. Mm -hmm All the stuff

that people really hate on Kathleen Kennedy for,

to me, that's all less important than the fact

she had no plan. That's the unforgivable thing

for me. You can make a good feminist movie, you

can make a good feminist story, you can make

a good... Kids of the 80s talk about Princess

Leia was an iconic feminist character. It wasn't

a feminist story, but she's a breakout character.

I grew up with Ripley, I grew up with Leia, I

grew up with Sarah Connor. I mean, nobody likes

Joss Whedon anymore, but, you know, Buffy the

Vampire Slayer was a big thing back in the day.

Yeah, I mean, like, that's the thing, like, and,

you know, whatever, like, nobody likes, obviously,

because one is a criminal, the other two kind

of went insane. The three people I'm going to

mention, Bill Cosby, Joss Whedon, and Dean Cain.

Dean Cain, for the longest time, 30 -something

years ago, was Superman for four seasons in Lois

and Clark. I like... The work he did for that

show, but I don't have to like him as a person

in real life. I love that show But you know the

same thing with Joss I like angel more than Buffy

because I've seen angel more times than I've

seen Buffy But I like from what I've seen of

Buffy. I really enjoy it same thing with the

Cosby show Yeah, the man Cosby's a weird one

for me because Cosby was I'm old enough that

coffee was this huge icon in my childhood. I

listened to his albums when I was growing up,

his comedy albums, and he was on iSpy, and he

created Fat Albert. And it's just weird that

all of a sudden, from the perspective of a kid

in the Midwest who wasn't in on anything, suddenly

he's this creepy sex pervert who did these terrible

things. And you're like, oh, damn. Weedon you

can kind of you can see a little more with Weedon

where he was a little too. Yeah At the same time,

I love the the first Avengers movie and I I'm

more a Buffy guy than I am an angel guy I I watch

Buffy a lot. So like yeah, but my thing has always

been I don't want to know I'm one of those people.

I don't care about these people's personal lives.

I'm the same way. I mean, yeah I don't think

about like Harrison Ford loves marijuana Cheated

on his wife with Calista Flockhart and like dumped

her dumped the mother of his kids To be with

this skinny little skeleton woman. I don't want

to I don't want to think about that when I'm

watching Indiana Jones I don't want to think

about you know if you if you love Republicans,

I don't care if you love Democrats I don't care

like and and you know everything gets so hyper

now that one of these days You're gonna say something

you're gonna cross the line. It's gonna be like

oh Now, every time I watch this movie, I'm going

to be thinking about that stupid thing you said,

one way or the other. I was never a big fan of

the Loris and Clark show. But yeah, I get where

he's kind of a political figure now that the

right really coalesces around. And I can see,

if you're not into that, you're like, I wish

you had kept your mouth. And conversely, Mark

Hamill has gotten really involved with left leaning

stuff and Biden. And so there's a lot of people

like, ah, Mark Hamill, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. I'm like, I still love Star Wars, and I

still think he's the iconic Joker. And I literally

remember a story on my way to a Gen Con once

about these two guys were talking about how Mark

Hamill had gotten this bad reputation, blah,

blah, blah, that he'd caused all this trouble

in this convention. And then they looked into

it, and it was actually one of his assistants

who was kind of doing it on their own. And once

they got a hold of Mark, he took care of everything.

Yeah, and it's like like Mark Hamill's a really

great guy. Yeah, like you ever heard bad story

about Mark Hamill? It's probably not true and

I I prefer to think about that then, you know,

okay now he's kind of siding This guy or siding

with that guy like I just I don't want to know

these things about these people like and I'm

sorry, but you you you lie to people for a living.

That's what acting is. It's lying. Yeah I mean,

this is cold It's all the value you have to me

like whether or not you have opinions about like

geopolitical, you know, the situation in Israel

is or you know situation in Ukraine or You know

the tax policies That's not really what you were

trained for I mean, I know that Natalie Partman

has like a degree in physics or something So,

I mean, you know, okay, she's smart but like

it's just that's not what I'm interested in I

just wanted I just want to be entertained and

I don't this is this is one of the problems with

modern writing You can put your messages in the

story. Most good stories have messages, but it's

the Mary Poppins. Is it Mary Poppins? No, it's

the other one. Sound of Music. It's a spoonful

of sugar. You make the story entertaining. The

message sinks in by osmosis rather than, this

is the message about things. Gay people are good.

