Full soundtrack album from
the Aeolus 13 Umbra YouTube channel.
Theme
Song Lyrics
The Earth's a Big Blue Marble
When you see it from out there
The sun and moon declare
Our beauty's very rare
Folks are folks and kids are kids
We share a common name
We speak a different way
But work and play the same
We sing pretty much alike
Enjoy spring pretty much alike
Peace and love we all understand
And laughter, we use the very same brand
Our differences, our problems
From out there there's not much trace
Our friendships they can place
While looking at the face
Of the Big Blue Marble in space
Released
in companion to the Big Blue Marble TV series, the Big
Blue Marble soundtrack album contains a selection of original songs from
the show that reflect its diverse demographic of children around the world,
from the West African flavored rhythms of
“Gombey,”
to the Native American inspired “Indian Scene,” the Rhythm & Blues of “Hoopin’,” to
the Country & Western “A Rodeo Cowboy”
and a hot banjo solo in “Rodeo Riff.”
Interestingly,
while the classic theme song for the show, heard in the clip above and which is
both the first and last track on the album, is not the first version of the theme song (see below) and does not appear on the soundtrack. This leads us to a couple small
mysteries about the album.
Big Blue Marble Theme Songs: First version,
left, and the second version, right.
The first
mystery is the aforementioned lack of the first version of the theme song used on
the series. While a complete series run
isn’t available, existing episodes indicate that the title theme on the album
is not the original opening theme song. As indicated in Episode 1, 4, 19, and 52, the first version of the theme song. The clip of the second version of the theme song
below notes the first World Invitational Minicycle Championship in Texas,
which is from episode 88 (see Big Blue Marble Episode Guide). So, the change in theme songs must have come somewhere
between episodes 52 and 88. To the producer’s credit, it’s just as well that
the first version was not included as it lacks the charm and wistfulness of the
second version. Nevertheless, it continued to be used as the closing theme, so why it was not included on the album is a mystery.
The second
mystery regards the inclusion of songs in an album said to have been released
in 1974 that were not played on the series until several years afterwards. This
was determined by consulting the programs logs in the Big Blue Marble Episode Guide, which includes not only segment descriptions, but
also which songs were played.
Inside
cover.
One song
listed on Side A, “Hoopin’,”is
from Episode 87 (see the Big Blue Marble Episode Guide), which would place that
episode somewhere around 1978. Another song on Side B, “Floatin'” is from Episode 94, perhaps a year later, yet the phonogram copyright date for the album is indeed 1974, and also so noted for each song individually in the liner notes. Consequently, it seems that the songs in question were copyrighted in 1974 but not
used until 1978 or 1979. That
suggests some very long lead times on pre-production. Another possibility is
that they may have been segments produced earlier but not aired until later.
Whatever the case may be, it's a bit of a mystery.
Mysteries
aside, as with all great 1970s albums, you have to have a fold-out inside cover
with lyrics and pictures, and the Big Blue
Marble delivers. Kids especially enjoy the visual and tactical aspects of
entertainment, and lyrics always help sing-alongs. I was pleased to see the
extra effort and production cost made when I.T.T. could have cheaped out to
save a buck.
Images
from the inside front cover and the back cover of the album.
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