Transformers Music Restoration Project: Season Two Complete!

[Zobovor]

I've been waiting for a long time to finally be able to post this!

We've been working hard on restoring all the music introduced during the second season of the original Transformers cartoon series, originally composed by Johnny Douglas and Robert J. Walsh. Obviously, the themes from the first season would continue to be used, but we've archived 69 new, unique themes used during season two.

Note that Jim has only uploaded this zip file temporarily, because Brandon at tfcog.com has been having some issues with uploading. If this file doesn't work, check the tfcog.com website:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/gtcbbgxqw3bcvgh/Season+2+complete.zip

Continuing with the track numbers from the first season, here's the season two track listing, in chronological order of when they first appeared in Transformers. Note that none of these names are official in any capacity (we may supplant our working names with the official ones, when and if Robert J. Walsh's official soundtrack is ever released):

73 Season Two Theme (0:32)
74 Nemesis II (1:22)
75 Kidnapped (0:55)
76 On Patrol (1:05)
77 Ghosts (1:02)
78 Losing the Battle (1:14)
79 Inspection (0:59)
80 Trudging Through the Swamps/Something Fishy (1:05)
81 Militarized Zone (0:52)
82 Military Hardware (1:13)
83 Duel (1:02)
84 Battle Stations (1:01)
85 Combat (1:41)
86 Full Speed Ahead (0:56)
87 Aerial Battle (1:02)
88 Brute Force (0:51)
89 Dogfight (1:48)
90 Report (1:00)
91 Evil is Afoot (0:56)
92 Lull Before the Storm (1:26)
93 Parade (1:14)
94 Wild West Fanfare (0:05)
95 Heading for Trouble (1:01)
96 Up, Up, and Away (1:19)
97 Arena of Sport (1:13)
98 Rally the Troops (1:11)
99 Cold Slither—Instrumental (1:18)
100 Red Alert (1:00)
101 Test Run (1:55) 2950
102 G.I. Joe Commercial Bumper (0:05)
103 Going to War (1:11)
104 Go, Team! (0:58)
105 Field Mission (1:23)
106 Law Enforcement (1:13)
107 Hand-to-Hand Combat (1:32)
108 Impending Doom (1:37)
109 Troubled Waters (1:56)
110 Breaking Down (2:18)
111 Fugitive (0:52)
112 Base Under Attack (1:16)
113 Autobot Base (1:27)
114 The Autobots' Last Stand (1:26)
115 The Game is Afoot (0:55)
116 Lab Analysis (0:57)
117 Guard Duty (0:53)
118 Wreckage (1:03)
119 Revelations (0:51)
120 Confusion (0:25)
121 On Duty (1:15)
122 Disaster (1:02)
123 Ambush (1:08)
124 Pep Talk (0:15)
125 Heroes (0:59)
126 Hurry! (1:00)
127 Finale III (0:15)
128 Evil Triumphs (1:21)
129 Mystery (0:47)
130 Arrival (0:26)
131 Stealth Mission (0:59)
132 Carnival (0:39)
133 Mighty Ruler (1:28)
134 Defeated (0:34)
134 Eerie (1:30)
135 The Resistance (0:59)
136 Fallen Hero (0:16)
137 Exotic Locale (0:22)
138 Bizarre (1:00)
139 City of Lights Fanfare (0:08)
140 Decepticon Fanfare VII (0:04)
(Total running time: 1:27:55)

Some notes about this batch:

By this point in the show's life cycle, most of the music used in the series had been composed specifically for Transformers, although a handful of existing tracks in the Sunbow music library were trotted back out and recycled, having been used for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981), The Incredible Hulk (1982), and Dungeons & Dragons (1983). For the 1985-86 television season, several new themes were commissioned, and were likely intended to be added to the shared Transformers/G.I. Joe music library, and not specifically composed for one series or the other. They were, I think, always meant to be interchangeable. While there was music specific to G.I. Joe (which often incorporated lietmotifs from the theme music), and tracks that were exclusive to Transformers, most of the tracks from this batch were shared between the two series. In fact, only 12 tracks from this batch were never used in G.I. Joe at all.

