The Legacy of James Horner: No. 9 “Grand Slam Demons”

[This article is part of a 10 part short retrospective of the career of the late film composer James Horner. Be sure to check below for a link to the introduction, and a link to the next item in the Top 10 list.]

Thankfully I was able to track down one video for this song, which was a little confusing at first, but it is definitely the track I was looking for.  We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story tends to be a very rare film to find any memorabilia on, but thankfully, unlike Youtube, one can actually purchase the soundtrack in full as an MP3 package from the Amazon store page. So I was quite pleased to find that out. However, if this particular video ceases to exist at a later date, I will either try to find a new one, or I will re-write this section apologizing for the missing video, and will suggest that those of you who are interested can go check out the Amazon or I-Tunes soundtrack listing to take a peak at it. I’m quite sure that it didn’t used to be available on MP3, so I’m rather pleased it has finally been uploaded officially.

But now to discuss the song itself.

Considering how poor of a grade I gave the film in my lengthy discussion of its short-comings as well as its few merits in the visual department, I’m sure it might not have been a particularly fond memory for the late James Horner, as most of what he wrote for this bizarre film is very hard to hear during the film itself. It almost gets clouded out by the terrible story and the irritatingly lengthy dialogue scenes.

The only scene, however, where the music is just loud enough and unique enough to make any impact, is during a scene in the villain’s evil circus, where we witness the opening act get underway, and all manner of frightful creatures and satanic spirits fly out of the woodworks. Most of these horrors are fake and made with costumes and wire-work of course.

The music is strangely similar to Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice theme, which is perhaps why it not only sticks out in this film, but it also stands out as a piece that is very unlike James Horner’s usual compositions. He very rarely dips into tempo driven romps like this, especially darker more whacky things of this particular nature. It almost sounds like the late composer Richard Stone (Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Freakazoid) if he had done the score for Beetlejuice. So its’ quite the interesting find. And I chose to highlight it on this list primarily because it was the one song in We’re Back that actually stuck with me, but secondly because I have the feeling that no one else will ever highlight it in a top 10 James Horner list. lol

The Legacy of James Horner – INTRO

NUMBER 10 – “Nanelia’s Capture” from Battle Beyond the Stars<<<

NUMBER 8 – “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”>>>

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