Shut up. It's like, okay, I watch Birdcage. There

was a show on Showtime called Brothers. Watch

the original college apples like I watch shows

that weren't in my face about that and that's

where I form my opinion about Okay, is that they

would at the time this apparently is a homophobe

become comment now but like at the time I just

thought there were people too and they just wanted

to love who they wanted to love and I just wanted

to live their lives and They weren't any worse

than anybody else That's what I've always thought

well, I'm an old person and now I'm like, well,

they're not better than me either So it's like

I'm a homophobe But I never thought they were

worse because I watch these things that presented

them as people Philadelphia presented them as

people rather than gays gays gays gaying and

being gay and having bright hair and engaging

gayery and it's like They were humans. They were

characters. They weren't Cartoons. Yeah, and

now they're cartoons because the writers today

don't want to bother Part of it. I think is they

don't want to you know, to be a good character.

You have to have a little bit of a rough edge

Yeah, you have something to be interesting. Yeah,

I mean look look Tony Stark. Tony Stark's a complete

piece of shit really He's a complete asshole

who has but he's got to start there So he could

become the guy who snaps his fingers and sacrifices

his life to save the universe Absolutely, it's

all an art I mean, so and I think they don't

want to like they don't want to say that this

person does this bad thing because then you're

like Oh, you're saying all gay people are do

this bad thing It's like no this character has

this flaw and he's not perfect and I think modern

writers are really scared to make flawed characters

of their sacred cows. But then it's just message

and cartoons, and there's nowhere to go. This

is a weird tangent, and I'm sure people are like,

weren't you supposed to be talking about Star

Wars music? If you tell a child when they're

six years old, they're perfect the way they are,

why are they supposed to go? Children are awful.

So telling a child that the six is perfect is

like a perfect setup for failure. Because why

do I have? Why do I have to care about other

people? Why do I have to like work and compromise

and care about other people's feelings? No, I

care about my feelings. Me, me, me, me, me, me.

And it's like, and I think that's, you know,

we've got a whole, we've got, my generation was

the first generation that started with that crap.

And now we're like three, you know, three generations

in. I have a friend who just quit teaching because

he cannot reach these kids. I sent him a Cartman

meme about that. How do I reach these kids? It

teaches history, which is one of the worst things

to teach kids these days because they already

know everything. Yeah, exactly. So I think part

of the reason that I'm getting so excited about

everything but the music is because, as I said,

the music is very, it's okay. Yeah, so Force

Awakens. And we can talk about this on each one,

but I'm gonna sit here and say Force Awakens.

Okay, I'm gonna jump a little bit to the end.

I think the best one of the bunch was Riser Skywalker.

I think that had the most interesting original

compositions. Yep. Where Force Awakens was the

most boring. Yeah. Well, my thing is, is that

what I noticed, because even though I did and

I have listened to all three of these scores

through Spotify, when I was doing other things

on Spotify, and I use their like most recently

played whatever to keep track of everything I'm

doing. So these would then fall. Down the list.

So when I go to get them back up the list, I

usually do it in order So I do I do it in order

so they show up so seven eight nine show up seven

eight nine So you got to do nine eight seven

to have them show up in order so I've heard the

opening main title So many times in a lot like

literally I've been preparing for this for like

three months folks Even though I've only listened

to the the three scores in the last three weeks.

I've been preparing for this for three months

I have listened to main title and the attack

on Jakku village main title and escape and fanfare

and prologue So many times in the last three

months and that opening just the opening note

of the main title on each of these Sounds different

to me. It's not the it does. Yeah Every single

one and i'm not i'm not saying it's a bad thing.

I'm not saying oh my god It's not whatever i'm

saying. I noticed that oh Maybe John changed

a few things. Maybe Mr. Williams did something

different here, even though it's the same thing.

Maybe he sped it up, slowed it down, whatever.

I don't know. Also, it was recorded at different

times. There might be different people in the

orchestra. Absolutely. I'm not saying it's a

bad thing. I'm just saying it's something that

I noticed that until I listened to each score

throughout on repeat, like the 23 tracks for

Force Awakens, and then the 20 for last jedi

and then the 19 for uh rise of skywalker yeah

i i gotta say rise of skywalker has for me has

the best music out of the three i like like if

i'm if i'm gonna rank them like number one two

and three number three is force awakens number

two is last jedi and number one is rise of skywalker

with last jedi I know a lot of people may not

like the whole Finn and Rose thing, but I like

the music that accompanied that. And again, I

like Finn. I think Finn's a great character.

