Blake's 7 | Full Theme | Dudley Simpson Orchestra | BBC | 1978 to 1981
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- #randomdalek presents the theme tune to classic 1970s BBC science fiction series Blake's 7. This cult drama was created by Terry Nation, who previously had written Surivors and several Doctor Who stories. The theme is peformed by BBC Radiophonic Workshop member Dudley Simpson.
I still harbour a lot of resentment about the way Blake's 7 ended. I am 44 years old.
Dan McCaffrey, me too! Why oh why!
From info to hand, it was only supposed to run a set number of episodes and then end. However, demand for the show was so high they were forced at the BBC to bring it back. The way to kill the show off was by what happened at the end of the last episode. All the star characters were introduced and then killed off. I liked Jenna, but she did not make a reprise, from memory, in the final series. She was killed off. Blake said so. For the series, I was very upset with the destruction of the Liberator and the 'death' of Zen. I did not like Orac that much.
I thought I was the only one! (I'm 47)
I hadn't seen it again until last year, same age. The ending haunted me for years as a kid....
I'm with you. I'm 47 and still ask why. It pissed on star trek.
The most underrated television show of all time.
amen!
Hear, hear and that needs a proper remake
Not by us.
Nah Out Of The Unknown is I heard about Blake's 7 before I started watching lots of times I just sort of stumbled into Out of The Unknown.
Devastating that the BBC wiped half of it.
Not by me it isn't.
This theme tune is one of the many things that instantly takes me back to my childhood days, the summer nights
were ever lasting, life was good and worry free, the 80 s. RIP PAUL DARROW.
and Gareth Thomas, Peter Tuddenham, Jacqueline Pearce, David Jackson :(
I second that! 👍🥲
It also reminds me of the Onedin Line theme for some reason.
@@Simon-fr4ts Also exactly like a section of John Miles - "Music" at 3minutes 28 seconds.
Iconic because the goodies all died!
Rip : Dudley Simpson (4 October 1922 - 4 November 2017)
Vila, best comic relief in the galaxy. Anyone else agree ? Avon and Vila were a great double act.
The first episode. Villa says, "I WOULD do it, but I have this condition..."
Jenna - "Cowardice?"
LOL.
Were they wearing claret and blue scarves and shirts then?
RIP Paul Darrow. Forever Avon ❤️
This show gives me such a different feeling then any other show, feeling hopeful yet knowing that it's all going to end bad. This theme just feels like that in music form.
"Have you betrayed us... have you betrayed me?"
The bleakest version of our future, yet still... somehow happy
I'd say the bleakest version of our future is probably Warhammer 40k. Blake's 7 is sort of a precursor to Warhammer in terms of grimdark asthetics.
Andor vibes
Takes me back to safe, sane days in the family home, decent entertainment without reality TV. Can see Avon with his superiority complex sneering, Vila looking afraid, Blake weighing up the odds of a mission - classic series.👾
Dudley S. is immensely talented and prolific. To score "Who" and "B7" virtually single handed his work load must have been incredible.... Not to mention all the others commissions he would have scored... I know he did the startling theme for the original "Tomorrow People" and I'm guessing a lot more yet the quality is always consistently brilliant....
Just brings tears to my eyes, takes me straight back to 7 years of age when it was first broadcast..
@ Mojopin 70, guess what age I was when it was first broadcast? (hint there's a clue in my screen name too) . Still a fan after all these years!
This recording is testament to the genius and talent of Dudley Simpson, the radiophonic workshop and the amazingly talented brass musicians (session and BBc's own) of the 1970s. Fantasic stuff. One day this will be recognised as classic in its own right. Thanks for posting.
Jamesrosscoope
Ummmm.... How can I put this?
th-cam.com/video/lAsvjVx-Mg4/w-d-xo.html
Yes, it's a terrific title tune. But it's kind of ripped off.
He was often terrible when it came to incidental music - more in Doctor Who, later in the last two seasons of Blake's 7 he had some highlights, especially in Terminal - but he did create some great TV themes... even if Blake's 7 is a mashup of John Miles's 'Music' and 'Build Me Up Buttercup' by the Foundations!!!!
It's a confusing mess
This theme is simply fantastic. Dudley if you're still with us I just want to sincerely say thank you.
davod manually I think its one of the most perfect theme's of all time -- captures the entire mood of the show, including the desperation, sadness and ultimate pointlessness of their journey and efforts. Perfection, even if the prop department didn't live up to the music, stories and acting.
He's still alive and in his 90s living in Australia.
@@unicefidiots4297 That didn't _matter_; the storylines were gripping. I never even _noticed_ the wooden spaceship (footsteps on standard wooden stage!) until someone else pointed it out to me.
