Dublin Opinion

Due to my kids having gotten a taste for watching dodgy on-line versions of it, I’ve been hearing the theme music of Futurama a lot recently. As the weekend’s upon us - that time when, like Bender, those of us normally constituted require grammes and grammes of alcohol to maintain normal system functions, I felt I should do one of those ‘tune for the weekend’ posts.

So here’s the 1967 original version of the Futurama theme tune - as composed by French electronic music pioneer Pierre Henry. In exchange for these wonderful 2 minutes or so, I think we can forgive France for having inflicted Jean-Michel Jarre on the world. We can almost go as far as to forgive them for Johnny Hallyday - no, wait a minute, what the eff am I saying ??

The piece is entitled Psyché Rock and is part of his Messe pour le temps présent. It was initially performed with the equally legendary Maurice Béjart providing a dance choreography. Henry worked on pioneering electronic music using instruments mainly put together by himself and assistants - in much the same way as Kraftwerk around about the same time. Henry also composed a Liverpool Mass for the inauguration of that ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ cathedral over there. An Bean Báite splashed out on both CDs - but they’re heavy going for this poor sailor - outside of the 2 minutes or so I’ve heard all those DJs playing.

There’s a very cursory piece on Pierre Henry on the English Wikipedia Here and, bien sûr, the French OuiQuiPedia has a lot more to say about him Ici