I wish, we can't go back, but I wish Finn would

have been the more central character. Yeah, I

mean, I was gonna say I like John Boyega, the

actor. Again, when I found out he was cast in

these movies, I was so excited. And I'm really

let down with what they did with Finn and I I

don't hate Rose. It's just she didn't do anything

You know, I mean the one thing she did was free

a bunch of horses on a planet where they were

gonna get captured five minutes later like Her

plot was a waste of time. That's true But like

the stuff with the two of them where that theme

comes from in last Jedi track 5 fun with Finn

and Rose that that two minutes and 33 seconds

of music. That reminds me of the scenes that

they had together and how they as characters

interacted with each other, regardless of what

she did or didn't do or what he didn't get to

be or ended up being. But yeah, and I would say

Force Awakens is the most, oh my God, we need

to put as many original or close to the original

Star Wars cues as we can. Last Jedi is... Kind

of similar, but it's also more of Hey, let's

try to make some new music here and put some

new stuff in but then rise of Skywalker is just

like But it also like really leans super heavily

on race theme It does like it's the only piece

of new music. I mean again, they've got like

the resistance has a little bit of a sting And

Kylo Ren has a sting and they use those two and

then the fourth order has a thing. They've all

got little things. They don't have like proper

pieces of music. They've got little things. So,

you know, that's sunscreen. But it feels like

it leans super heavily into Ray's theme, which,

you know, again, it's the best piece of original

music from the sequel trilogy. So I understand

that. And in that sense, it was more interesting

than just sort of like... I don't know, placeholder

music. It was uninspired. I think for me, I like...

Okay, so we're talking about Last Jedi now. Like

I said, I like the Fun with Finn and Rose track.

Is that the one? Is that the casino theme? I

think so. The casino theme was fun because it

was wacky casino theme music. Yeah. Again, this

is my nostalgia coming through, but track 12,

the cave off of Last Jedi, the cave scene, I'm

like, okay, this is original, but it also gives

me feelings of, you know... It was very reminiscent

of the scene from Empire. Yeah, from Empire.

I almost made the same mistake. I almost said

Return of the Jedi too. Return of the Jedi, yeah.

I like Peace and Purpose, which is the final.

It's the final right before the finale. I like

that off of Last Jedi. Overall, like I said,

Last Jedi is middle of the road for me, but I

very much enjoyed revisiting the music outside

of the movie. And the funny thing is, even though

we already did the movie episodes and we talked

about the movies already, it's funny with me

in soundtracks, folks, because literally, as

I'm listening to all three of these scores, I

can play the movie in my when I hear the music

tones of whichever what like, you know The beginning

of this with actual island or whatever. It's

supposed to be called Yeah, yeah like that track.

Okay. I know where that's from. I know what that's

right in revisiting Snoke Okay, the supremacy

and then we get all the other stuff We get the

old fan old friends track which is track six

and then the rebellion is reborn track seven

and I can I can literally just listen to the

music and I can just Know where I am in the movie

without having to watch the movie That's why

I say this every episode that we do music I say

that's why I like taking the music out of the

thing it's in So I can hear the music clearly

because in my mind I can see What I'm not actually

seeing because we're not actually watching the

content if that makes any sense It does make

sense, but that's you know weirdly this time

around I There were large tracks of music that

I'm like I have no idea what this goes to Because

like I said, it was very generic. It was like

I I mean, yeah, there was one bit We're like,

oh, that's that's obviously the casino music

because it's so right there were there were other

pieces that were like from memorable moments

You know, like I said, I heard Yoda's theme and

I'm like, okay, that's when the thing gets burned

down You know, I always like my main thing I

guess what these is the the final credit music

Because it's kind of like a summation of the

whole soundtrack, right? Right. And I remember

for Rise of Skywalker, which I was just sort

of saying was the best one, there's this whole

section. I'm like, I have no idea where this

music is from in the movie. It's just like, I

don't know. I did not have. Well, I don't normally

have that experience with soundtracks. I mean,

sometimes sometimes I kind of relive parts of

the movie, but sometimes a lot of it's just I

kind of play the music in my head and tell my

own stories in my head. Um, which is how I know

it's a good piece of music because it's got me

engaged All right like but like it's just I I

did not other there were the particularly force

awakens Like I said, there are two tracks right

at the beginning early on that are kind of action

stuff And I'm like, I have no idea What's going

when this is in the movie? It's just there's

a lot of running around like generic running

around music I mean, I know there was one that

I finally figured out and I don't think it was

one of those two actually where I figured out

it was on Jakku, because then it has the classic

Star Wars sting, and I'm like, that's when the

Falcon gets revealed. Yeah, that's track seven,

the Falcon. Yeah, okay, so like, okay, track

seven, but this is like track three or four.

Yeah. Like, I'm just like, I... Oh, probably

I can fly anything right before Rey's sting.

Yeah. Well, there's another one, there's two

of them that are just like right next to each

other, I thought. And I will say I listen to

these on YouTube, on like a... We call it a list

playlist. Yeah, sorry my brain So like it would

it would automatically go from one to the other

usually The same ad for the stupid card game

about cryptic creatures Which drove me crazy?

Um, I had I had to do it when I was walking Yeah,

because if I did it anywhere else Anytime else

and I tried I would get bored and I would stop

listening and I would start doing something else

So I had to do it when I literally could not

escape. I was in the park, and I had headphones

on, and there was nothing else to switch to.

I mean, there was other things to switch to,

but it was a lot easier than just, I'll play

my video game. I'll type some stuff up for this

thing I'm working on. I'll do this. I'll do that.

I'll read the book. We're working on a thing

with books. So I tried listening to it reading

the book, and I was like, I just want to focus

on the book. I listened to it playing my video

game. It did not hold me the way that even the

prequel themes, like we said during the prequel

episode, the one truly undisputable good thing

that came out of the whole prequel situation

were the soundtracks. I feel like this time that's

not even true. Because of those, I have never

actually bought Indiana Jones' Dial of Destiny

soundtrack. Well, yeah, I haven't because like

I'm like, okay, these have been these have been

underwhelming But it is John Williams last soundtrack.

Maybe so it's like maybe you should although

like Crystal Skull wasn't that great. Yeah I

don't know. I I kind of yeah, I mean like like

we said when we did our Indiana Jones episodes

We stop at last crusade that that's the point

last crusade. That's the end Right off into the

freaking sunset. It's perfect. That's right.

He would come back to that Oops. Well, there's

idiots in Hollywood isn't there they're talking

about doing another one. Oh god, no Help me Lauren

help me. But yeah, I mean it's just one of those

things where as I was listening to all three

and again I would over the last three weeks I

would take Let's see what's our in 17 minutes

for force awakens 77 minutes for last Jedi and

an hour and six so last Jedi was the Shortest

one hour and 16 for rises or yeah rises Skywalker

So let's just say three and a half four hours

so four hours total I would listen to all three

once or twice a day. And then I would focus on

like Force Awakens one day, Last Jedi the next

day, and then Rise of Skywalker the next day.

So I have them in my head. Right before we started

recording the show, I was listening to Rise of

Skywalker again, because it was the one out of

the three that I had listened to the least, but

it's the one that I liked the most. Yeah, I think

by the time that I actually came out and actually

got that one I had been disappointed by the other

two I'm not even sure mine is unwrapped Like

I don't think I ever tried to listen to it because

I just gotten so bored with the other two, right?

so, you know for this this thing I I You know

sat down and listen to it and I was like, oh,

it's okay Again, we're not disparaging Mr. Williams.

It is good music. It's just not, I mean, repeatable

music. It's not something we're going to listen

to. We will go to the original trilogy or even

the prequel trilogy before we go to these three.

Oh, absolutely. First of all, you're making that

sound like the prequel trilogy is like a... No,

no, no. Let me be clear. Even if they are bad,

which I'm not saying they are. This guy, I think

he's allowed a bad sound. This guy created Jaws,

Star Wars, Close Encounters, E .T., Jurassic

Park, the Harry Potter theme. These are the big

ones. You talk about all the little ones that

he did, and he did a bunch of TV shows that are

all lost in space. They're all memorable. This

guy's a genius. Even if I thought these soundtracks

were garbage, I think we're allowed to say that

this guy did one bad thing. First of all, a random

podcast is not going to diminish John Williams'

