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Tom & Jerry Metal
 September 21, 2007 12:05 am
Heavy metal gutairist Sammi Shredd of Atlanta Georgia, recently tried his hand at rescoring Hanna Barbera’s 1945 MGM cartoon Tee For Two. Shredd writes: I learned the score to a Tom & Jerry cartoon and then performed it entirely on guitar includng most of the sound effects, including a drum track that does not appear in the original cartoon. It took me six months. I play heavy metal, so without purposefully trying to “metal-ize” the music, it nonetheless took on a slightly more aggressive tone. I don’t want to give the Cartoon Network any encouragement…but if you’re into heavy metal, this isn’t half bad. |
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“It took me six months”… Well. Hmm. Super !
But it should also have taken a few more hours to mix that music with some subtly balanced sound effects. Without them, it doesn’t work.
Too much aural caffeine here, although there’s an ironic Zappa-esque quality that works apart from the intended cartoon application.
man jerry.
you have quite the knack of finding bizarre things online.
You know what? It’s really entertaining, and a good replay of a truly classic Bradley score. After seeing horrible examples of replaced soundtracked cartoons over the years– Mighty Hercules, being the worst case, this was refreshingly right on. Winston Sharples seems to get replaced a lot, and no one ever comes close to Sharples genius–”Winston sounds good like a great cartoon should.” Sammi keep on shreddin’ those cartoon soundtracks… How about an Action cartoon, like The Herculoids or Mightor? They might benefit from that hard metal edge!
PRETTY mean licks from SAMMI here,——-but nothing, —-repeat——-NOTHING———-will ever supplant SCOTT BRADLEY’S original lush score…………for THIS viewer, at least.
It’s just not the same. This is manic, over the top, and crowds out the cartoon. A good score is supposed to enhance whatever it accompanies, not destroy it.
I agree with Bill Field. Action cartoons might benefit from something like this, but I think even in those cases, the score would need to be made softer, and go quiet once in a while to allow the viewer to hear the dialogue.
Pffft. Its not supposed to replace the score! It supposed to be fun! And it was! Very funny and very ironic and very cool! I especially love Tom’s scream on the guitar. This is real hip, y’all.
I must say, this is quite impressive! As I like listening to heavy metal music, I’m so amazed that Scott Bradley’s score for this cartoon was so faithfully rendered in heavy metal style! Sammi Shredd has done a great job at it.
It’s a good experiment, well-played and fun to hear.
Due to its guitar-only nature, the sonic pallette is pretty limited. The original score’s dynamics are missing, replaced with seven minutes of full-blast gtr. Adding keyboards and other intruments to the new score would add flexibility, more closely approaching that of an old-school Hollywood orchestra.
The missing sound effects make the new score seem more distant, not “of a piece” with the cartoon. Some effects are present, but they’re drowned by the guitar. In the old Bradley and Stalling scores, the sound effects were incorporated as part of the music, and balanced in the mix with the orchestra. At times during the cartoon, this new track feels like the sound of the cartoon is turned off and a random metal album is playing.
Cool as this is, it would have been even cooler if a new metal score was substituted completely for the old, written in an idiom that clashes less with the sound of the guitar itself. “Classical” arrangements can make sounds which a solo guitar can’t replicate comfortably.
As it is, this is a decent piece of gtr playing, so I turned it into an MP3 for the collection already….
Man, Mr. Sammi Shredd should be playing racetracks with his talent! This is a fun idea but I’m sure the KidsWB could improve it vastly by replacing all those dated Scott Bradley guitar licks with cheap, cutting edge synth. But let’s not give them ideas just because they can’t think of any.
that’s two minutes of my life gone.
I also thought it was a worthy experiment and am glad he did it.
It’s interesting that you can actually hear some of the MELODIES from Bradley’s original score such as Fats Waller’s “Spreadin’ Rhythm Around” in this new “Metal” version. The tempos aren’t too bad, either. However, so much electric guitar gets monotonous, I miss the saxophones and strings from the original arrangement. It’s interesting how much less funny the bee sting scene is without Bill Hanna’s scream! The playback on my computer seemed a bit slow and there appear to be frames missing. This reminds me of that experimental film George Griffin made years ago that used the Bradley sound track from “Puttin’ On The Dog”, with new animation by George. It made me LONG to see the original Tom and Jerry animation. In short: leave Tom and Jerry alone and write good original music of your own!
That’s pretty damn good, actually…
Mike Patton’s metal supergroup FANTOMAS did a tribute CD to the music of Scott Bradley, Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott on “Suspended Animation”
*Rises his lighter* OH YEAH!!!!!!!!
Love the sound effects/score on guitar, but I think the rattle-and-thump of the heavy metal drums was too much. Made it too manic and adrenaline-rushed. Just my opinion.
The best part, far and away, is when Jerry’s running from the ball and it hits his head and he gets dizzy. I have to think it’s because there’s not a million guitars going. Also because it’s a pretty classic cartoon joke, and it renews it to have a different aural feel to it.
If he could have kept it that subtle the whole time it would have been a lot better, but you can’t knock the guy’s dedication. Sounds like it was a lot of work.
I am shocked over how good this was. Seriously, this guy captured the spirit of Scott Bradley fairly well.
That was pretty good (IMO), but this needs to be shown to anyone who claims that Bradley’s music is ‘loud and self-serving’!
That was kind of fun. And as Adult Swim already has a metal cartoon, this might be more up their alley.
(Glad that the MGM orchestra had more than electric guitars in it.)
The sameness of the sound throughout makes the whole experience a bit tedious. He coulda done more with that.
Great experiment! I’d like to see what could be done with some old Public Domain silent shorts (such as with Buster Keaton or Laurel & hardy).
As a musician, I have to say that this goes way beyond metal.
This is impressive musicianship.
Two thumbs way up!
Yay!!!
Jerry, thanks so much for posting this :D Sammi’s a good friend of mine and I’m so amazed and impressed by this :) :)
It’s like a regular Tom and Jerry cartoon, turned up to eleven.
Cool homage and clever execution.
Neat stuff, the drums were a bit much, but a nice homage.
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I noticed that the video and music do not play anymore due to copyright issues. Do you know who contacted you about this? I would like to contact them to ask permission – I am looking to perform the music score to this cartoon live at a concert. Thanks…