@@unicefidiots4297 @Gimp Satchel
Sadly, Dudley Simpson was stealing someone else's work.
th-cam.com/video/lAsvjVx-Mg4/w-d-xo.html
Wow, Dudley Simpson is a class act. It has such a unique sound.
It *is* a great theme, but there was a big controversy about it in 1978. John Miles had used few bars that were very similar to the main 'chorus' part of the B7 tune for his single 'Music' two years earlier.
th-cam.com/video/lAsvjVx-Mg4/w-d-xo.html
Whether Simpson had ever heard the track before, we don't know, but it has to be admitted, it is very suspicious.
Surprisingly catchy. Great tune for a great show.
Godspeed, Roj Blake. The Federation will never get you now.
and R.I.P Jaqueline Pearce aka President/Supreme Commander Servalan.
@@Super_Mario128 Vale Avon
=they return to the stars=
There's a distant star
in a distant sky
past the edge of time
way past Gemini.
Peace is there,
only beauty meets the eye.
Oh my love,
that's where we must fly,
and let the world go by,
Just you and I.
Cameron Pearce thanks mate,I’m going to use that in next years valentines card,to my better half.its a beautiful verse.
Thank god that idea was dropped. Can you imagine how bad that would be over the final episode Blake? Bang, bang, bang, way past Gemini...
@@daviniarobbins9298 Agreed, although the muzak version they used for the credits throughout season 4 wasn't a vast improvement, and also rather spoiled the tone at the end of 'Blake'.
Dudley Simpson - the sound of my childhood.
R.I.P Avon. My hero.
He had some excellent lines.
Didn't know that you liked Bristol and that part of the South West!
Brilliant. I got all the bbc vi-deo tapes.
Me too. And the case to put them in.
Do you live in Stoneybridge?
Great series and a great ship, Liberator, series wasn't quite the same when the ship was destroyed.
Agreed, it lost something. Liberator is one of the top five science fiction starships.
I remember it very well. As a kid I escaped school in order to watch next episode of it. Love the music.
Me too 😉
This and Doctor Who
I really liked the show but absolutely hated the music as it spoilt the programme. Being an amateur string player in an orchestra, I understand chords and found the ending too frightening to hear. Now in my early fifties, it still gives me the creeps!
Loved this tv series really underrated
Just hear me out: Listen to the brass break at the 2.09 timestamp of the Mandalorian theme. It is eerily similar to the Blake's 7 theme song--both the key, the tempo, and the hits. The first time I heard it, my ears picked it right up> th-cam.com/video/62x19Bepc5s/w-d-xo.html
Under the wallpaper in my mum's bedroom i have a hand painted liberator space ship painted on the wall when it was my bedroom .. I was seven i am now 50
RIP Roj Blake :-(
love the theme. it sounds like a tear in an electric dream, very fitting
Not for me - a portent of doom and gloom. I am an amateur string player in an orchestra and possess perfect pitch. The key of this is in C major but the ending is really horrible and frightening. It scared me back in my childhood and even now, aged 53, I can't bear to hear the ending!
Soolin: WE JUST RISKED OUR LIVES TO MAKE SERVELAN RICH
Avon: Laughs
Loved this programmeloved this epic theme tune!
Though not sure about the bit at 1:00. The closing two notes at 3:10 though ... :-)
@@G6JPG yes those closing chords, still fresh 40 years on.
RIP Gareth Thomas... :(
He was Dr Philip Denny in The Citadel with Ben Cross (Harold Abrahams of Chariots of Fire fame).
RIP Dudley Simpson
Haven't heard this recording in years. I have the 45rpm single, which has the Federation March on the flip side.
Now that I finally have a Corgi Liberator to fly around, this song is extra cool.
i got one too.....had it since i was a sprog
Do you do the one eye closed thing as it zooms around ;)
I feel this was the tune that inspired that iconic Space Harrier theme.
👍👍
It is feeling now from this date were moving in to the 70.s again .and hope soon in with a new Blake seven crew
Blake's 7 sums up the difference between the British and Americans.
When Americans imagine a space federation, it is a happy utopia, where everyone spends their time watching Shakespeare plays and listening to experimental jazz.
When the British imagine a space federation, it is dystopian nightmare, in which everyone is cynical and all the heroes die.
brings bck memories hearing vis fine music made 4 b7, would hve been great to c mre ov b7 a few mre series, it ended 2 soon, half v cast r dead now..sad. thanks 4 entertaining me n making me wonder wats out ver.
Great Score!
such a nice piece of... music.
Literally. I mean, it's a piece lifted from a track called 'Music'.
th-cam.com/video/lAsvjVx-Mg4/w-d-xo.html
I love the B7 theme, but we're deluding ourselves if we don't admit that the main part of it was clearly plagiarised.