legacy. Like I said with the R .A .M. song, he's

done so much, maybe he just did enough. I mean,

maybe there's only so much in you so much genius

so much greatness and and first of all and as

I said They're not bad soundtracks if this were

not Star Wars. Yes These would be fine. Yes,

like these would be fine soundtracks. Like they're

they're not bad. They're just not magical and

I think for start I I I was thinking about this

today. I think some of it is because Star Wars

was kind of a unique franchise, in that it was,

you know, because George did the deal with Fox,

right, because he owned it. Whereas you think

about every other franchise, like somebody else

owned like, you know, like, Roddenberry had to

compromise with whoever, you know, Paramount

and Desilu. And he never quite, you know, like,

like motion picture and the first season of Next

Gen, like the closest to his pure vision of Star

Trek, and nobody likes those. But he was always,

you know, all these other franchises are usually

owned by companies. which is why you get the

sequels that aren't as good and blah blah blah

and their products. Whereas George, whether you

like the prequels or not, they are his artistic

vision to a degree. I think he did temper them

based on fan reaction. But I mean, and then once

Disney took over, they became another franchise,

which is another thing I knock Kathleen Kennedy

for. I don't, and you know, to be fair, Who on

earth I think there are very few people who would

treat Star Wars the way that George Lucas which

it was his baby Yeah, I sold his baby to white

slavers. That's a quote of his not mine Wow.

Oh, yeah but uh, you know, I mean on the one

hand I think yeah, you know No, no one's going

to treat Star Wars the way that Lucas would treat

Star Wars on the other hand I mean it is annoying

because I do think there's a whole generation

that grew up with it and loved it And I think

you could have found people that like... I don't

know. I don't know. Because I think Abrams...

I don't think Abrams was a bad call for directing

that first film. I think it was a bad call for

writing the first film. But like, just... I think

the soundtrack's kind of reinforced every issue

I had with the sequel trilogy. Like I said earlier,

it's a sequel trilogy. It's not... It's not continuing

the story. It's a sequel Yep, it's diehard Three

is jaws for it's rocky has to fight another guy

to regain the blah blah blah. It's it's another

it's the same story told over get like you get

to the end of by the Skywalker camera if I said

this in the rise of Skywalker review and You

are you have come full circle. Mm -hmm. The evil

Empire is destroyed like it was at the return

of Jedi Palpatine's dead, like you're another

Jedi. There's a young Jedi who's going to rebuild

the blah, blah, blah. You're literally back where

you started from. Yep. Has been no progress.

Except that your favorite characters are all

dead now. Yeah, and I think just the uninspiredness

of the... It comes through in the soundtracks

and then it just doesn't... Even the music isn't

like, you know, if you don't like the prequels

They look cheesy and the dialogues bad and the

story's kind of clunky. The music was great Absolutely.

It's like this isn't that great but and the music

is okay and again like like look man I'm not

knocking John Williams The guy has done more

than I was in my life. He's a genius. I'm just

saying these maybe maybe The movie inspired,

and I imagine it must, the movie inspires a soundtrack.

And these are kind of the soundtracks those movies

inspired. I don't know if I'm making sense. No,

you're making sense, absolutely. I think for

me, if I was gonna take a piece of music, one

track from each of these scores, I would take,

from Force Awakens, I would take Scherzo for

X -Wings, because, X -Wings, hello. Yeah, we've

talked about that. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

I know, I'm obsessed, right? I'm not obsessed,

I just, I feel, it's, it's just, it's X -Wings

again. It's been 40 years. Like, come up with

something new and cool. No, X -Wings, okay. I

would take Peace and Purpose from Last Jedi,

the last track before the finale, and then Rise

of Skywalker, man, ugh. It's I Sorry not sorry,

it's the old Death Star because as soon as I

heard that I was like, hey, it's the old Death

Star Hey, it's the worst part of that entire

movie The most most insulting to the audience

you can get Okay. Yes, that's metal and seawater

that that mix is fine. That's a big chunk of

metal in an ocean that'll last forever Why would

you want to remember that sequence? It's the

music. But it's the music from Return of the

Jedi. I like that music in Return of the Jedi

when the Death Star is like appropriately appropriate

and no one's telling me that you can make a knife

with a little fold -out thing that points. There's

a little pointy thing to the exact room you want

40 years after it's been sitting in an ocean

after falling from orbit. Just the stupidest

thing in the entire movie, and that movie has

a lot of stupid things. Why do I want to remember

that? I don't know. I'm sorry. I mean, I don't

know what you think about me, but like... No,

no, no, I know. It reminds me of the movie as

like, yeah, that's a bad thing in that turn of

events. No, it reminds me of the Death Star itself,

not necessarily the movie, like, not the... Again,

like, I've got Return of the Jedi for that. Yeah.

