LONG BLOG
Phils Game/Pop Music Similarities #260 - From Rags to Peaches
Featuring Super Mario Bros. 2 and Ragtime.
Greetings fellow game music lovers,
after a small break for new year we now start with 2023 and as already announced we start with a Mario entry for the year of Mario (as people who don't try to adamantly avoid cinematic trailers should be aware of). And right from the start, we turn to the classics: Super Mario Bros. 2 from 1988, which didn't start out as a Mario game but as "Doki Doki Panic" in Japan. It was changed into a Mario game when Nintendo America realized that the official Super Mario Bros. 2 - later included in Super Mario Allstars as "The Lost Levels" - was too difficult and too similar to the original to be considered a worthy sequel. The overworld theme of the game features a sequence that many people rightfully connected to ragtime music from early 20th century:
So, let's start with a couple of ragtime songs that have a similar structure to above mentioned Mario sequence:
E. Philip Severin - "Jungle Time Rag" (1909):
Karl Hoschna - "The Yama Yama Man" (1908):
Edward "Kid" Ory - "Muskrat Ramble" (1926):
Hubert Bauersachs - "Melrose Rag" (1922):
Maybe:
Harry C. Thompson - "A Black Brawl" (1905):
https://youtu.be/hzp13uJA73U?t=50
There are some japanese pop songs from the 1980s that have a similar tone to the later parts of the song, like at 0:11.
Like Mioko Yamaguchi and her song "Chunky Tour" from 1981. I'll let you decide:
Yuko Kawai - "Jamaican Climax" (1982):
I think this leads back to ragtime too, but I lack good samples at the moment. Cause for suspicion is stuff like this (Zef Confrey)
Next week ... we'll see!
Phil out.