New article on Lapti Nek - with Joe Williams interview

May be some new info here - especially the perspective of soundtrack producer Nick Redman, who said there was a backlash against ROTJ/Lapti Nek when the movie first came out:

The story of Jabba the Hutt’s favourite disco song
http://lwlies.com/articles/lapti-nek-star-wars-song-joseph-williams/

 

I don't see why there would be backlash- it was a catchy tune.

 

I like Lapti Nek. I'd think Jedi Rocks is the more controversial one purely on a musical standpoint

 

What I didn't know was that Lapti Nek actually enjoyed regional success. I know professionally recording the song as a single was an attempt at cross promotion and to get the song some airplay. But I recall articles calling that a "failure" simply because it didn't make the national charts. But it's wild that people can remember the song being a hit in their area.

I'm not entirely ready to believe that there was major backlash against the song. It may have felt a little more contemporary as a 70s disco/pop tune as opposed to 40s jazz of the Cantina Band, but that doesn't seem to equate to the sequence being aimed at children. You could, however, make the argument for other elements of the film. I'd love for someone to pull up firsthand evidence of backlash against the song, but I'm not quite buying it. Why was there absolutely no reactions that were "thank God they finally changed the dance number!" now that the Internet had taken off?

Lucas' reason for changing the song was strictly personal. Even for his detractors... has he ever changed anything based on fan reaction? If that was even the case, I'm sure he would have reverted with actual opposition to the change online.

 

Never, fortunately.

 

George Lucas and Richard Marquand weren´t particularly fond of it either.

 

Lapti Nek is awesome.... I mean, that song just sounded like the kind of cheesy thing the drug addled denizens of Jabba'a palace would party to.

 

Yeah, "Lapti Nek" is such a part of the feel of Jabba's palace to me that it feels as though a scene is missing. I love the weird, alien sounding-stuff. It gives Star Wars an otherly feel.

Beyond simply the visuals, "Jedi Rocks" seems very much like an Earth tune, except in a different language and with aliens dancing instead of humans in a club somewhere. It doesn't have the exotic, stimulating quality about it.

 

Yeah -- Lapti Nek was very 70s/80s, like the rest of the OT. Jedi Rocks is like something from the PT stuck in the middle of the OT. I also rather liked how Lapti Nek was less obtrusive -- it's like the fish ballet thing at the opera house in ROTS. Jedi Rocks is as if they redid that to a full number.

 

Jedi Rocks is very 70's/80's. It's something right out of The Blue Brothers so far more of that time than Lapti Nek.

If Lapti Nek was less obtrusive then it's because they really didn't like it and cut it down as much as they could because it simply didn't work. If it had worked then it wouldn't have been completely excised but augmented.

It was supposed to be a musical number for the big crime lord instead it looked like an indy band for teenagers.

Which is probably why they felt it didn't work. The point was like the cantina where the music was recognizable as Benny Goodman. Jedi Rocks is recognizable as well while Lapti Nek is that much more "alien" and therefore out of place.

If Jedi Rocks was done at the cantina in ANH in the first place I would say the same people who are against it would totally love it.

 

funnily enough i have watched the special editions so many times that i forgot that song was missing. i think i do prefer that tune.

 

As someone who was actually alive during the 80s I can assure you that Jedi Rocks is not even remotely similar to the popular music of that era.

80s music was basically Glam rock/hair bands and cheesy electronic pop. Lapti Nek fits perfectly in the latter category (and IIRC they actually released an english version as a pop song back in the 1980s)

Jedi Rocks actually sounds like something from a musical or something.... It's definitely not the kind of music one would play in a bar (at least not a bar I've been in.. and I've been in a lot

 

It sounds like the kind of muzak that they make for rock n' roll musicals. And the cartoon/human interaction in the scene makes it look like a gratuitous and unfunny version of that nightclub scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The music is worse than that. It's like the theme music from a late night talk show or mediocre blue-collar sitcom.

It's a very Disney scene now.

Lapti Nek began to lose some of its luster in the way that much of the disco/funk/electro trends of that time did. But at least it still had some abstract quality to it. It's not the straight eight. It was not long after 1997 that disco started to get a fair reappraisal which is why it continues to be popular outwith the context of the film.

Someone mentioned that Lapti Nek had to go because the whole "musical number set-piece" that it was written for in 1982 didn't work out because of this music and they needed new music that would work with the enhanced version in the SE. Total balderdash. There never was a set-piece, showstopping musical number planned in 1982.

The idea of even featuring a singer came very late in the construction when Lucas realised that one of the creatures might work out as a featured singer if they were able simply make its lips move. This is simply a case of Lucas wanting to show how much he could change things and people attempting to make out it's what he wanted all along but technology and people let him down.

The revised scene has mostly human dancers in or out of creature costumes. If Lucas had wanted that kind of musical number in 1982 then he could have had it then. IT has nothing to do with Lapti Nek.

Lapti Nek is gone because Lucas thought it dated the movie. And replace it with bland. perfunctory, family friendly, House of Blues type music that has been almost ubiquitous for the past three decades.