Posted on November 16, 2007 by Skittle.
Filed Under News | 1 Comment
More from Ego Likeness, Star Wars
I actually originally posted this in my personal blog over a year ago, but I got to thinking about it the other day after the Ego Likeness concert on my birthday and realized that it would be a nice addition to YSLAR. It involves Ego Likeness’ Dragonfly album (Buy it now!
) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Buy it now!).
It is clear evidence that I watch Star Wars entirely too much…
So I was very bored one night recently and decided to see if any albums that I owned synced up to the movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in a significant way. You know, like Wizard of Oz (Buy it now!) and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (Buy it now!). And yes, I really am that much of a nerd. A few albums had their moments, but one stuck out above the rest as having an almost absurd amount of coincidences: Dragonfly, an early album by the band Ego Likeness.
I’ve spent the past few hours watching the first forty-seven minutes of Episode III while listening to the album, pausing both whenever necessary so that I can type out every coincidence I found worth typing. So now you guys get to read it! Go get your RotS DVD and Dragonfly CD so you can play along!
We all know the famous header before the movie begins, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” It always stays up on screen for about five seconds, long enough for the unknowing viewer to read it. Those like us, of course, know very well what it says and have stopped actually reading it years ago. I want you to do something you’ve never done before this time though: once that text has been on screen for about a second or two, I want you to press play on your audio-player of choice which is currently loaded with Ego Likeness’ Dragonfly. You don’t have to get it perfect, but timing it correctly is pretty convenient during some points in the upcoming fiasco.
You should hear the album intro, a distorted “Why don’t you just go on with your merry life…” whilst the film’s opening text crawl pans up the screen. After the text disappears, the camera pans down to a sun and then onto a giant capital starship. The second track, “Hydra”, begins at this point. The first of many timing coincidences. The song opens with a deep, mellow sound which seems fitting for the massiveness of the ship. However, the song quickly jumps into a heavier, faster feel the second a couple agile Jedi starfighters grace the screen.
An upbeat electronic song plays while the two fighters gracefully fly along the giant ship heading into the heat of battle. The music serves the purpose of getting the viewer pumped for the action that is about to ensue. Eventually the camera zooms inside of the fighters to reveal Anakin and Obi-Wan are the pilots. Anakin delivers the first line of the film, pointing out Grievous’ ship. Obi-wan replies with a sarcastic “I see it. Oh, this is going to be easy!” In the first of many subtle lyrical coincidences, the Ego Likeness CD kicks in with it’s opening lyrics “I’ve seen the truth…” It’s a tiny coincidence, but I spotted it nonetheless.
Just seconds after this, there is another tiny lyrical coincidence. Before jumping into a head-on battle Anakin delivers a charismatic “This is where the fun begins.” Meanwhile, the Ego Likeness song starts in on it’s chorus: “This where we are, this is what we become.” Where are they? They are where the fun begins.
A beautiful vocal melody plays over the pumping electronic music, thanks to the lovely Donna, while the fighters avoid missiles and continue fighting. A large amount of pesky “buzz droids” deploy themselves onto poor Obi-Wan’s starfighter as the lyrics kick back in. One of the lyrics is “the light, fire and smoke.” This ironically is sung as the film shows a buzz droid digging into the circuits of Obi-Wan’s vehicle… causing many lights, fires, and some smoke to shoot from the wound.
The song continues as Anakin and Obi-Wan deal with the buzz droids and fly their way into General Grievous’ massive ship’s docking bay. The both exit their ships, in the stylish way that only a Jedi can, and take out a few battle droids. After the enemies are taken care of, they locate where Palpatine is being held hostage. They start their way upstairs to “spring the trap” as the song ends. They toss a comlink to R2-D2 and there is a shot of the astro droid catching and holding up the little piece of equipment, as if to say “will do, cap’n!” The song ends, and immediately as the third song titled “Second Skin” begins, the film cuts to a shot of the cyborg General Grievous walking into the command room. The intro to the third track is ironically a very spooky, mechanical song… which fits General Grievous perfectly.
The movie plays a bit more as the music gets a bit busier, and it gets to the point where Anakin and Obi-Wan are stuck in an elevator. Obi-Wan decides to send R2-D2 a message on his comlink. Unfortunately, R2-D2 has some new visitors: a couple grammatically-challenged super battle droids. In order to silence Obi-Wan’s constant bickering over the comlink, the droid tosses it into a little compartment on it’s body as a muffled Obi-Wan continues to speak. A subtle coincidence is that the music dulls a bit as R2 silences the comlink, the electronic percussion loops silence temporarily.
