User:AndyJones/Boléro in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boléro, a one-movement orchestral piece composed by Maurice Ravel, has found many uses in popular music and in film and television for its recurring theme which has reached its popular appeal. The music is also featured in various sport occasions, mostly in ice skating.

Contents

[edit] In motion pictures

[edit] In TV series

[edit] In video games

  • Boléro was the original intended theme during the opening of The Legend of Zelda video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The policies of the Ravel estate prevented its use, but the rhythm melody for the eventual included theme (an arrangement of the overworld theme) remains similar to the snare rhythm of Boléro.[1]
  • One of the songs which a player can learn in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is called Boléro of Fire, and has a snare rhythm similar to its eponym. It is taught to the protagonist by Sheik upon entering Death Mountain Crater after defeating the Forest Temple.

[edit] In popular music

  • Boléro has been rearranged and performed by many artists, including Pink Martini, quotations in the chorus of Rufus Wainwright's "Oh What A World.", and an Emerson, Lake & Palmer version called "Abaddon's Bolero" on their Trilogy album.
  • Larry Adler used to perform the Boléro on his harmonica (mouth organ). Ravel even made Adler exempt from paying royalities on his performances of it.
  • Jefferson Airplane used the ostinato snare pattern of Boléro in its 1967 song "White Rabbit," in which the driving, hypnotic rhythm evokes the allure and effects of psychedelic drugs.
  • A composition of "Beck's Bolero" appeared on Jeff Beck's 1968 album Truth. It featured the playing of both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, and the writing was credited to Page. Although Page is officially credited for the arrangement, Beck has also claimed to be the primary creator of the piece. This has remained a point of contention between the two. Page later incorporated parts of it in Led Zeppelin's "How Many More Times" as an inside joke referencing the dispute.
  • Boléro was re-arranged and performed by jazz-rock band Colosseum in the late 1960s.
  • A 90-second electric guitar rendition of Boléro is interpolated into the song "The Bomber" by the James Gang in their 1970 album James Gang Rides Again.
  • The Dead Kennedys song California Uber Alles in 1979 uses a very sinister variation at the end, giving the impression of Jerry Brown's triumphant hippie-fascist vision.
  • A heavy metal version of the song, called "Great Boleros of Fire", was the show-opening number for Meat Loaf.
  • Isao Tomita featured Boléro on "The Ravel Album" (alternatively known as "Daphnis et Chloé - Boléro") in 1980. As a keyboard virtuoso the track remains for the most part faithful to the original, the progressive layering and shift between instruments (featuring synthesised oboe, clarinet and flute alongside less traditional instruments only a Moog synthesizer or similar could produce) - and of course the ever present snare drums (in this case played by a distorted tinny 'orchestra strike' sound). In all it lasts only 9:16 and peters out on an almost 'traditional' organ sound.
  • Boléro was covered by Frank Zappa during live concerts of his 1988 tour. One of these performances was released on the 1991 album The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life. However, because of complaints from the Ravel estate, the song was removed from versions of the album released in the UK, where the composition is still copyrighted. The signature rhythm enters 4 minutes into the 5 minute piece.
  • Boléro is the opening song in the 1999 Broadway production Blast!, and also serves as a reprise at the end of the show. The snare drummer playing the signature rhythm begins in the middle of the stage under a spotlight and remains stationary as the rest of the ensemble moves around the drummer.
  • For fifteen years Blue Man Group used Boléro as the background music for their "Twinkie Feast" sketch, in which they invite a woman from the audience to eat Twinkies with them. Once they moved from the Luxor to the Venetian in Las Vegas in September 2005, they changed the music to an original piece of their own, a change which was later implemented in their other theatrical shows.
  • The music features as part of the larger ensemble James Gang instrumental "The Bomber", played predominately as an electric guitar solo by Joe Walsh. The version featuring Bolero was originally trimmed from the song on the "Rides Again" album, but can be found complete on the Joe Walsh compilation "Little Did He Know".[2]

[edit] In sport

[edit] Other

  • The Boléro is played every day as last in "Staminee de Garre" a bar in Bruges, Belgium to let the customers know the bar is about to close, thus providing 17 full minutes to re-order.
  • Musician-writer Josefa Heifetz compiled a book of musical mnemonics titled From Bach to Verse, including Boléro; the versre she wrote for it was "If/You would like to know the easiest way/To drive someone really cra-/Zy, all you need to do is play/Ravel's 'Boléro' twenty times a day."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Koji Kondo interview, part three
  2. ^ The Bomber by The James Gang Songfacts