Tour de France Theme Tune

[Al3xander]

Re: Re:

Maybe little OT but imho there has never been and never will be a better theme than this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTZyXlLhvxs[/youtube]

Hard to believe it's from 1984. 30 years ago! Ahead of the times. Kraftwerk was such a great "band".

Yup, awesome track.

Pascal Bussy's book on Düsseldorf's finest devotes a chapter to it, and describes the band's growing cycling obsession in much detail. From around the time of the recording, Ralf's first words after two days in a coma following a potentially life-threatening cycling accident:

"Where is my bicycle?"

 

[Johnsqual]

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"Where is my bicycle" - almost sounds like a title for a Kraftwerk single in its own right.

Altogether now (in robotic German voices): 'Wo ist mein Fahrrad?'

 

[torqueless]

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This thread is crying out for a contribution from a grumpy old dissident, so I'd just like to say that I always disliked that music... intensely. A cacophony of nasty '80s synth sounds, fading out with it's echoes of 'Frere Jacques', which, let's face it, is about the only musical reference from French culture that your average Brit is likely to 'get', consciously or otherwise. I mean, what would you think if a French television station covered, say, Wimbledon, with a cheesy theme tune that faded out with strains from 'The Lambeth Walk', or 'The Wombles', or something?

Back to TdF, hands up anyone who, more than once, found themselves thinking: "Jesus, Phil... I know it's your job to talk all through this stuff, incessantly, but that rider that just fell/broke away while you were gassing on about some piece of local history/peloton trivia is patently not who you just said it was? I will sit here smugly, timing how long it takes for you to realise your mistake"............ not that I'd have been doing any better, in Phil's place...

 

[Woz]

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...I mean, what would you think if a French television station covered, say, Wimbledon, with a cheesy theme tune that faded out with strains from 'The Lambeth Walk', or 'The Wombles', or something?
...

They would love it to bits obviously. I would even say it's a multiple chart topper, and
it would sell more than Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot - Bonnie And Clyde.

 

[torqueless]

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Sadly, Woz, I concede that you are almost certainly right.

F**k it, I may as well throw a demo together in the home studio and pitch it to the continental media entity whose name most closely approximates to: 'Canal-Sport-Bourgeois-Anglais', before somebody beats me to it, if they haven't already...

 

[Woz]

The latest production from Le Tour is all bombastic heroic thematic with some NIN scratch overlays, and funnily
enough the fade out is a few blows from a Salvation army style brass band!

La voila: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x228wx ... rt?start=2

 

[Stick Legs]

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BTW, did Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks really write the C4 TdF theme,
or is that one of those urban myths like Bob Holness playing the saxophone on 'Baker Street' or David Bowie inventing Connect 4?

Completely true - Pete Shelley did indeed write that music. As a nod to the Bob Holness urban myth, apparently 'Baker Street' was chosen for the final piece of music at Bob's memorial service a couple of years ago.

David

These 2 gems are now among my favourite fascinating facts!

 

[David B]

Re: Re:

BTW, did Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks really write the C4 TdF theme,
or is that one of those urban myths like Bob Holness playing the saxophone on 'Baker Street' or David Bowie inventing Connect 4?

Completely true - Pete Shelley did indeed write that music. As a nod to the Bob Holness urban myth, apparently 'Baker Street' was chosen for the final piece of music at Bob's memorial service a couple of years ago.

David

These 2 gems are now among my favourite fascinating facts!

Fortunately, unlike certain other programmes on ITV4, it's never been felt necessary for Dennis Waterman to "write the theme tune, sing the theme tune" for their TdF coverage.

David

 

[steadyrollingman]

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Fortunately, unlike certain other programmes on ITV4, it's never been felt necessary for Dennis Waterman to "write the theme tune, sing the theme tune" for their TdF coverage.

David[/quote]


haha, very good. But I can't believe I've only just discovered the Buzzcocks connection after all these years - that tune still makes me go all misty-eyed, even if it is perhaps more for the memories than the music...

 

[steadyrollingman]

Re: Re:

This thread is crying out for a contribution from a grumpy old dissident, so I'd just like to say that I always disliked that music... intensely. A cacophony of nasty '80s synth sounds, fading out with it's echoes of 'Frere Jacques', which, let's face it, is about the only musical reference from French culture that your average Brit is likely to 'get', consciously or otherwise. I mean, what would you think if a French television station covered, say, Wimbledon, with a cheesy theme tune that faded out with strains from 'The Lambeth Walk', or 'The Wombles', or something?

Each to their own, of course, but one thing you missed out - and that's only really just struck me on listening again - is that Pete's using the old Hammer Horror school of tunewriting, in which the title is played, erm, "phonetically" isn't the right word, but listen to the bits 46-50 seconds in on the link below and you'll see what I mean. I can't help singing "The Tour de France, The Tour de France, The Tour de France..." to it in my head now...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FchiH ... Q&index=75