Which has nothing to do with ghosts.
Gene Roddenberry wrote lyrics to go with the Star Trek theme expressly for the purpose of getting residuals. They are abominable, but he got the money. You can find it being sung on YT.
I’ve heard this story many times over the years, but don’t really understand how that works. You can write lyrics to a piece of music someone else wrote and claim half the royalties? Doesn’t the music composer have anything to say about it?
Roddenberry was the creator/producer of the show, and composer Alexander Courage worked for him. Roddenberry was the one who got to say what the “official” lyrics were, despite their never being used.
They could sue, but only at the risk of losing future work. Record producers and label owners did this all the time in the 1960s without even going to the trouble of even writing lyrics. They just stuck their name on the record and they became (forgive the pun) the cowriters of record.
Dolly Parton had already written, recorded and released I Will Always Love You.
“Col.” Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager contacted her and said that Elvis wanted to do a cover. She was happy to hear that. But Parker told her that Elvis mist be given co-writer credit. Not so happy. She passed on the deal.
She probably lost a good chunk of money that half would earn with Elvis’s popularity.
Then Whitney Houston came along. She made a lot of money off that.
It’s slightly different for MASH. The song was actually sung in the movie. Evidently, Robert Altman wanted it to have the stupidest lyrics possible, so had his 14-year-old son write them.
Here is the loungiest, schlockiest version of the Star Trek theme lyrics you will find. The music does not match the theremin-heavy music used in the show, but sounds more like some tux-wearing night club piano player with a cigarette on his lips that has an ash just about to fall off.
Everybody says this, but I think they work perfectly and are actually amazingly profound for a 14-year-old.
I am not sure that I would call them amazingly profound, but it would be interesting to learn the genesis. I would imagine that he had the melody to work from and something of an understanding of the story (in particular, the dilemma of the dentist). They also fit well with the overall plot (war ↔ suicide). The intelligence and creativity of fourteen-year-olds varies widely, and sometimes they can hit right on the mark.
Dude, I’m impressed and I don’t impress easily.
Suicide is painless, it brings on many changes…??
I can well believe a 14 year old wrote that.
This also applies to variations, such as Mauve and Pink (which isn’t just “light red”)
And, as Chronos points out, these are not Spectral Colors. A Spectral Color can be produced by a single wavelength of light, but anything along the “purple line” on a CIE diagram requires at least two wavelengths, although it can be the result of an infinite number of different spectral combinations. Color is fascinating and weird.
That’s why the first Star Trek animated series used different theme music. Alexander Courage composed the original ST theme, and decided he would rather get no royalties than share them with Roddenberry.
The last use of a guillotine for capital punishment was in 1977.
The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn’t hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin
I can’t believe a 14-year-old wrote that.
I can, because “watch it grin” is terrible. But overall I think it’s really good for a 14-year-old.
A brief google suggests he did something in the entertainment industry, and now goes by “Mike,” but I can’t see much in the way of what he’s doing now. Is he doing well, or was his teenaged accomplishment his peak?
According to wiki, Robert Altman wanted the lyrics to be stupid, but the song became a big hit.
Similarly, Ylvis was doing a bit about a music group that wrote a song that they thought would be a huge hit and change their lives forever, but the song was so stupid that no one listened to it. That song they intentionally made to be a failure?
What Does the Fox Say?
It helps to remember the context of the song in the picture.
The unit dentist, Walter Waldowski, “The Painless Pole” wants to commit suicide because the previous night he couldn’t get an erection. They throw him a before death “wake” at which the song is sung.
Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please
And you can do the same thing if you please
So. “Suicide is painless.” “Painless” is going to commit suicide. “It brings on many changes.” You’re going to be dead, think about that. “And I can take or leave it if I please.” I wouldn’t do something that major for such a trivial event compared to what’s going on around us. The last chorus ends a fourth line: “And you can do the same things if you please.” Leave it. Don’t die. The whole scene is limned in three light lines forming the chorus, plus a coda. That’s exceptional.
I’m not going into a deep dive on the rest of the lyrics, but they’re an obvious meditation on death and the passage of time. And the doctors’ place amidst the carnage.
A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
“Is it to be or not to be?”
And I replied, “Oh, why ask me?”
Mike at 14 understood the depths of the movie better than many of the critics. His words are not perfect poetry - song lyrics seldom are - but excellent in context. I remain impressed.
I agree