Ghostbuster song roots found?
Posted on July 26, 2007
Typically when asked to put Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters theme into a genre, people put it in “80s”, “novelty”, or simply Rock. Which are all correct, but in a very general (and slightly derogatory way.) The similarity of the baselines in Ghostbusters and Huey Lewis’ I Want A New Drug was enough to take the matter to court, and inevitably that helped cement Ghostbusters as an 80s rock track.
But what if Ghostbusters had much older, better established roots? What if Huey Lewis had his day in court when in actuality Parker’s inspiration was, at least in part, much older?
Amateur musicologist Dane dropped me a line and a link to a 1969 recording of Save Me, by Ghana musical group, E T Mensah and his Tempos. The similarities in the overall structure of the song, not simply the base (which alternates between eerily Ghostbusters like, and more African) are very striking. Even the lyrical shape is familiar. And as Dane puts it, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine a young Parker (who would formally start his career in music five years after the Save Me recording) having heard the track. And even more likely that he was familiar with the American/African fusion called Highlife (a musical form started in the 20s.)
This isn’t to say Parker Jr. ripped off another track - music is filled with reinterpreting styles that have come before, and it’s easy to hear all the ways Ghostbusters is different. But it puts a little bit of shine back into the world’s most famous movie theme, to think that it was the 80s child of a 60 year-old excuse to get up and boogie.
Have a listen for yourself and tell us what YOU think.
Cheers Dane - good ears!
Leave a Comment
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
WOW! Now there are simliarties there! Incredible! Much much much more then the Huey Lewis song. Interesting.
I’ve talked to a few people who share my suspicion that there is a similarity of styles, not any direct lifting. Some other song of the same genre might have the same effect, we just haven’t heard it.
A few people don’t think they would have made any connection to Ghostbusters unless mentioned, which to be fair we can all say about I Want A New Drug. It never occurred to most anyone until the lawsuit hit the news.
Still I find it interesting to ponder the line from a musical style born in the 20s, to the rock influenced variations of the 60s, to ultimately, Ghostbusters. Something to ponder on a sunny day.
Excuse me getting deep for a moment, but the concept in the 4th paragraph is a basis of a Jungian concept, I believe. It’s not plagiarism; the listener subconsciously stores the influential art form in question & reinterprets it for the future without knowing the direct source.
Where were you during the Parker v. Lewis trial!?
;)
ok i looked on Itunes, and E.T. Mensah and his tempos have two alums on there but no Save Me.
we could probably get them to put it on there so it’s out there a little more. i listened to some of his other songs and i like them too.
I agree whole heartedly with the theory, considering the artists background and given what would be influential, it makes perfect sense. However, given the too close conicidence of Huey Lewis/Parker’s involvemend in the same movie, its hard to ignore the fact that MAYBE Parker took a little creative license. Lewis won didn’t he?
No, there was a settlement - that’s not a win for Lewis so much as a don’t-want-to-fight-any-more for Parker. To be sure, the bass is really similar between Lewis and Parker. Hence the same-but-different theme for the Extreme Ghostbusters show. But I like to think this song is a reminder that the roots of Ghostbusters as a song go much deeper than being a lift of I Want A New Drug.
oh yeah for sure, i mean, its music, you could really trace things back in many directions. One feeds the other…
I can definitely hear the resemblence, but I think that’s only because I was actually LISTENING for it. Otherwise, I doubt that I would have noticed.
There are other songs that with similar basslines to Ghostbusters and I Want A New Drug. Some people bring up “Pop Muzik” by M, which came out a few years before Huey’s song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_ElJ86ziWU
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that the roots goes back even further than the E T Mensah song. Roy Orbison’s 1964 release “Oh, Pretty Woman” has elements that, although not 100% identical, seems to have inspired the familar bassline.
http://www.columbia.edu/ccnmtl/projects/law/library/ramfiles/017p.ram
[…] This is actually a follow-up to a piece Chris over at Proton Charging wrote back in July 2007 about a 1969 recording of “Save Me” by ET Mensah and his Tempos, which bears some striking similarities to Ray Parker Jr’s hit song. It’s not exactly the same, but the similarities are there - though some might say they’re only present if you listen for them.
Well, I was watching the movie Elizabethtown (2005) and during the Orlando Bloom road trip scene near the end I heard a song that INSTANTLY reminded me of Ghostbusters: […]