John Williams and how he comes up with the scores

[Sir Jig-A-Lot]

A couple of weeks ago we did an Q&A with the great composer John Williams in advance of the new Indiana Jones movie. It turned out really well, but having looked at the analytics for the year, it’s become very apparent to me that Q&As drive almost no traffic, so I think we’re probably gonna have to scrap it in place of “‘And Your Little Dog, Too’: Proctologists Recall Their Most Surprising Extractions.”

Still, there were some interesting things in the interview that came completely as news to me. Did you know that when Williams composes a score he comes up with lyrics in his head first and then writes the music to them, even though he knows no one will ever hear the words? This sort of counted as a little bit of a scoop, so rather then let it go to waste I want to share it with you here. For the first time ever, Williams revealed the lyric to “Raiders March,” the stirring title theme of the movies:

In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones

In-di-ana moth-er-fuck-ing Jones

In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones

Bite my ball-sack you Na-zis I’m In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones

What’s so amazing about these lyrics is how accurately they convey the excitement of the film while also delineating its plot points. Williams told us that this was rather an unusual case for him, as he prefers to his verse to illuminate the character rather than the story (the words he came up with for the Superman theme, for example, were “He’s got a big cock/Su-per-man/It’s hard as a rock/Su-per-man;” which, as he explained, gives more of a sense of how others see the titular hero), but that he thought the richness of the Raiders scenario called for something a bit more complex. Anyway, fascinating stuff, and I’m sorry we can’t use it, but at least you guys know. So tell your friends.