Some of these tracks are themes you've been able to find online in the past, because several years ago, a fan called Grimbot ripped several themes from the DVD release, separating the audio channels to eliminate the dialogue. They existed in a fairly raw state, though, and still had occasional sound effects and other artifacts present. What we've done with these tracks was rebuild them from the ground up, combining pieces of music from every available Transformers/G.I. Joe source, and done extensive remastering to eliminate all the non-musical elements. Our goal was to arrive at CD-quality music comparable to what you would hear on an official soundtrack.

There were also around 36 existing themes that Grimbot never archived, so roughly half of this batch is going to be music that you've never been able to enjoy in its pure, original state. These were tracks that I built personally, combing through 95 episodes of G.I. Joe and 98 episodes of Transformers (that's about 70 hours' worth of audio) to find music tracks we needed to build. Some music is used frequently; the more often a track appears, the easier it is to arrive at a clean build. For tracks that only appeared a handful of times, this was a lot more challenging. Jim Figurski did all the remastering and restoring, and has probably put in hundreds more hours' worth of work on this project than I have!

Regarding the track names: Some of them were assigned by Grimbot, while I named the others. I tried to come up with names that fit the mood of the music and the scenes in which they were used. (Some tracks had two or three working names until I settled on one I really liked.) "Trudging Through the Swamps/Something Fishy" gets two names because, even though it's one track, there are two separate and distinct movements, which were sometimes split apart during editing used separately.

While our season one release included every instance of music used in the series, our season two release is regrettably not 100% complete. There were a handful of tracks that we were simply not able to include. There's a track we were calling "Teen Dance Party" that appears once on the show in "Megatron's Master Plan" part 2, which was originally sourced from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. There was simply no clean version of it in existence (we can't extract the Spider-Man dialogue like we can with Transformers and G.I. Joe). There's also a single-note flourish we were calling "Lightbulb" that overlaps the existing background music in "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" that we also couldn't extract cleanly. Finally, we left out the Walkman music from "Kremzeek!" due to copyright reasons, because it's actually the Iron Maiden song "Flash of the Blade" (but that song can be found online if you'd like to add it to the soundtrack; if you number it track 138b it will appear in the correct chronological order).

There are two tracks that are part of our season two collection that we know are incomplete. "The Autobot Run" includes an eight-note riff that we call "Wild West Fanfare," but it's actually only the beginning of a much longer bluegrass theme that appears in Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines (1982). There was too much dialogue during the longer version to construct a music-only track, so we left it as the short version that you hear in Transformers.

Also, there's a theme called "Impending Doom" whose beginning appears only in "Starscream's Ghost" and "The Rebirth" part 1. There's so much noise during both these episodes (Sandstorm's helicopter rotors and the Nebulon rebel computers, respectively) that there was no way to include the first 20 seconds or so of the track. We've still included the track in an abridged state.

We talked about including the music used for the unaired public service announcements, which appeared as a bonus on the DVD release, but there was no way to separate the dialogue from them to arrive at a clean-sounding track.

Many of the tracks from season two have multiple endings. A lot of them were recorded with both a long, unabridged ending and a shorter, truncated ending, probably to make them more versatile so they could be used in normal scenes, as well as scenes that ended abruptly, without needed to be edited to fit the length of the scene. (You can hear both endings to "Arena of Sport," for example, one right after the other, in "The Golden Lagoon" when the Decepticons beat Omega Supreme.) We do plan on including every version of these tracks in a "bonus" album that we intend to release after we're done with the season three/four release. (There are some alternate endings that appear only in G.I. Joe, so even if you're familiar with the Transformers music library, these may be alternate endings you've never heard before!)

