Monday, October 15, 2007

Baroque Hoedown - They Might Be Giants










It's sad that children these days don't get to experience the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. Yes, there are other variations of the Parade at in the other parks but none of them are the same. The Main Street Electrical Parade, and it's soundtrack, were a part of summer evenings at Disneyland for three decades and it is on this day in 1996 that it did it's last route on Main Street.

The soundtrack, which was created by cutting edge synthesizers, was written in 1967 and was synchronized to the thousands of blinking lights and animatronic characters. The main theme was the Baroque Hoedown, which was heard during the Blue Fairy float, but the soundtrack incorporated many Disney songs that went with the floats of the same movie.

This version of Baroque Hoedown from DISNEYMANIA 2 is by quirky rock duo THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS. This pairing is perfect; the song is quite weird and the Giants use of electronica in their music works to modernize this tune using the same elements that made it famous in the first place. You will also hear a bit of the Un-Birthday Song which was played during the Alice in Wonderland float in the parade.

I should note, in case you are unfamiliar with the band, that They Might Be Giants is not an electronica group. They are alternative rock but draw on many other styles of music to make up their sound. Check back in a few weeks and you'll hear another Disney cover from TMBG!

3 comments:

coolshades said...

Dude! The parade is still there...it's just over in California Adventure now! I think it's weekends at 8:30 PM...right before the park closes. If it's different than it was before, the differences must be very minor, because I don't notice them.

Kurtis said...

The main difference is that it is not the MAIN STREET Electrical Parade because there is no Main Street in the California Adventure.

It's a tradition thing.

Andy Norton said...

This is certainly the sort of quirky cover They Might Be Giants would be making. So I like it for that reason alone.