Sorry, I must disagree with you about the tune. I am an amateur string player in an orchestra and possess perfect pitch (the key is C major). The penultimate chord is the one that I have a problem with, and it is a really horrible ending. That's why I switched off the sound!
Blast from the past :)
RIP Dudley Simpson 5th November 2017
Time to a proper remake of the series.
I'm gonna use this song in my advert for an FSX Nonstop IFR London to New York Contest.
It's blakes 7 and all the chords are 7 chords
Which probably explains why the ending is really horrible and frightening, despite the key of C major. I am an amateur string player in an orchestra and so understand the details in a theme tune!
RIP Blake.
i have seen a couple of episodes on TH-cam but the theme song is well, it's something you remember isn't it?
I swear if Star Wars Rebels ends the same way I will laugh/cry. IT COULD TOTALLY HAPPEN
Yes... the ending! I think I've blocked it out, did she kill Avon? Blue Peter made the teleport bracelets.
blake 7 is far better then star trek any day
I pray to God they never remake this. Not with current year sensibilities being what they are. This was space adventure perfection.
Those last two
🎶 whuhm, whuhms 🎶
are what we're all waiting for.
Yes!
Not me! I was at junior school back then and found those chords really frightening. My musical background helps me understand why - theme tune is in C major, but the penultimate chord is an augmented one, which explains its sinister nature. Now in my early fifties, I can't bear to hear the ending!
November 20th still watching
Is no one going to mention the almost identical section in John Miles' Music Was My First Love?
Also an ascending 3 notes just like Holst's "Jupiter".
Always comes to mind.
Yep
The ending was a grand MASTERPEICE as unlike any anything ever made ANYONE could be wiped out .
Only silly Villa and Avon left on board something attacking the ships systems , panels too hot to touch because as the systems devolved the auto repair systems were working flat out .Silly Villa told ZEN the computer to stop repair and analyze what was attacking the systems...... With this the parasites took full hold and in a spectacular end the giant ships nacelles ejected and exploded !
Avon escaped and went down to the plant only to find he's was unfortunately back on the prison planet !
He surrounded by armed troopers at gun point and a smirk of an expression on his face ... everything went dark ! You'd hear the guns firing .and it left us not knowing if he survived.
I think I know what Avon was thinking don't you ?
Okay much of the effects were not good but the story's were red hot solid sciencfiction .
Seriously though, this show is the Star Trek antiverse, set in the Star Trek negative universe, the whole long show! Notice how the most good guy character is the alcoholic, the burgler, abused by the crew. He's "Smiley" the character of O'Brian, of Deep Space Nine. But in the Antiverse.. ^ and 7. Star Trek ^ and Blake 7
The Federation askew. Amazing.
nicked some of the tune from john williams music was my fisrst love
From the Onion
JACKSONVILLE, FL-The unrequited nature of area nerd June Manzo's crush on actor Peter Tuddenham, who provides the voice of piloting computer Slave on Blake's 7, is only slightly more agonizing than the process of explanation she must put herself through every time her media obsession is discussed. "He has this slightly sinister but dynamic way of speaking on the show, particularly in the 'Headhunter' episode," Manzo said, painstakingly describing Tuddenham to fellow science-fiction fan Bradley Preakniss. "When I hear his voice congratulating Avon on his 'consummate skill,' I just get shivers… Doesn't that ring a bell? No? Not at all?" Manzo's crush is surpassed in geekiness and obscurity only by that of Denver's Demitri Ostrow, who has a long-harbored passion for author Neil Gaiman's "fabulous" assistant Lorraine.
Loved it
Epic
very nice
Dudley Simpson was never a member of the Radiophonic Workshop. And it's a shame that this full-length version of the B7 theme sounds so different to the original TV version.
+dunebasher1971 I agree and remember buying the single when it was released and being a little disappointed that an Organ had replaced the Sythn sounds at 0.31 and 1.59 and 2.40. That said, it's still a fantastic tune up there with the best of them :)
This does sound like a MIDI track played on a Sound Canvas or similar - still good though.
@stephen noonan Yeah, one of the great perils of having to stretch a beautifully structured 80 second (or however short) piece of music out to fill a "single" is... how the hell do we add anything other than a just a bunch more repeats, without totally breaking the mood & style of the whole thing? (For another example, see the equally bland ascending chord sequence from the single version of Peter Howell's 1908s "Doctor Who" theme.)
I would LOVE to hear a full orchestral version of this theme... brilliant as is, but a "modernised" scoring would be amazing!
Did they not do it at the TV Proms a while back? I know there was a sci-fi TV/Film night once.
Yes and no. It _might_ spoil it.
I don't know.
I think the "evil Wurlitzer", playing 7th chords, is very much a crucial part of it.
At least, don't perform it at the Royal Albert Hall. Perform it at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. :D
@@klaxoncow Would the evil Wurlitzer playing 7th chords explain the horrible ending? I hated the last two chords growing up and still do (just turned 53.) Perhaps the penultimate chord is an augmented one, which might have something to do with it!
I would've loved to be the crash cymbal guy on the day they recorded this
only came here after listening to music was my first love by John Miles 1976 . If this hasn't ripped off that instrumental I'm losing my ear. Check it out
if only we could go back
It was a fight against enslavement, and they won in the end.
+Marky Mark how did blakes crew win by dieing, freedom thru death? ill keep my slave status
lol
SPOILERS
Didn't they all get shot?
Not counting the Big Finish audio episodes, the ending was left open-ended, leading you to make your own decision as to whether they died fighting or got away. That's why the theme music fades in rather than cuts in during the end credits of that final episode.
The BBC's refusal to listen to Gareth Thomas and his ideas how to give the show more everyday content led to him leaving and eventually the shows end
Ditto
Gareth wanted to direct some episodes in series 3, but the BBC refused and he left after series 2. Avon, Servalan and Vila were my favourite characters. In a way I'm glad it's never been remade as the BBC would likely give the lead role of Blake to a woman and make the show completely woke like modern Doctor Who.
@@stumagoo2395 I mean... the show was woke in its day, do you not realise that? Prominent, strong female characters, one of them a black woman. Antiheroes, cowards, cheats and swirling selfishness on the bridge of the protagonists ship. Blake himself was a bit of a twat, even the actor said so.
The lead 'villain' was made genuinely cool and occasionally likable and was also a woman - unheard of at the time.
It was great because it pushed boundries and broke the accepted norms of how to make a sci fi show. If a remake didn't push boundries, it would be nothing but a pale ghost of what stormed onto our screens in the seventies - and from the sound of it, if it did push boundries, you wouldn't like it.
We can dance again, take a chance again...
I've tried to learn the lyrics but its impossible
I think I heard this song somewhere before....in a sci-fi arcade game from the mid ‘80s........
SEGA, YOU THIEVING BASTARDS!!!!
The only thing that held this show back was its budget, making it so that it looked so cheap... and then you think of the Liberator. Death Star, eat your heart out!
Anyone notice similarity with John Miles, Music?
As 'commercial' releases go, it's OK...wished they had used that distinctive Synth sound at 0.31/32 instead of Organ - The TV version was much better. Great series though.
Re make this show!!!!
very nostalgis but i think the composer had listened closely to John miles epic tune "Music" lol
how did they make the sound right at the end, its so good
Has any orchestra ever recorded this or played it live?
Yes. There’s a version on Ronnie Hazlehurst’s 16 Screen Greats Record from 1978
I remember watching this between the ages of 9 and 11. The tune was the one thing that spoilt the programme. I hated the tune as a kid and still hate it now because it conveyed a sense of impending doom. That's why I turned the sound off before the end!
How strange; I love it! (Not the middle section in this version, but that wasn't used in the prog..) I guess we're all different!
Deep Space Vehicle 2 went before their time...
Such an awesome theme. Organ is a bit blackpool in places, but makes up for it in the final two chords.
Would be on my desert island disks..
Sorry, Dylan, those last two chords are a portent of doom! Growing up, I couldn't bear to hear the ending as it scared me and now, on the eve of my 53rd birthday, I still shut the sound off! Too frightening to hear.
Orac
Not enough cowbell.
🇬🇧❤
ok tv
A perfect story, characters and a brilliant craft in The Liberator DSV-1 (that gives The Enterprise a run for its money on design alone) sabotaged by a pointless and wasteful ending. For shame BBC!
#Rocketraccoon is a suck up
I regularly see people claiming this theme is "ripped off" from John Miles' "Music" (instrumental part at about 3m15s of the single version). The only thing remotely similar is the basic rhythm, and top melody line of - at best - 3 to 4 measures long. The rest of the chord is different, the key is different, the function of it within the song is vastly different, the accompaniment is different and just about everything else is - guess what - different. But yeah, you happened to notice some small similarities in both top melody lines, so it must be a "rip-off". Well, kudos to you sir ! 🤣
Space Harrier copied this theme
This is a terrible version of a great theme tune.
TBH it was a shit show. Bad acting, made on a shoestring and it showed.
Under the wallpaper in my mum's bedroom i have a hand painted liberator space ship painted on the wall when it was my bedroom .. I was seven i am now 50
RIP Dudley Simpson