Obi-Wan and Anakin eventually make their way to the Chancellor, only to be greeted by a ready-for-action Count Dooku. He starts off with a warning to the two Jedi, “Your swords, please. We don’t want to make a mess of things in front of the Chancellor.” Obi counters with his own warning, “you won’t get away this time, Dooku.” During this jumble of warnings, the Ego Likeness song plays it’s chorus: “Everything’s a warning, everything’s a sign”. Ironic because everything they are saying seems to be a warning, and perhaps a sign of things to come. The three whip out their sabers and whack each other for a few seconds before stopping to warn one another once again. Anakin spits out a snappy “my powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count” to which Dooku replies “Good. Twice the pride, double the fall.” This is ironic for the same reason as before: “Everything’s a warning, everything’s a sign” repeats in the background once again.
As the fight progresses, Obi-Wan eventually gets kicked to the curb which leaves Anakin to fight Dooku solo. No relation to Han. Dooku locks sabers with Anakin at one point and mentions that he can sense much anger in him… which in turns kinda pisses him off and you
can sense a bit of that anger. So after they break their lock, Anakin gets a bit more aggressive in his attacks and gains the upper hand (pun definitely intended). During this point, while Anakin is getting dangerously close to calling on the dark side, these lyrics play in the background: “In this second skin I’ve lived for longer than you know, tear the silk away from me so I can let it go.” This is a very fitting lyric since Anakin is revealing his dark tendencies, a second skin that he’s been hiding (even from himself) for a long time, and he is sort of “letting it go” at that point. Unfortunately for The Count (Two! Two hands! Ha! Ha! Ha!), he is the one being “let go” upon.
The song finishes as Anakin and Palpatine recuperate from the fight with Dooku, Anakin rushing to Obi-Wan’s aid. The next song, “Drown Like You”, has a somewhat deep, intense feel to it while the movie skips to a scene of carnage in open space. A percussion loop starts once the camera shows a particularly exciting shot from inside a ship where cannons are exploding. The scene cuts back to inside where the three good guys are making their stealthy escape… by running around like madmen down the middle of a large hallway. Predictably, Grievous’ cronies spot them and he orders a ray shield to be activated around them. This stops the three where they stand, at the mercy of whatever droid may wander toward them. Ego Likeness delivers a seemingly taunting lyric at this moment “…if you could walk across like me.”
The three are led up to the command center to meet face to face with the chilling General Grievous. There’s a little contest of words where Anakin and Grievous basically whip out a ruler, after which Anakin and Obi-Wan retrieve their sabernapped weapons and kick some droid butt (thanks to R2-D2, by the way, give credit where it’s due). The music repeats the words “I am alone” while the Jedi wipe out essentially every droid in the room, leaving Grievous all alone against the Jedi (and a badass little astro droid). He picks up one of the staffs previously opened by a sliced-and-diced IG-100 bodyguard of his, and uses it to break the glass window between them and open space. The vacuum sucks Grievous and anything that doesn’t hold on to something quick enough out into space as protective metal windows slam closed. Grievous, now floating away from the ship (and not exploding for some reason), shoots a grappling hook from his arm and attaches himself to the ship’s hull. Though it’s a very small coincidence, I couldn’t help but be amused that while the string flies from his arm a twinkly little sound plays in the music that seems to fit perfectly as a sound effect.
While Anakin and Obi-Wan unnecessarily slice up every last droid in the ship, which are all running away in sheer terror by the way (so the dark side doesn’t count if it’s a droid?), Grievous makes his way to the escape pods from the outside of the ship. The song playing nears it’s end as Grievous takes a seat, and the ship begins to break in half. Just as the escape pod jettisons, the next song titled “The Ocean Beside Us” begins.
This next song is possibly the most fitting with the film of them all. It is a calm yet fast piece, with a peaceful piano playing the whole time. It almost gives you the impression you’re flying, I don’t know, maybe that’s just me… but it seems convenient since now in the film the fighting has passed and the main concentration is navigating half of a ship through the sky as it falls, helplessly. As if the music wasn’t enough to fit the scene, the lyrics start. “As far away as I can see, you are in my memory…” plays as the crew forgets about Grievous and concentrates on landing safely. It’s also fitting since the back half of the ship has completely dislocated and seems to be left behind as just a memory. “I remember parts of you…” plays in the background as a shot of various flaming parts of metal separate themselves from the ship to join the back half.
The ship experiences another happy landing and Anakin gets out to join Palpatine in speaking to politicians outside of the building. George Lucas’ daughter is that blue girl in the background, by the way. The Chancellor and Mace Windu have a brief discussion before the entire crowd turns to walk inside… juts as the song ends. The next track, “The Map is Not the Territory”, begins as they walk inside. It’s a doomy song, the intro plays a mechanical sound while C-3P0 and R2-D2 are reunited. Anakin notices Padme off in the shadows and severs the conversation with Bail Organa in order to sneak over to see her. Once the two are together, a dark piano part adds to the music. The music seems to point out that the relationship between the two is forbidden, and an all around bad idea. It also signifies the bad news to come: Padme is preggers!
