Red Dwarf theme reggae cover

[Nick R]

Craig Charles retweeted this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOhg5FNcLas

Topic

[Ridley]

Mr Rat in mi Kitchen

[Dave]

Bob Marley the skutter

[Shoes Have Soles]

If Danny had stayed on the show this could easily have been put into a death in paradise episode.

[si]

Just in case you missed it, the most horrific version of the Red Dwarf theme ever recorded was played by Matt Lucas on Radio 2 this afternoon, a TV themes special – which was pretty enjoyable for the most part.
But at 1hr20m in, this happened:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000clt5
(The link’ll be knackered in a months’ time, so listen now if you can bear it)

[si]

Also worth mentioning that the Beeb must be so embarrassed by it, that they haven’t included it in the list of Tracks Played.

[International Debris]

Oh Christ he didn’t

[GlenTokyo]

Caliente Cabeza Orchestra is responsible according to Shazam.

If they wanted that kind of dolled up megamix version they should have used the one that Dockers Guild did, it’s similar but much better.

Really though they should have played the one that Danny did on the Tongue Tied single.

[(deleted)]

I think the problem is that for MCPS reasons they are only *supposed* to play published recordings on air, from their original sources (David Arnold’s Little Britain theme which he played at the start just about counts as it’s on a David Arnold sampler promo), and nobody ever thought to put a true authorised version of ‘Theme From Red Dwarf’ out in 32 years. Which is ridiculous really, given that plenty of its TV contemporaries had their themes turn up on singles or compilations, particularly in the 1990s and usually in their TV versions. Few are as demanded but also as elusive as Dwarf’s – maybe the TV version of Father Ted (which has never turned up anywhere, although it probably would have appeared on the cancelled 1999 single of Songs Of Love alongside My Lovely Horse) too? And I think an attempt to put out Absolutely Fabulous was thwarted at the eleventh hour for publishing reasons and necessitated a repress. But at least they were trying…

Even Danny’s cover is only on the 7″ of Tongue Tied, so not even easily obtainable. Particularly as the last time Craig Charles tried to play the A-side, in Danny’s presence, their source was clearly YouTube.

So yeah, if they want to play the Red Dwarf theme on air, they have only terrible versions to choose from.

[Pete Part Three]

>Also worth mentioning that the Beeb must be so embarrassed by it, that they haven’t included it in the list of Tracks Played.

I’d imagine that Howard Goodall rang up and complained when Matt Lucas credited it to him after it was played.

[pi r squared]

I know it’s sacrilege to say so but I do actually prefer the additional lyrics (“hyperspace” and whatnot) to some of the additional verses written by Goodall himself. Don’t get me wrong, the arrangement on that other version is hideous, the singing is not great, and the ending is just too weird for words, but I still find it difficult to believe that the genius of Goodall also came up with:

I’d like to have
Red blotches on my face
Make a mess
Of my nose
I’d love to peel
In every awkward place
Fun, Fun, Fun in the Sun, Sun, Sun

[Plastic Percy]

I, too, actually rather like the “pack my bags and head into hyperspace” lyrics.

[(deleted)]

But it’s not supposed to be about space!

It’s supposed to be an early 60s girl group song about a tropical holiday, a 20th century anachronism a bit like how the Michael Crawford film is used in Wall-E, Daisy Daisy’s appearance in 2001, or indeed how the Joan Baez songs sit against Silent Running. The idea of all of those is to ‘look how much humanity we had to lose in order to get here’. None of which works if it’s a sassy Hitchhikers-esque number about how groovy corporate space travel is.

I only think those extra lyrics are incredibly rough draft placeholder ideas he’s singing out by the way, rather than an intended extension of the song we know. Any theoretical full length version would surely have had a full middle eight for variety’s sake, and the musical setting would suggest by example the addition of both a sultry intro and an instrumental with a breathy spoken section…!

[(deleted)]

The other interesting thing about that song is that it was written the year after number 1 smash The Chicken Song, penned by one of the Red Dwarf composer’s best mates and the two writers of Red Dwarf. I do wonder if there was a conscious decision there to attempt to bathe in the same river twice.

[International Debris]

Yeah, I can’t stand the hyperspace verses, totally at odds with the rest of the song and even the feel of the show, particularly the early years.

[Author]

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