LONG BLOG
Phils Game/Pop Music Similarities #132 - Deus ex Freddiena
Featuring Xenogears, Freddie Hubbard and more.
Greetings fellow game music lovers,
a new week and another song from Xenogears (1998) for examination. This time it is the final boss theme in the fight against the man-made god Deus, which has been pestering the planet for like 10.000 years, with an ominous melody playing in the background titled "Awakening":
The song is composed of multiple themes comparable to other final boss songs like FF6s Dancing Mad or FF7s One Winged Angel. I can currently offer possible explanations for two of the underlying snippets:
First let's start with the melody at 0:48. I suspect this one might have been inspired by a jazz standard that was established by Freddie Hubbard in his 1965 song "Soul Surge" from his album "Blue Spirits":
Current silver medalist is a sequence from King Crimsons "Picture of a City" (1970) which ultimately may have the same cultural background:
The other snippet appears shortly before the end where we have something that could be considered another instance of the "A friend of mine" jingle (Fields, 1971):
Due to the jazzy nature of these jingles, they can likely be traced back a long time. Like here in the song "When You're Wearing the Ball and Chain ( Billy Murray, 1910 ):
Btw isn't calling a man-made god "Deus" a little bit cliché? What if someone else wants to build their own, how would they call it? "Georgie"?
Don't go home yet, there's still a solid amount of Xenogears left!
Phil out.