The scene changes to a meeting of two baddies: Grievous and Darth Sidious. The music still fits the mood quite well. The vocals change from Steve’s deep, sinister voice to Donna’s peaceful, serene voice as the scene changes away from the bad guys to a skyline shot of Coruscant and then on to Anakin and Padme’s suite where the two are sharing a lovey-dovey conversation. Padme states that they can go and have her baby on Naboo in “the lake country where no one will know.” The song plays the lyrics “And if we live in fear, we’ll fall away from here” while she says this. The two are living in fear, and she’s talking about going away from there. “There” meaning Coruscant and basically everything that they know.
While Anakin and Padme have their delightfully cheesy little “I love you” “No, I love
you!” conversation the song repeats “this love is not broken down” in the background. The conversation between the two ends and it cuts to a nightmare in which Padme dies in childbirth. The vocals in the song seem to silence just long enough for the dream to play with only instrumental backing, as they kick back in when Anakin wakes.
Anakin tells Padme about the dream as the song finishes… and as he delivers the fatal “you die in childbirth” the next song, “Song to the Divine”, begins with an Indian-sounding vocalization. The scene changes to a shot from the outside of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant exactly as the song’s fast percussion joins in. It gives the song a more imminent feel, as if it’s building up inside and about to pop. The film cuts to a room inside the Jedi Temple where Anakin and Yoda are having a one-on-one. Anakin wants to unload all of the stress he has building up onto Yoda about premonitions of Padme’s death. Of course, he can’t tell Yoda too much because it’s a secret. The lyrics playing in the background seem to fit Anakin’s mood perfectly: “Please release me from the guilt I hold, please release me from the pain I own, please release me to the sky above, please release me from this stranglehold. I am choking on the air I breathe, I create my own worst enemy, I tear myself apart with jealousy, Then blame you for what I’ve done to me.” Yoda gives his advice, which is not what Anakin wanted to hear. Despite Anakin’s disappointment, Yoda dismisses him anyway. The lyrics in the background as the two finish their deliberation are “This is all I have to give, this is all I have to say.” Yoda has given his advice, and whether Anakin likes it or not that’s just the way it is.
The song continues as Anakin meets with Obi-Wan to discuss what he missed while he was away. Anakin then runs off to hang out with Palpatine, who appoints him onto the Jedi Council. This, coupled with Anakin’s grumpy rant after he’s informed that he will not be given the rank of master, add to the building up of the dark side in him. Therefore the song still fits. It changes to “Blind Arms” as Anakin is told to take his seat on the council. Obi-Wan informs Anakin that the council wants him to spy on the Chancellor, which he doesn’t take very kindly too. The song is still playing when the scene cuts to Anakin and Padme talking in her apartment-thing. Padme pleads for help from Anakin, and embraces him hoping for things to be like they used to be. The chorus seems eerily fitting: “Here we are inside, emptiness will fall behind, and in the silence of it all, into your blind arms I fall.”
Again, giving the impression that this album and movie had to be made with each other in mind, the song changes exactly as the scene changes. We are now listening to “Too Many Empty Nests” and the movie scene is taking place in some sort of spacey opera house. You see the blue guy with the white beard talking to the blue girl from earlier as Anakin walks in the door? That’s George Lucas. Anyway. Anakin greets Palpatine and asks “You wanted to see me?” He goes on to tell Anakin that he has good news, and that they’ve located Grievous in the Utapau system. The lyrics to the song that plays seem to be more wise than Anakin though: “I wanted to show you what I am now, what this means.” The lyrics foresee the upcoming conversation where Palpatine effectively shakes Anakin’s trust in the light side enough for him to ultimately join him on the dark side. That’s later though, the lyrics seem to be a bit ahead of themselves. Once Palpatine begins speaking of Darth Plagueis and Sith legend, the lyrics continue with “I tried to convince you of my weakness, of my truth. Now this is so painful, this is lost here, this is you.” It then goes on to repeat “this is you” a number of times. It is sublime in that Palpatine is secretly convincing Anakin that this is what he should be, this is what he is: Sith.
Unfortunately, once the forty-eighth minute of the film came to pass, I couldn’t really find any more similarities between the music and movie. I was extremely impressed with the first forty-seven though! If you weren’t watching along while reading this, you really should try this experiment yourself! If you don’t own a copy of Ego Likeness’
Dragonfly album, be sure to purchase a copy by following the link below. If you don’t own a copy of
Star Wars Episode III, then… well… what’s wrong with you?!
Buy Dragonfly now! | Buy Revenge of the Sith now!
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