It’s the 35th anniversary of the 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which to me is a big deal: I looooove this movie! [Cue Michelangelo screaming “I LOVE BEING A TURTLE!!!”].

It’s an excellent movie. It has a bitchin’ soundtrack. Truly, every scene:

• develops character
• advances plot/establishes motivation
• entertains
• communicates mood
• has awesome music

The costuming, writing, acting and action are all radical. There are scenes that moved me to tears in the cinema and I’ve seen this movie many times. And that’s being despite being a movie about fighting mutant animals and ninjas, it wisely grounds itself in the universal heart-yearn for family. Raphael’s journey through anger and resentment to brotherhood and sonship is an emotional anchor for the film, as is the effectiveness of Splinter, who is not only the ninjitsu “Old Master” trope but a father. The animatronics (by Jim Henson) and the work of the gifted physical actors, voice actors, fight/action choreographers, cinematographer and director are all on point.

I love talking about movies and find so much in parallel with composition and songwriting. In writing a bar of music, or a line of a lyric I feel the wisdom of whoever I read or listened to in my formative years of wanting to “become a songwriter”. Of course, you become one by doing it, but in the early years I was so paralyzed by the thought of writing a bad song that I absorbed as many seminars and books about writing and songwring I could before calling any songs finished. Anyway, something I retained from somewhere is that every line should develop character or advance plot.

The creators of South Park have some complementary advice that I also value which is that between story beats, “and then” is a kind of death. What we want is “therefore” or “but” and then we have tension, movement and a story. Not just a soap opera.

Songs are a smaller scale but this just means that economy is even more important. There’s a real problem-solving component to songwriting that I love where every new idea has to be made to work in with the original thesis point of the song. Often I’ll get something I think is clever and want so bad to put it in, but find it causes my original meaning to be lost. And it’s back to the drawing board!

Speaking of problem-solving…there’s this one piece of music in Ninja Turtles I’ve always particularly loved. It’s at the end of this one sequence where three of the turtles are having a pleasant time with their human ally, April O’Neil (played wonderfully by Judith Hoag), in her nostalgia shop. Raphael has gone from having a fun fight with the enemy, The Foot ninjas, until he becomes overwhelmed and beaten to within an inch of his life. The ensuing destructive fight between the remaining brothers and multiplying ninjas spans a number of moods – exciting, funny, seeming-defeat, seeming-victory – and it’s all bodaciously underscored by John Du Prez, going from jazzy percussion, to heavy distorted guitars, to circus music to this very tense synth riff when things are getting really serious.

It’s a figure that fits mostly in bars of 9 beats, ie 9/4 but the strong beats and groupings are different throughout esp. with the drums. There are sections where the phrase incorporates an additional odd-length bar and then a long section with no drums and only my estimation of where the accented notes implied a bar might start…anyway, nerd-speak over, enjoy my transcription video!