LONG BLOG
Phils Game/Pop Music Similarities #217 - When the Cupids go Marching In
Featuring Kid Icarus (NES) and military music.
Greetings fellow game music lovers,
finally, I came that rested in my heart for a long time: The original Kid Icarus from 1986 with everyone's favourite bow-wielding angel Pit. After receiving a Gameboy sequel in 1991 the franchise lay dormant for 20 years before receiving a proper sequel in 2012 with Kid Icarus: Uprising. Nowadays Pit is a regular character in the Smash Bros. series.
It seems that a significant number of the samples in the game stems from the military marching music genre. First, let's have a look at a cartain six-note jingle that appears in variants throughout the game in different songs, most prominently "Underworld":
This jingle can be found in comparable form occasionally popping up in military marching songs or inspired songs. Some examples:
King’s Men & Billy Mills Orch. (ET) - "What Do You Do In The Infantry?" (1943):
John Philip Sousa - "Semper Fidelis" (1888):
Next we have the music that plays when the grim reaper like creatures go nuts after you attack them:
This sounds like an abridged version of a bugle call that the U.S. army commonly refers to as "Assembly":
Of course, others had comparable ideas in the past:
Red Nichols - "Strike Up the band" (1930):
Next we have a musical cue that pops up in the Angel Land level, after leaving the underworld and before ascending to heaven:
This is very likely a refence to "The Girl I Left Behind Me" a popular british/american marching song with supposedly irish roots:
Finally, we have the music that plays when the player dies:
It is rather short. But it might be a pun on Wagners Bridal Chorus from the Lohengrin opera (1850):
But of course marching music is not the only influence that went into Kid Icarus. Next week we'll really be getting started!
Phil out.
- https://www.destructoid.com/blogs/PhilsPhindings/ https://www.reddit.com/user/PhilsPhindings
LOOK WHO CAME:
