I'm gonna make this one brief, but "Never Give Up" is—to my knowledge—the only NFL Primetime track from Sonoton I haven't yet posted. The song, by Sonoton founder Gerhard Narholz (under one of his more common aliases), sounds like a lighter & happier version of Xenon. It has similar instrumentation, anyway. It's accompanying highlight features Dan Marino's Dolphins getting run over by "The Nigerian Nightmare," so it should be quite enjoyable if you're a Chiefs fan.
For the handful of you watching something other than college basketball right now, here's some NFL Primetime music! "New Day" isn't the best or most memorable track from the show, but it was used quite frequently in 1989. This high volume is especially odd because the song's awkward & relatively unusual structure just doesn't work for highlight clips or accompaniment in general. It fits much better as a stand-alone piece. Two of New Day's composers, Geoff Levin & Chris Many, showed up a lot on early FirstCom stuff. They also wrote a lot of other compositions (e.g., "Big Gains," "Reel Action") that I've seen listed on the web alongside actual Primetime tracks, but were not used on the show themselves (they might've been used on other ESPN shows, I suppose). Levin is probably the most well known of the three, having been a member of '60s one-hit-wonder group People!, but Many and Ian Seeberg are quite accomplished as well. Seeberg also appears to be quite multitalented, as he's seen a bit of success in many other entertainment fields beyond music.
The highlight this time features two good teams playing a good, entertaining game in what appears to be the aftermath of a massive ticker-tape parade. Enjoy!
I've already covered the previous epic-sounding songs from NFL Primetime—Olympic Action (1989-90), Crush (1991-95), and International Statement (1997-05)—as well as the "epic track that wasn't"—Performance (1990). Now comes the original. "Raw Energy," composed by the supergroup-esque combination of John Devereaux & David Reilly, sounds exactly like how one would expect a dramatic rock/orchestral fusion piece from the late '80s to sound. That means it's a perfect accompaniment to high-profile football highlights. Unfortunately, despite this truth, ESPN didn't really use the song that way. It was played frequently in 1987 and especially in 1988, but it often accented games that just weren't that interesting or important. In other words: Raw Energy could've been a true "epic track," but its questionable implementation prevented it from quite getting to that level.
This week's highlight doesn't need much setup. It's just the 1988 Bills winning one of many low-scoring games on their way to a surprisingly easy division title. You will get to see the long-dead Seattle Kingdome, though.
Since this is the final week of the NFL season, my Primetime Music posts will get less frequent for a while. One interesting note, however, is that I only have a handful of fully documented tracks left to post. That means that, sometime during the offseason, I will begin posting unidentified songs (starting with the songs that have some sort of partial identification or unofficial names). Keep an eye out for that, and feel free to let me and/or the public know a song's ID if you happen to know it. Thanks for reading!
It's Pro Bowl week! Are you all excited!? No? Well, anyway… here's the other NFL Primetime track composed by Orange Power. It's moodier than Future Champs, but has almost identical instrumentation. I guess me choosing a song called "Higher and Higher" is ironic for the week of the Pro Bowl. You could maybe think of it as, "you have to be high on drugs to enjoy the Pro Bowl." That makes it fit. Right?
Higher and Higher's clip features something a bit more exciting than the Pro Bowl. In the video, Warren Moon put on a show by throwing for 527 yards in Arrowhead Stadium. There's also a little bit of Mechatronics thrown in when Chris Berman discusses a replay review after the main highlight reel is done. Enjoy!
The AFC Championship is this Sunday, and whoever wins that contest between the Steelers and the Patriots will set a new record for all-time Super Bowl appearances. New England & Pittsburgh—along with Denver & Dallas—are currently tied with 8 trips to the big game, so the victor will be the lone NFL team with 9. With that info in mind, it seems appropriate to post a song with the name "Title Holder." Title Holder is the fourth & final NFL Primetime piece from David Reilly's Success album. It has a more laid-back tempo than most, but that doesn't cause its intensity to suffer. Also, like several tracks from this period, the slow intro & bridge sections were edited out by ESPN. It fits well for games that involve good teams doing what they do best.
This week's highlight features the 1989 "Cardiac Pack" doing what they did best: falling behind big and then surging back to make things close. This clip also has what might be the worst line of Tom Jackson's stellar analyst career. When describing notorious bust Tony Mandarich playing his first NFL game, Jackson says "He looks to be everything that's been advertised." Even TJ can't get it right all the time.
We're going back to the Primetime rarities this week. "Solar Winds," by Larry Lee Cansler (or just Larry Cansler for short), is an odd duck. Most of NFL Primetime's songs are either rock (synth or otherwise) or edgy orchestral stuff. Solar Winds, on the other hand, is a textbook-sounding '70s/'80s jazz-fusion number that one might expect to hear from an artist like Chick Corea. I suppose, given that truth, that it's not surprising I've only seen one highlight with this piece. It's not even a good highlight, either, unless you like watching guys in creamsicle uniforms play like garbage. I did at least leave in the Pete-Axthelm-led postgame commentary to shore up the football side, though.
Solar Winds is contained on one of those hard-to-find Up Tempo albums from FirstCom, so you've got your work cut out for you if you want to find it. A low-quality mp3 of the extra-long version of this song (over 7 minutes!) was housed on Cansler's website (larrycansler.com), but that site has been dead for a few years now. That means, as of today, Solar Winds does not exist online in any form that I'm aware of.
Contained on - Hollywood Film Music HFML 15.04 (Reel Adventure)
Featured Highlight - Texans @ Titans, 2005
Whereas last week's highlight celebrated the awkwardness of Week 17 with a truly obscure NFL Primetime song, this week's highlight—the first of the 2016 playoff season—will showcase an instantly recognizable one. "Showdown," the second featured track by Robert J. Walsh, is probably the most action-movie-esque piece in Primetime's history. It doesn't work as a stand-alone piece on the level of a lot of of the more electronic or pop-sounding songs, but it fits as a mood-setter or accompaniment accent better than perhaps any other track on the show. That's why it's surprising to me, after looking through a bunch of episodes with Showdown, that it wasn't used for very many good games. The one I picked—a bout between two bad teams from late in NFL Primetime's final season—is more notable for its humorous, bumbling ending than anything else. Well, I guess it would also be the late Steve McNair's last win as a Titan, but it's not like his career was anywhere near over at this point. Anyway, enjoy the video.
As for obtaining this song in (legal) clean form… good luck. I have no idea where music from the Hollywood Film Music Library (founded by Walsh himself) can be accessed. I touched on this in my Bad Company post, but it seems to be separate from the "Hollywood Music" library currently contained on FirstCom's website. Showdown can easily be found on a some of the bootleg rips/youtube posts online, though.
