Music of Cowboy Bebop

The Cowboy Bebop anime series was accompanied by a number of soundtrack albums composed by Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts, a diverse band Kanno formed specifically to create the music for the series, with a principal focus in jazz. The recordings were an international effort with many names attached, including that of recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder.^[1]

Theme songs

"Tank!"

"Tank!" is the series' opening song. The song, written by Yoko Kanno and performed by Seatbelts, has an extensive alto saxophone solo played by Masato Honda, as well as a fill part at the end. The song is a big band jazz piece in a Latin infused hard bop style with a rhythm section that combines a double bass and bongo drums.

"Tank!" is primarily an instrumental piece, though it does feature some spoken male vocals (provided by long-time collaborator with Kanno, Tim Jensen) in the introductory portion of the song, thematically jazz in style. The vocal portion provides a lead-in to the instrumental portion, and its final lyrics, "I think it's time we blow this scene. Get everybody and the stuff together. Ok, three, two, one let's jam," signal the beginning bursts of the majority, purely instrumental end of the song.

It has been featured on the soundtracks to the series and as the original opening theme it is somewhat iconic, one of several popular pieces which are still closely associated with the Bebop series. It has also been occasionally used as background music for some international commercials, such as a preview for My Own Worst Enemy.

"The Real Folk Blues"

"The Real Folk Blues" is the first ending theme for Cowboy Bebop. The song was performed by Seatbelts, featuring vocals by Mai Yamane. The song was composed and arranged by Yoko Kanno, with lyrics by Yuho Iwasato. The track appears on the series-related album Cowboy Bebop Vitaminless (カウボーイビバップ ビタミンレス, Kaubōi Bibappu Bitaminresu). The song is one of few songs in the series to be sung in Japanese.

The song is not used for the end credits in "Jupiter Jazz, Pt. II" and the finale "The Real Folk Blues". However, an alternate version of the song entitled "See You Space Cowboy..." plays during the final episode as the prelude to the climax. It appears on the Cowboy Bebop: Blue album as a bonus track. Perhaps the name of the song is a reference to Howlin' Wolf, one of the greatest blues men of all time,and his album "the real folk blues" which was published in 1966, recorded by Chess Records between 1956 and 1965.

Studio recordings

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is the first album created for the series, and the most easily categorized in terms of genre, as an outlet for many of the trademark bebop tracks. It begins with the show's theme song, "Tank!". The track "Bad Dog No Biscuits" opens with a cover of the Tom Waits composition "Midtown" before diverting wildly in its interpretation.

The album received a 5/5 rating from Allmusic.^[3]

Cowboy Bebop Vitaminless

Cowboy Bebop Vitaminless (カウボーイビバップ ビタミンレス, Kaubōi Bibappu Bitaminresu) is the first mini-album. It features the end credits theme from the series, "The Real Folk Blues".

Like many other commonly revisited motifs in the soundtracks, the track "Spy" is an alternative approach to "You Make Me Cool", which appears on the No Disc album.

Cowboy Bebop No Disc

Cowboy Bebop No Disc (カウボーイビバップ ノーディスク, Kaubōi Bibappu No Disuku) is the second soundtrack album, which shows off a demanding stylistic variety unseen in its predecessor, incorporating bluegrassy banjo, heavy metal, Japanese pop, lounge, swing, chorale, and scat-singing among other styles, as well as the usual blues and jazz pieces.

Cowboy Bebop Blue

Cowboy Bebop Blue is the third soundtrack album, featuring many vocal pieces, including a setting of the Ave Maria text, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Anthony Inglis.^[4]

It was released on May 1, 1999. Regarding the album, Allmusic wrote, "Of the more than ten discs released in conjunction with Cowboy Bebop, Blue is undoubtedly the best, representing the widest variety of genres."^[5]

Ask DNA

Ask DNA is a maxi single released in 2001, an accompaniment to Cowboy Bebop Future Blues. It consists of a few highlights from Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, including the title theme, "Ask DNA."

Future Blues

Future Blues is the main soundtrack from Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. It explores additional styles even further, such as country-western and Arabic music.

The song 3.14 features Aoi Tada reciting the first 53 digits of pi to a tune.

