ReMix: EarthBound 'Twoson Hits the Road'
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- Game: EarthBound (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): djpretzel
- Composer(s): Hirokazu Tanaka, Keiichi Suzuki, Toshiyuki Ueno
- Song(s): 'Boy Meets Girl (Twoson)'
- Posted: 2005-11-06, evaluated by djpretzel
Some of my earliest musical memories are from family trips, listening to Guthrie's "City of New Orleans" or Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" while driving past the blue ridge mountains. I can remember the specific mid-Fall temperatures, the succession of sedans and station wagons we all piled into over the course of about a decade, the word games we'd play to pass the time, but most of all, and with the greatest degree of clarity, the music, and the way it seemed to define the moment. To me, folk music, or genres that are folk-infused, have always made the best traveling music. Not for a ride to the supermarket or into the city for a night on the town, but for a much longer trip, all the better if it's going to take multiple days to get there and there's no agenda or itinerary. To risk demystification through analysis, I think it has to do with the rolling acoustic guitar patterns, simple and steady percussion, and melody that flies over both and seems in contradiction to be both distant and immediate. It's music for looking out of windows at moving landscapes for long periods of time, thinking about where you've been and where you're going. It's the antithesis of Zen - it's specifically NOT in the moment, not in the present, but instead simultaneously conjuring past and positing potential.
This is pertinent, and not just an excuse for micro-memoir, because it explains why a short ReMix of the Twoson theme from Earthbound can mean quite a bit to me. I'd been planning to arrange this theme for the last two years, ever since I scoured the EB soundtrack looking for something that spoke to me. Twoson is perhaps the most melody-centric track off the OST, which is not surprising given what I tend to like, and I had always envisioned doing an elaborate orchestral arrangement. When circumstances dictated that I finally sit down and actually write the damn thing, though, something didn't click. The essence of the melody to me didn't seem to be asking for something intricate, intertwined, or formal; it seemed to be honest, simple... humble and unaffected. A little happy, a little sad, blue-collar, hopeful, aware, and mostly content, but with a strain of restlessness. I'm not saying orchestral composition can't capture all of that, but when I sat down and started from scratch on a folk/rock instrumental, it felt absolutely natural. What I actually ended up with draws from Guthrie, Zydeco, Danny Elfman's soundtrack to Midnight Run, and Paul Simon's "Graceland", amongst other influences. For better or worse, it's in a genre you don't see applied to game music, either in the remixing community or in the original scores themselves. I honestly don't know what to expect in terms of reaction, but I view this as a personal accomplishment regardless. I love the Twoson melody, I think this musical genre lets it breath and reach and stretch, and without a mix like this, I feel like a big chunk of myself would be conspicuously absent.
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the MaxxAndrew;598314 wrote:
Ive been listening to your music for a while DJ Pretzel, and this one just does not do it for me.
Plus I am a little vindictive about how you didn't respond to my messages on myspace.
I don't do much on MySpace... I'm not alone, it's sort of on the wane :) Anyways, please feel free to say what you like. I'm 110% happy with this track and consider it one of my very best, but your mileage will of course vary. I think I get plenty of fair reviews, here; if people are intent on kissing my ass just because I run the site, they could be doing a MUCH better job :nicework:
- djpretzel on September 29, 2009
Ive been listening to your music for a while DJ Pretzel, and this one just does not do it for me.
Plus I am a little vindictive about how you didn't respond to my messages on myspace.
- MaxxAndrew on September 29, 2009
- WesternZypher on December 29, 2008
- Audix on November 16, 2008
i love this remix.
9.5/10.
- goombapatrol on October 26, 2008
- Jaybell on December 19, 2007
- Black Mage on June 25, 2006
- Mr. Fox on June 24, 2006
The only pity is he's much less prolific these days... keep the good tracks coming, mate.
- Dr. Wily on December 20, 2005
- Chuckles on December 19, 2005
- dotSe7en on December 15, 2005
- diamondfalcon on December 10, 2005
To me, folk music, or genres that are folk-infused, have always made the best traveling music. Not for a ride to the supermarket or into the city for a night on the town, but for a much longer trip, all the better if it's going to take multiple days to get there and there's no agenda or itinerary.
With that, I must concur completely. Although your interpretation of why hits spot on, musically, I feel there's much more to it than that. A good deal of it, for me, are the lyrics and "wordsmithing" involved in folk music. No other genre writes as much of the road, and the knowledge therein involved, as folk music. And there is a knowledge involved in traveling, one that most never see or could understand if I had laid it flat down in front of them. A deeper understanding of the world than any philosophy or science could help one form. Seeing (and not watching) the landscapes around you slowly change and form something new, passing through a dusty and crumblingly old town, a bumbling and scurrying city, then out into a beautiful nowhere is something that shapes a human being more than anything else can--it takes a raw form, a boy or a girl, an ignorant child, and is able to produce a man or a woman, a knowledgeable adult. It is the simple and simply complex act of experiencing things you could never have imagined.
Not many these days can appreciate this. They're too busy watching instead of seeing. And the road is not only beautiful fields and majestic mountains; the road is hard and harrowing, and through this more than anything else is it able to shape someone. And maybe this review is poorly written; I don't know. It was something I had to jot down quick, while there's time and while the feeling is there. Given time, I could have written it more eloquently, have many times in the past few months, but that wouldn't be very Kerouac-esque, now would it?
(Obviously, I enjoy the mix a great deal.)
- Ventrex on December 6, 2005
- Keiseth on December 4, 2005
Bravo man... Amazing stuff... Brings back memories of playing EB... just arrg, can't explain, I've been listening for what seems forever.
- tenritsu on November 28, 2005
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