Phils Game/Pop Music Similarities #269 - Bridging the Gap

Featuring Super Mario World and Blues.

Greetings fellow game music lovers,

because it's so nice, another Mario. And one of the classics: Super Mario World for the SNES from 1991. As it is common known, most of the soundtrack consists of variants of the main theme which I had a look at a couple of years ago: https://www.destructoid.com/--578678.phtml#post

This time, we have a look at a particular variant of it called "Athletic Theme" which is most often played in the sky high areas of the game. Since the melody is based on the main theme, the style is the more interesting aspect of the song prominently defined by the backing track:

The piano rolls have a pretty ragtimey feeling again, don't they? There are several blues variants that have strong ragtime influences like "Piedmont Blues" and which often include backings that have a surprisingly similar structure to what can be found in the Athletic Theme:

Dick Justice - "Old Black Dog" (1930):

Blind Boy Fuller - "Rag Mama Rag" (1935):

Allen Brothers - "Salty Dog Blues" (1927):

Geeshie Wiley & Elvie Thomas - "Pick Poor Robin Clean" (1931):

The weather is warm but windy.

Phil out!

- https://www.destructoid.com/blogs/PhilsPhindings/ https://www.reddit.com/user/PhilsPhindings

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