I've been wanting to do this for a while, and last night I finally got around to doing some crude audio mixes, and did a test burn.
You remember some of those VHS compilations of TMS where they took all the backstage business and various acts, and made a guest-star-less version of the show?
Basically, I wanted to make the album equivalent; combine as much of the 'record dialogue' as possible into one mega-mix, as if it were a single audio-only episode of the Muppet Show.
I didn't realize it would grow into a 75-minute CD, broken into three distinct episodes.
But sometimes, there was a cool introductory bit that was connected to a song that I didn't necessarily like, or would preclude using a similar song elsewhere.
So I chopped off all of the dialogue and started re-recording these little snippets in new combinations.
For instance, I took the opening theme from the first Muppet Show album, but at the point that Gonzo would blow his trumpet, I substituted the "honk toot/ate my trumpet" joke from the Fan Club record.
Next, Kermit welcomes you to the record, but instead of introducing Mississippi Mud, his dialogue leads straight into Lydia the Tattooed Lady. The music actually starts under his truncated speech, and flows surprisingly well.
I took Floyd's spoken introduction to "New York State of Mind" and overlaid it instead on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". (And it even works within the backstage plot, because I place this track right after Piggy karate-chops Kermit, so when he says "the frog is not around", it flows naturally.)
I shaved out some of the more repetitive parts of Gonzo eating a tire to the Flight of the Bumblebee, cutting to the end almost a minute earlier. The next track begins with Sam the Eagle's play-on music but switches to his dialogue from the Fan Club record, with Gonzo reentering to show him the glued-together chickens.
Piggy's SYFFITF speech now flows into "Mad About the Frog".
Due to the resequencing, I needed an extra closing theme, and I substituted Statler and Waldorf's "off the record" pun at the very end.
Kermit's "obscure song" introduction (originally to Pachalafaka) now throws it to Cheesecake by Dr. Teeth, ripped from my DVD. This flows into the next track, because Kermit also uses the word "obscure" when he introduces A.A. Milne's "Halfway Down the Stairs" sung by Robin. And that flows thematically into Rowlf singing Pooh bear's "Cottleston Pie".
I took Kermit and Piggy's "color of envy" dialogue and spliced in another Karate chop at the end, and then impishly had "It's Not Easy Bein' Green" follow it on the playlist... Kermit has just been assaulted for saying he was green. It puts a new subtext into the first line of the song.
One new three-minute Fozzie track was combined from six snippets: Kermit introducing "Wotcher"; Fozzie's familiar play-on theme; dialogue from the Fan Club record; the "ears wiggle" interstitial; the actual song from the "Wotcher" track; and then after Statler and Waldorf cheer the song in the fifth snippet, it blends straight into an exchange where they initially praise something as good but talk themselves into hating it.
I isolated some Piggy and Kermit dialogue about having dinner after the finale, and after Kermit tells her "just sing, Piggy", it cuts to his big introduction for her from one of the Music Hall album tracks, but the song I used is actually Pig Calypso.
I'm still tinkering with the final sequencing. I think I may shave it down to just two episodes at some point.
I wish I had better programs to use for this, because I'm doing it all very crudely and on-the-fly with a recording program that tends to make the stuff sound a bit rubbery, but it's been a lot of fun.
Dearth
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Christmas Music
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Jim Henson Idea Man
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Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
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