Meco's 'Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk', and the disco remix

In 1977, the whole world was Star Wars nuts. Still fresh, new and un-CGI’d, millions of small children were mimicking lightsabre battles using promotional rulers whilst older fans salivated over the groundbreaking special effects and (more disturbingly) Carrie Fisher. It was also the height of the disco era, with ‘Saturday Night Fever’ being released only six months later, and programmes such as ‘Starsky and Hutch’ starting to involve too much dancing to boost flagging ratings. Two massive phenomena: one massive chance to cash in.

Musically.

What emerges is the incredible yet bizarre ‘Star Wars and other Galactic Funk’. Possibly the first Star Wars meme, it takes the key themes of Episode IV (Main Titles/Binary Sunset/Princess Leia’s Theme/Cantina Band 1) and chucks them into a blender with the Tavares. What’s more incredible is that it actually topped the US charts for two weeks. And that it’s quite good.

Somehow, Pennsylvanian producer Meco manages to keep the beauty and pathos of John Williams’ music whilst making it “danceable”. Until you’ve heard Princess Leia’s theme with a distinctly groovy underbeat you can’t appreciate just how good John Williams’ music is to survive it. Of course the highlight is the cantina band, as it has ever been, of every film. (On an unrelated note: there’s a second cantina band section. Has anyone ever heard about this in 40 years?)

The problem is that most commentators like to act like this was an isolated phenomenon. That Meco stole in, bought a copy of the Star Wars sheet music and gave it to the Bee Gees. Not so.

In fact shortly after Meco’s attempt Geoff Love, the doyenne of cheap theme tune reproductions released two LPs of sci-fi themes done in a disco style. A cash in on a cash in, if you will. These too are surprisingly good- Love is a distinctly underrated arranger generally, largely for his reputation on the ‘Music for Pleasure’ label which appealed largely only to the middle aged. There are also much more bizarre choices- for instance, a version of ‘Also Spake Zarathustra’ that imagines the Star-Child in a disco ball rather than a sphere of light, or ‘UFO’ except as a Bond theme. However, themes are delivered with flare and big beats: a sense of the grandeur of space operas such as ‘Blake’s 7’ are maintained whilst boppable. This is a testament both to the original composers and Love’s sensitivity as a an arranger. The styles of these driving, melancholy themes against the loose flow of late 70s disco clash so immensely that to balance them is a skill in itself.

Was there any point to these remixes? Not really- but they do attest to a cultural moment where it wasn’t odd to mix a big musical genre and television theme tunes and to expect to make money from it. Nowadays, the equivalent- techno or metal remixes of, say, the Stranger Things theme- would be shunted to the distant wastelands of Youtube, where we must be cautious.

So raise a glass to a time when theme tunes could get to Number One in the charts, and Star Wars was fresh, new, and un-Jar-Jar’d.