I've got that soundtrack. All right, so I'm assuming

we're not recommending any of these to people,

correct? Unless you're a super fan. By the way,

the only one that I remember by name is Ray's

theme, which I will pick as my favorite out of

the bunch. I mean, I have a lot of weirdly...

So I think I've mentioned this before, I got

a dog around that time that those movies came

out. And she was a little basset hound and she

was lemon colored. And she kind of looked like

Ray's outfit from the first movie, like that

color, that tan, the yellowish tan. And if you

listen to Ray's theme, and you imagine a little

basset hound toddling around, so her name was

Ray, and so I've always kind of associated, to

me, I've associated that theme with my dog, Ray.

And she passed away. She had a very terrible,

tragic accident. So it was actually kind of hard

to listen to that theme, walking in the park

without my dog at my side. It was sad, but that's

the theme. It is a piece of music that I remember

the most. I have other non -Star Wars attachments

to it. So yeah, that would be my main thing.

What I recommend, if you're a fan and a collector,

I mean, I'm being hard on these things, but I've

got them on CD, and I've got Rise of Skywalker

on vinyl on the wall. And then Target did a special

edition of Last Jedi, like on clear vinyl with

a poured painted on it. Oh, of course you have

that. I have, well, yeah, I've got the Last Jedi

poster. And so it's in the frame with the Last

Jedi poster. Nice. Very cool, very cool. It's

like, yeah, I'm not really recommending them,

but I've got like two copies of each. But yeah,

I'm recommending as far as people listen to them,

as far as people go back to them kind of thing.

Just because you have the... I have a vinyl of

Paul & Oates' 1984 album, Big Bam Boom. Yes,

I would recommend that album because it's awesome,

but I still have the vinyl even though I don't

have a thing to play it on because I like the

vinyl. That's just the way collecting is. You

know this. You've got a whole basement full of

it. I mean, I got The Last Jedi because it was

like, hey, they're still doing vinyl albums.

I was like, hey, I don't know. I got The Rise

of Skywalker because I was like, hey, a vinyl

copy of that? And I got the other one because

it was a board. Yeah. Vinyl is still very big.

I am aware of that. But yeah, it's hard to recommend.

Because it's like, if you're a fan of John Williams

music, there are better pieces of music. Like

most of his collection is genius. And if you're

not a fan of John Williams music, then no. I

mean, why would you bother? Well, no, obviously,

yeah. Yeah. It's a weird one. It's a hard one

to talk about recommendations. I think if you're

a fan boy, you're going to probably buy the albums

anyway. I did. So I think that was kind of my

point. Like I bought them. So it's the final

disappointment from Disney Lucasfilm. Is it,

though? I mean, I got Andor season two. Like,

I have so much invested in that emotionally.

You have no idea. I didn't share this with you

the other day. I saw somebody post. I forget

where. It was either on Facebook or Instagram.

Somebody post. I think it was from IG. I'm going

to have to go search for this after the show

because I want to know if it was actually real

or somebody something just somebody said Andor

season two is going to take four and a half years.

To release and I'm like, oh god. No, don't do

that No, I know I Think it's coming out like

early next year. Yeah, I think that's what it

is, too I I think they're just screwing around.

All right zero to five with half points. What

are you gonna give force awakens? 2 .5 Same.

Last Jedi. 2 .5? Really? I'll give it a 3 .5.

Looking back, I don't remember anything from

it. Alright, what about Rise of Skywalker? 3.

Yeah, I'll give it a 4. I'll give it a 3 .5.

I'll move it up because I did like that it felt

more original than the other two. I felt a little

more inspired than the other two. Yes, which

is ironic because that film was the biggest mess

of the bunch. So Yeah, it kind of is but it kind

of makes sense to all at the same time All right,

folks. We are gonna go to a quick podcast ad

break here some podcast ads and some other stuff

We'll come back to close the show Right after

this. So let's say you're looking for a podcast

of your favorite 80s comic books. G .I. Joe,

Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where

are you gonna go to find this? Welcome to Star

Joe's Podcast. I'm your host Ryan. And I'm Chuck.

That's right everybody, we're the Star Joe's.

We host a podcast called Star Joe's Podcast.

where we talk about your favorite comic books,

your favorite toys of all the 80s properties.

Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Mask, Thundercats,

Voltron, you name it, we cover it. If it's in

the 80s, we will cover it at some point. Yes,

so what you want to do to find us, you can go

to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes .com,

and remember, the Force will be with you, because

knowing us is half the battle. Hello everyone,

this is JD from the in session film podcast each

week. We review the latest from Hollywood, California

Well, yes, Brendan. We also give top three lists.

Okay. Yeah. Thanks again Brendan Additionally,

you can hear us talk other movie news trailers

varying movie series or other interesting film

related topics and even rants and raves of the

week On top of our main show, every Friday, you

can also hear our extra film podcasts. You can

listen to the In Session Film podcast on iTunes,

Stitcher, SoundCloud, or at InSessionFilm .com.

Listen to the In Session Film podcast every Monday

and Friday. Subscribe today and hear me verbally

beat JD like a Cherokee drum. No, no, no, no,

no. That's not how this works, sir. Yo Joe, and

welcome to the Cracktastic Plastic Podcast, where

a punk rock band of brothers get together to

talk about one of our shared loves, toy collecting.

Toy hunt by day, punk rock band by night. We'll

take any excuse to get the van. We all collect

different toy lines like those real American

heroes. G .I. Joe. To the toys that are more

than meets the eye, Transformers. To He -Man

and the Masters of the Universe. From vintage

to modern and all topics in between, you can

always expect some rowdy and passionate discussion

because we love talking toys here on the Cracktastic

Plastic Podcast. Hi, welcome to Up Nerd. What

is Up Nerd? Up Nerd is a podcasting network of

shows hosted by me, The Uneven Flow. People have

told me I like to talk at them about a pretty

wide range of topics, comics, games, movies,

books, whatever, and now I'll be able to talk

at you. Along with the weekly show will be two

bi -weekly shows. First we have Fine You Pick,

a show where one host picks a movie, then both

hosts have to watch it. Then the next episode,

the other host picks the movie. Each show will

have a breakdown of why it is that movie was

picked by that host, after which will be a discussion

about what it is we just watched. Lastly, we

have the show Top 3 Bottom 3. Similarly to Fine

You Pick, one host picks a television series

and the next week the pick alternates to the

other host. Here the episodes of the show are

chosen by the Top 3 episodes and the Bottom 3

episodes, as rated on IMDb .com. Yes, this is

probably the worst way to watch and review a

television show, and yes, that's the idea. On

our shows, I'll detail out how you can suggest

things for us to watch, you can reach out and

talk with the hosts, and maybe even appear on

an episode. I hope you'll join me for this exciting

new podcast adventure. I swear we're going to

make it more than eight episodes. Alright folks

we are back here in size 2 2009 only on the geek

cast radio network and as of this moment right

now Because I've got everything else up on the

schedule and there's no more Star Wars for now

there will be news Not for now. I was I was just

about to make a joke like about how how we're

you know, we've gone Okay, we didn't really like

the sequels and sequel soundtracks, but hey the

next up next week we're going to be recording

the holiday special oh no no no we already don't

look forward to we already did that yes technically

folks yeah okay i get confused i i'm a simple

creature it's okay technically folks we've already

had the immense pleasure of people already going

we heard that already what are you talking about

I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay We've already

had the immense pleasure of discussing star wars

memories and more movie memories by craig miller

with craig miller So we have those two episodes.

So those have happened. We just did the holiday

special and this is the final for now Star wars

episode until 2025 when we hit with the music

of mando seasons 1 2 and 3 each episode each

score is its own episode So that will be coming

in January 2025, but it's coming up next At some

point is going to be the start of our Colombo

coverage Yeah, still need to decide off air how

we're doing that, but that's what's coming up

next here inside studio 2009 any final thoughts

from you sir on your 12 months of Star Wars podcasting

experience before I appreciate You offer this

to me because It does seem like stars has gotten

to a point where like, you know, I'm I'm more

looking back than looking forward and So it was

kind of fun to go back and revisit everything

one last time for a reason You know as opposed

to just like, you know sit around in my house

being alone and miserable So yeah, I've it's

been interesting to revisit it. I think a couple

of those movies are pretty good So you know,

I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you, Mike.

All right, folks. Thank you for joining us here

inside studio 2009. If you'd like to get in contact

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the beginning of our Colombo coverage and I'm

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because we still have to decide that. So for

now, I am TF2 and Mike with Dave Draper. You'll

hear us back in the studio soon.