'Zip - Boop, Boom - Blam'

Blue Milk Special's Take

At last - we're in the Cantina, complete with Figrin D'Ann and his band the Modal Nodes - playing their swingin' brand of Jizz.

Er, Yes. That's right. Your eyes do not deceive you. Not a typo. Check out BMS if you don't believe me.

We get some nice helpful little labels too! There are the CUSTOMERS - and there's the BAND.

Art Notes

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What do you think of that opening panel? Was the composition intentional - or accidental? - the way the top of Ben's head is cut-off like that. Almost emerging from shadow - like a Sergio Leone character!

Weird looking customers! I don't think there was even a comic to refer to when this was done. I'm surprised at how convincingly pig-face, or Dr.Evazan yanks Luke's arm. Yes, a doctor. The Expanded Universe has since elevated him to surgeon.

Film Notes

Young George showed excellent judgment once again in his musical choice for this scene. He could have used cheesy futuristic music created on electronic gizmos - which was suggested - but after much delay he had one of his epiphanies: "I'm gonna use Benny Goodman. They're gonna play swing man!" (Making of Star Wars - Rinzler) So, substitute a Jamaican Steel Drum for one of the traditional Big-Band instruments and you've got something just slightly odd enough to fit perfectly in a space movie. But George always reminded his creatives "It has to feel familiar."

In the same great book, Jon Berg and Phil Tippett described how "we were nearly killed by our own creations" when recalling the band's costumes. "There was one tiny hole (...) and that was not enough (...) to get air through! Particularly when it's plugged by the mouthpiece of the instrument! We had to dance to the beat of an old Benny Goodman tape that George had brought in." Some nicely made up ILM girls also wore the costumes but "By the end of the day we all looked like drowned rats."

Bullshitting your best friends

LP Gatefold: Many happy hours of listening and copying

I clearly recall sitting on the bedroom floor - circa 1978 - listening to the soundtrack album with John S. as we so often did while playing with our Star Wars figures. The weirdly incongruous Cantina Band tune came on at the end of side 2 of the very scratched LP with a jolt. I wonder now if perhaps he hadn't been fortunate enough to see the film at that stage, and I explained:

"This was brill John. It's the bit when Han chases the stormtroopers down the corridor - and he runs into loads of them. Next thing, they chase him and Chewie and this funny music plays!"

Imagine that? A Keystone Cops style caper in the middle of the film! You know, I mightn't have been spoofing him at all. I might have actually believed it myself.

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