Superheroes!

Lately, we've been into superheroes. We have a Superman cape, and a Batman cape and mask. Needless to say, Batman is the favorite because he wears a mask. Kevin seems to be drawn more towards Batman. So, of course, I had to explain all about them to the boys. So, they know that Batman is really Bruce Wayne, and he lives in a mansion, and slides down a pole into his Bat Cave, where he parks his Batmobile. He fights crime in his spare time. Superman, we have learned, is really Clark Kent, and he wears his Superman clothes under his regular clothes, and ducks into a phone booth to change. Kevin was a little upset when Ryan was bragging that Superman could fly, but then I told them that Batman has a Bat Plane, a Bat Copter, and a Utility Belt full of cool stuff, and that seemed to satisfy him.





I know how to play the old Batman TV show theme song on the piano. It's really easy. For all you music theorists out there, it's just a simple chord progression, I, I, IV, I, V, IV, I. Use all dominant 7th chords. The bass line is easy too. It's the "duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh" part. Since I can't figure out how to record myself playing it and post it here, here's a YouTube clip of it. Picture Kevin running through the house yelling, "I'm Batman!!!!!" while this is playing in the background...



Then, of course, there's the music for the Tim Burton "Batman" movie. In my humble opinion, this is one of Tim Burton's finest movies ever. Michael Keaton is the perfect reclusive Bruce Wayne, and a fantastic Batman, and of course, Jack Nicholson plays a great Joker. The music was written by Danny Elfman, who has written the music for (I think) 12 Tim Burton movies (Think Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Men in Black, etc). He is a largely self-taught musician, and a lot of his music has a very distinct sound. Incidentally, he also wrote the theme song to "The Simpsons". Here is a fine tribute to his music for the Batman movie. Watching this clip reminds me why I like this movie so much...




As for Superman, I mean, Ryan, he doesn't stop for pictures, so I don't have any pics of him in the cape, but here is some music from the Superman movies, written by that great composer of film scores, John Williams (Superman, Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, etc).



Finally, in the spirit of good fun, here's a little "how it should have ended" scenario between Superman and Batman...