The G.I. Joe commercial bumper theme was actually used in one Transformers episode ("The Autobot Run"), so we included that for the sake of completeness! In addition to the "Cold Slither" track frequently played by Jazz and Blaster, I also put together a version from G.I. Joe with lyrics sung by the Dreadnoks, and I'm hoping I can convince Jim to include it as part of the bonus album. Jim said there's also a Dungeons & Dragons theme he really wants to try to extract (it's music that also appeared in the Incredible Hulk cartoon) so that could be on the bonus album as well.

Of note is the late-appearing track called "Eerie," which is special in that we NEVER hear the full theme in Transformers. I was surprised and delighted to discover while screening G.I. Joe that there's an entire opening movement that goes completely unused in Transformers, so we've included the full track. If you're familiar only with the Transformers music, you may find that "On Duty" also includes some pieces that you've never heard before.

What's next? Season three and four combined only have around 47 unique themes, so we're anticipating that the next virtual album release won't take as long as season two did. There may be a larger number of tracks that we will be unable to include, though. Music themes introduced near the end of the show's run were sometimes only used a handful of times, so these tracks are much more difficult to remaster and restore. Also, the Shout Factory DVD release of G.I. Joe didn't separate the audio channels the way the Rhino release did, but Rhino never got through the entire series before losing the license (they stopped at episode 80 of 95), so there are some late-appearing tracks that appear in episodes cluttered with dialogue that we can't remove.

What are your favorite themes? Least favorite? There's so much great music from this season that I have difficulty narrowing it down. I've always loved "Combat" (which I named after the Combaticons, because I always tend to associate the theme with them). "The Autobots' Last Stand" is an epic theme that improves any scene in which it's used, even if it's just a couple of medieval guys standing around talking about stolen cows. I do have a soft spot for the goofy, whimsical themes, so I'm a big fan of "Parade" and "Go, Team!" and "On Duty" (which is delightfully wacky but so seldom used on Transformers). Also, if this had been a "The Best of The Transformers" music release, I would have left out "Hurry!" and "Mighty Ruler" (which, incidentally, I had a heck of a time figuring out how it was properly constructed, because it's chopped up during editing every time we hear it).


Zob (excited, but exhausted)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

This is quite an impressive feat. Very impressive. Congratulations!

-Banzaitron

[Travoltron]

This is absolutely awesome. Can't wait for seasons 3 & 4!

[Travoltron]

Hey Zob,
I'd like to hear the "unusable" tracks that you mentioned, like the
wild west one. If you post these tracks, maybe fans could try and cover
those tunes. I know it's happened before (usually MIDI files).

[Zobovor]

I guess it would be possible for somebody to listen to the music and play the tune using their own instruments. It wouldn't be a perfect copy, but it would be interesting from an academic perspective.

So, the western riff we hear in "The Autobot Run" is part of a longer theme, as heard in this episode of Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_I11hDyBSo&t=6m40s

Another track we couldn't recover was the groovy disco theme from the teen dance in "Megatron's Master Plan" part 2. It appears in this episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends at the 14:58 time index:

https://www.dailymotion.com/cdn/H264-512x384/video/x2emfvh.mp4?auth=1500241019-2562-651xd60t-dcaf7da40b5f6cf2888d576bb536703c


Zob (MIDI versions of these themes would be pretty cool, actually)

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 9:02:08 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

<snip>

I've gotten a couple of requests from people who wanted to know either when the music first appeared in the series, or which themes were used in G.I. Joe. So I guess it's time to share my "first appearances" list.

There are lots of different ways to organize the episodes, but I always use the syndication order, which is the same order in which the episodes appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel. Episodes sometimes appear in a different order on DVD releases or various online resources. Dates in parentheses are the original airdates, which don't always agree with production order (and you got the episodes in a different airdate order depending on where you lived).

Some themes were also used in G.I. Joe and I've noted which ones. Of the shared themes, sometimes a theme was used in G.I. Joe first and sometimes it was first heard in Transformers. Sometimes the difference was only a matter of days, which means the themes were being made available for use in both shows at the same time. I don't think any of them, except the commercial bumper, can be considered "G.I. Joe themes." They're more like "shared themes written for the Sunbow library for use in 1985."

