Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh, the second of the two cantina source cues. Just like last week, I do not have any sheet music for this cue, however the original title was revealed just a couple months ago on May 4th by Mark Graham on Instagram, in a post where he showed off the first page of the sketch:
Apparently the title "Don't Bee That Weigh" is a reference to a popular Benny Goodman song, "Don't Be That Way". John Williams has talked repeatedly in many interviews about how George Lucas wanted the Cantina Band music to sound like Benny Goodman's big band jazz music; it's possible, if not likely, that this particular song was used in the temp track for this cue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYl93Ke1FQ
Once again, since I don't have the sheets for this cue, I unfortunately can't go into detail about things like how long it is or who orchestrated it, assuming it was even orchestrated. @Kingpiranha brought up a good point last week in saying that it probably wasn't - since these source cues were written for a much smaller band and not a full orchestra, it's likely that the sketches themselves were enough to conduct off of, and orchestration would have been unnecessary.
Also like last week, while conventional wisdom holds that these cues were not written to picture, I've found that it syncs up perfectly with what remains of the cantina scene, so I'm inclined to believe that it was at least timed to the scene length, if not scored to projection.
With that out of the way, let's listen to the cue together:
Like the last cue, while mostly sounding like improvisational jazz, there are a couple repeated sections.
At 0:00 we get the A section, followed immediately by the B section at 0:04. This lasts until 0:25, when the C section starts, leading into a reset around 0:35.
Then at 0:37, the A section begins again, leading into a modified B section at 0:41. Then at 0:51, a new ascending D section, followed by another new section at 1:03. This section is sort of similar to the B section, but with a completely different melody. This lasts until 1:43.
Then we get another reset, followed by a variant of the A and C sections at 1:48. This leads to another reset around 2:08, and then a repeat of the original A section at 2:11, followed by the original B section at 2:16, and the original C section at 2:36.
At 2:47, the A section again; 2:52, a B section variant; 3:02, the D section. Then at 3:11 we sort of get a repeat of the section at 1:03. This continues all the way to the end, as the cue fades out. I'm actually unsure if the original recording continues or not, but every commercial release (and the film) has a fadeout.
Just like last week's cue, this cue was edited very heavily in the final film.
0:00-0:04 in the film was replaced with silence
0:04-0:14 in the film was replaced with 0:04-0:14 of the original cue.
0:14-0:15 in the film was replaced with 3:00-3:01 of the original cue.
0:15-0:47 in the film was replaced with 2:15-2:47 of the original cue.
0:47-2:16 in the film was replaced with 0:00-1:29 of the original cue.
2:16-2:22 in the film was replaced with silence
2:22-3:19 in the film was replaced with 1:33-2:30 of the original cue.
3:19-3:44 in the film was replaced with 2:31-2:56 of the original cue.
This cue was recorded on March 10, 1977, the fourth day of the recording sessions. It was the second cue recorded that day, immediately following last week's cue. Once again, it was recorded with a special jazz group instead of the full LSO.
Two takes were recorded, numbered 81-82. According to the 1997 take log, the performance edit used just take 81.
This cue has been officially released on two different albums:
2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set
3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set
More specifically, 5m4-6m1 Don't Bee That Weigh can be heard:
From 0:00-end of disc 4 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1993 album
From 0:00-end of disc 1 track 12 "Cantina Band #2" on the 1997 album.
Both releases have clean openings, but both releases have fadeouts. As I mentioned above, I am unsure if the original recording continues past the point the 1997 set fades out. The 1993 set absolutely has a fake fadeout, it ends about 8 seconds earlier than the 1997 set does. I think it's likely that the 1997 set's fadeout is also fake, but it is possible that it's baked into the recording. If the former is the case, no clean ending is available. Both releases have the same takes. The above video just uses the 1997 set.
That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.
Next week we'll finally be returning to underscore with 6m3R The Inner City. See you then!