Cowboy Bebop Tank! THE! BEST!

Cowboy Bebop Tank! THE! BEST! compiles previously released material, mostly vocal pieces, with three all-new songs written for the 2005 PlayStation 2 game Cowboy Bebop: Tsuioku no Serenade, featuring the vocals of Ilaria Graziano. The first pressing of the CD included a bonus sticker. These songs were the last new material released by Seatbelts.

Miscellaneous

Cowboy Bebop Remixes: Music for Freelance

Cowboy Bebop Remixes: Music for Freelance (カウボーイ ビバップ リミキシーズ ミュージック フォー フリーランス, Kaubōi Bibappu Rimikishīzu Myūjikku Fō Furīransu) is a collection of songs remixed by popular American and British DJ's, including many from the popular Ninja Tune label. Mr. Scruff spoke to British magazine Impact of his remix of Cat Blues, telling Andrez Bergen that he chose it "as it was a great, old sounding tune, simple with loads of personality. The parts were so well recorded that it was a pleasure to remix! I chopped it up into a kind of stuttering drumbox jazz wobbler."^[15]

The premise of the album is that the CD is a recording of a pirate radio station, and each song is humorously introduced by the DJ, in English. These tracks are called the "Radio Free Mars Talks". They are credited as follows:

• Script: Shinichiro Watanabe, Dai Sato
• Translation: Agnes S. Kaku
• Narration: Peter Duimstra

Cowgirl Ed

Cowgirl Ed is a limited edition Mini-CD. This single came packaged with the first pressing of Future Blues and is currently out of print.

Cowboy Bebop Boxed Set

The Cowboy Bebop Boxed Set includes four regular size CDs, one bonus Mini CD, and a 52-page booklet (in Japanese). The booklet includes interesting trivia, track listing, interviews, and lyrics. Disks 1, 2 and 3 contain new and previously released tracks from the series, performed by Seatbelts. Disk 4 contains live tracks from Seatbelts on tour, as well as some unreleased movie tracks. The dialogue tracks are not songs, rather, they are vocal samples taken directly from the Japanese version of the series. It was released on June 21, 2002, and is now out of production.

The boxed set received an enthusiastic 4/5 review from Allmusic, citing its eclectic blend of genres and an appeal going beyond anime fans to "any adventurous listener", but also mentioned that the spoken dialogue tracks detracted from its accessibility.^[16]

The scripts for the dialogue tracks are credited to Shinichiro Watanabe and Dai Sato and the translation was done by Agnes S. Kaku.

Tracks in bold are exclusive to this boxed set.

12" Vinyl Singles

Accompanying the release of the Cowboy Bebop Remixes: Music for Freelance album and the Ask DNA Maxi-Single were two EP's released on 12-inch vinyl containing a selection of material from the aforementioned albums. Both EP's came in plain white jackets with printed graphics on the record label and played at 33⅓ rpm. Both albums were released independently with Remixes using the catalog number BEBOP 001 and Ask DNA using BEBOP 002.

The first EP, simply dubbed Remixes and released in 1999 contains 5 tracks taken from the Music for Freelance CD. Around the label there are trademarks for Sunrise and Victor Entertainment, followed by a line that reads DJ Promo Only Not For Resale. It is not known how many copies were produced. The track list for the EP is below;

The second EP, dubbed Ask DNA and released in 2001 contains all 5 tracks from the Ask DNA Maxi Single. This EP was released through the Cowboy Bebop Japanese Fanclub as promotional material in limited quantities. It came in a plain white jacket with a sticker on the outside containing the Seatbelts logo and an advertisement for the CD release of Ask DNA. The track list for the EP is below;

See also

• Space Bio Charge, a Yoko Kanno compilation album which includes unreleased takes of Cowboy Bebop songs.
• Shakkazombie, a Japanese rap group whose song 空を取り戻した日 (Sora wo torimodoshita hi, or "Recover the Sky of Day"), from their album Hero the S.Z., was featured at the end of Session XX, "Mish-Mash Blues", the mid-series recap episode of Cowboy Bebop aired in Japan due to the series' cancellation.

References