SEASON TWO

(17) AUTOBOT SPIKE (9/23/1985)

73 Season Two Theme Song
74 “Nemesis II” (G.I. Joe)

(18) CHANGING GEARS (10/1/1985)

75 “Kidnapped” (from G.I. Joe “Three Cubes to Darkness”)

(19) CITY OF STEEL (10/17/1985)

76 “On Patrol” (first used in G.I. Joe “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
77 “Ghosts” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
78 “Losing the Battle” (first used in G.I. Joe “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
79 “Inspection” (first used in G.I. Joe “Chaos in the City of Lost Souls”)
80 “Trudging Through the Swamps/Something Fishy” (first used in G.I. Joe “Three Cubes to Darkness”)
81 “Militarized Zone” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
82 “Military Hardware” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
83 “Duel” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
84 “Battle Stations” (G.I. Joe “Three Cubes to Darkness”)
85 “Combat” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
86 “Full Speed Ahead” (G.I. Joe)

(20) ATTACK OF THE AUTOBOTS (10/4/85)

87 “Aerial Battle” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)
88 “Brute Force” (G.I. Joe “Rendezvous in the City of the Dead”)
89 “Dogfight” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)

(21) TRAITOR (9/27/85)

90 “Report” (G.I. Joe “Chaos in the City of Lost Souls”)
91 “Evil is Afoot” (G.I. Joe in “Twenty Questions” on 10/1)
92 “Lull Before the Storm” (G.I. Joe)
93 “Parade” (first used in “The Further Adventures of G.I. Joe”)

(23) THE AUTOBOT RUN (10/31/85)

94 “Wild West Fanfare” (full theme from Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines)
95 “Heading for Trouble” (G.I. Joe)
96 “Up, Up, and Away” (G.I. Joe)
97 “Arena of Sport” (G.I. Joe)
98 “Rally the Troops” (G.I. Joe)
99 “Cold Slither - Instrumental Version"
99b “Cold Slither” - Lyrics (G.I. Joe)
100 “Red Alert” (G.I. Joe)
101 “Test Run”
102 G.I. Joe Commercial Bumper Theme (first used in G.I. Joe episode 1, “The Cobra Strikes“ 9/17/1984)
103 “Going to War” (from G.I. Joe’s “The Funhouse”)
104 “Go, Team!” (G.I. Joe)
105 “Field Mission” (G.I. Joe)

(24) ATLANTIS, ARISE! (10/3/1985)

106 “Law Enforcement” (G.I. Joe)
107 “Hand-to-Hand Combat”
108 “Impending Doom”
109 “Troubled Waters”
110 “Breaking Down”

(25) DAY OF THE MACHINES (10/10/85)

111 “Fugitive” (G.I. Joe)
112 “Base Under Attack” (G.I. Joe)
113 “Autobot Base”
114 “The Autobots’ Last Stand”

(26) ENTER THE NIGHTBIRD (9/30/85)

115 “The Game Is Afoot” (G.I. Joe)
116 “Lab Analysis” (G.I. Joe)
117 “Guard Duty” (G.I. Joe)
118 “Wreckage” (G.I. Joe)

(27) A PRIME PROBLEM (10/2/85)

119 “Revelations” (G.I. Joe)
120 “Confusion”

(28) THE CORE (10/29/85)

121 “On Duty” (from G.I. Joe “The Funhouse”)
122 “Disaster” (G.I. Joe)
123 “Ambush” (G.I. Joe)
124 “Pep Talk” (G.I. Joe)

(29) THE INSECTICON SYNDROME (10/9/85)

73b Season Two Theme Song (alternate version, no lyrics)
125 “Heroes” (G.I. Joe)
126 “Hurry!” (G.I. Joe)
127 “Finale III”

(31) DINOBOT ISLAND PART 2 (9/26/85)

128 “Evil Triumphs” (G.I. Joe)
129 “Mystery” (G.I. Joe)
130 “Arrival” (from G.I. Joe “Rendezvous in the City of the Dead”)

(34) MICROBOTS (10/7/85)

