In honor of Zelda week, I thought it would be fun to celebrate one of the major cornerstones of the entire series — the music! We all know the melodies by heart, so instead of direct soundtrack rips, I want to showcase a small selection of fan-made musical tributes. Every day through Saturday, I will be sharing a batch of covers, arrangements, and other musical oddities inspired by The Legend of Zelda.
Kicking off the celebration is the infamous Zelda rap from the NES original’s US commercial. After the jump, you will find the glorious Japanese A Link to the Past commercial plus two of the very first Zelda fan covers I ever heard.
The Triforce of the Gods, the Japanese subtitle for A Link to the Past, has one of the wackiest videogame commercials ever. A female Link leads a band of monsters in a choreographed dance number before wasting them all with Quake then squaring off against a giant Ganon Muppet. Oddly, not a single second of gameplay footage is shown.
The Rabbit Joint cover of the main Zelda theme has been beset by misinformation ever since its release in 2000. Someone incorrectly credited this song to System of a Down before distributing it on Napster. No, System of a Down had nothing, I repeat, NOTHING to do with this song.
This rap by 5-3 Federation is a lot more hardcore than the one from the NES commercial! In fact, it may be a bit too outrageous. When I first heard this song, I was doing double, triple, even quadruple takes — I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I wasn’t accustomed to such profanity layered atop my sugary game tunes. The rap flow isn’t even any good. Still, the shock value alone ensures that I’ll remember this song for a very, very long time.
Tune in tomorrow night when we start getting into the good stuff!
[“Octorawk” artwork by Glen Brogan]