131 “Stealth Mission” (G.I. Joe; from “Three Cubes to Darkness”)

(36) MEGATRON’S MASTER PLAN PART 2 (10/15/85)

xxx “Teen Dance Party” (from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends; not archived)

(37) DESERTION OF THE DINOBOTS PART 1 (10/21/85)

132 “Carnival” (from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends “Mission: Save the Guardstar”)
133 “Mighty Ruler” (from G.I. Joe “Knotting Cobra’s Coils”)

(40) A DECEPTACON [sic] RAIDER IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT (10/24/85)

xxx “Lightbulb” (overlaps another theme, cannot archive)
134 “Defeated”

(41) THE GOLDEN LAGOON (11/4/85)

99b “Red Alert II” (G.I. Joe)

(44) CHILD’S PLAY (11/7/85)

134 “Eerie” (from G.I. Joe “Twenty Questions”)
135 “The Resistance” (from G.I. Joe “The Phantom Brigade”)
136 “Fallen Hero”

(45) QUEST FOR SURVIVAL (11/5/85)

137 “Exotic Locale”
138 “Bizarre”

(48) KREMZEEK! (12/27/85)

xxx “Walkman Music” (aka Iron Maiden’s “Flash of the Blade,” not archived)

(60) TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS (12/23/85)

139 “City of Lights Fanfare” (G. I. Joe)

(63) THE REVENGE OF BRUTICUS (1/8/86)

75b “Kidnapped II” (alternate ending) (G. I. Joe)

(64) MASQUERADE

140 “Decepticon Fanfare VII”


Zob (none of these theme names are official, of course)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I've spent several hours listening to these songs over the past few days. I always loved the music behind the series, but never realized just how amazing this music is. It's truly an art form. A dead art form. I can't imagine today's cartoons pay for an entire composition and then recording from a full scale orchestra. I imagine today they just pound them out on a synthesizer.
It makes me wonder why Mr Walsh isn't a more recognized name to the fandom. Why hasn't he been to any botcons, or considered for the transformers hall of fame? After listening to his music, I would be thrilled to talk to him or meet him in person.
Thanks for posting this Zob. It really opened my eyes (and ears) to mr Walsh's talent. If he ever sells his album, I won't hesitate to buy it.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at 2:26:15 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> I can't imagine today's cartoons pay for an entire composition and then
> recording from a full scale orchestra. I imagine today they just pound them
> out on a synthesizer.

No kidding. You can tell that there's some synthesizer instrumentation in some of these tracks, but it's few and far between. Really, though, it's the compositions that make the music great, not necessarily the medium. I think all or most of the original Ninja Turtles music was performed electronically, for example, but that show had some singularly excellent music, too. (Also, just about anything Haim Saban and Skuky Levy ever did was incredible, especially their work from the 1980's.)

> It makes me wonder why Mr Walsh isn't a more recognized name to the
> fandom. Why hasn't he been to any botcons, or considered for the
> transformers hall of fame? After listening to his music, I would be thrilled
> to talk to him or meet him in person.

Who knows? Maybe putting this music out there will garner him a little more exposure. Don't forget, though, that he's only half the equation. A lot of these themes are the work of Johnny Douglas (which may mean that the official Walsh soundtrack release won't include them).

> Thanks for posting this Zob. It really opened my eyes (and ears) to mr
> Walsh's talent. If he ever sells his album, I won't hesitate to buy it.

Supposedly, he's still on track to release it this year. I'm excited about it for a few reasons. One, it may include even better quality versions of the themes that we've pieced together and archived. Two, it could theoretically include new chunks of themes that we've never heard, because they were edited for time to fit the episodes. Three, the possibility exists that he may have all-new compositions that he wrote and recorded, but which were NEVER used in Transformers. This last one seems very unlikely, since Walsh mentioned he was striving for a "greatest hits" type album with only the most memorable themes from each of the Sunbow shows. Still, it's a slim possibility.


Zob (oh, and learning the real names of the tracks would be a plus, too)