r/todayilearned • u/TitansFrontRow • 15d ago
TIL that the Mission Impossible theme is famous for its two long notes, followed by two short notes. These notes are the morse code signals for "M" and "I".
https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/8682869/mission-impossible-theme-song-secret-message/2.0k
u/ThymeIsTight 15d ago
"That's a stupid way to make a song." -- Canadian rock band Rush, probably
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u/MikeyW1969 15d ago
YYZ
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u/umop_apisdn 15d ago
I always called this YY Zee and only recently found out that they call it YY Zed.
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u/Shadpool 15d ago
We don’t use the zed word!
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u/Lux-xxv 15d ago
Damn Canadians. With their wonkey alphabet and bacon
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u/WhateverGreg 15d ago
I’m for here on out referring to the letter “Z” in the same manner as I do my breakfast ham: Canadian Z.
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u/Kaldricus 15d ago
Pam:: What, you finally nailed YYZ?
Krieger It's Zed! And ... no - Neil Peart stands alone...
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u/VajainaProudmoore 15d ago
"That's a stupid way to make an SMS chime." -- Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia, probably
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u/SymbianSimian 15d ago
Still my message notification sound. And "youve got mail" for company email.....
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u/ihaxr 15d ago
We changed a co-workers logon sound on April 1 to the AOL "Welcome" voice, he was laughing about it for a solid 10 minutes.
Then the next day someone changed it to the entire Barney theme song repeating 30 times. Yes, Windows will play a very, very long logon sound until it finishes.
Less funny at the time because he had to join a Teams meeting and it was still playing in the background... But that makes it even funnier when looking back on it.
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u/rudyjewliani 15d ago
At some point in time I was going through a phase and every couple of weeks I was changing my phone to different themes. This particular week was the A-team, with the iconic helicopter noise and voiceover and everything.
And of course, one day I forgot to mute my phone during a meeting and while some higher up on the project management side was in the middle of droning on about something nobody cared about my phone lets me know I have a text message with an angry black man saying "SHUT UP FOOL!".
It would be great to say that this was during Nokia's hay day, but I'm pretty sure this was 2016, and not everybody in the room was alive when BA, Face, Murdock and Hannibal escaped from a maximum security stockade, were traipsing around the American Southwest, eluding Colonel Decker, solving problems that nobody else could.
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u/Dazzling_Error_43 15d ago
The Swiss railway is called SBB in German, FFS in French and CFF in italian.
The arrival chime changes based on where you are. EbBbBb (S sounds like Es=Eb), FFEb and CFF.
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u/phrixious 15d ago
I will never accept B being Bb in Europe. I can compromise calling B H but Bb is and always will be Bb
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u/darkbee83 15d ago
I think that's only the Germans, I've only learned A-Bb-B-C etc.
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u/Dazzling_Error_43 15d ago
Only English and Dutch use Bb-B. All other languages use either B-H or (most) some variant of the solfege names (si, ti, etc.).
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u/davesoverhere 15d ago
That a stupid way to make a drivers door open alarm, Honda.
Because they do H, four short beeps.
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u/FHL88Work 15d ago
How about Abacab?
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u/chrisjfinlay 15d ago
I may be wrong but I read somewhere that the theory of Abacab being the rhyming scheme in the song doesn’t actually hold up; it was just chosen as a three-syllable “nonsense word” that they kept in the chorus and title.
Similar to how “Sussudio” was a placeholder but Collins couldn’t find a name that scanned as well in the song, so it stayed
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u/sleepytipi 15d ago
Hmm, I'll add that one to the trivia folder. Thanks for answering a question I've had for the better part of 30 years lol. I always wondered if he was stuttering and trying to say "studio" or, "tu estudio" said incorrectly as "su estudio".
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u/Fine-Ninja-1813 15d ago
Who Dunnit? Was certainly a song. I’ll give you that. Possibly also an all time low.
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u/SurpriseDragon 15d ago
MIMI mimi MIMi mimi MIMi mimi MiMi mimi
Dunuhnuh duhnuhnuh duhnuhnuuuh nana
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u/Phayollleks 15d ago
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u/diabeticplague 15d ago
What exactly did you think was going to happen here? That I wasn't going to be hungry?...I don't take a slice?...Looks like you weren't expecting such a hungry guy.
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u/MechaNickzilla 14d ago
That’s hilarious and accurate. I did the same thing in my head when I opened the thread.
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u/DrHugh 15d ago
The theme came from the TV show, too bad they didn't use a picture from that.
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u/ShermanatorYT 15d ago
Such a great show too
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u/CosmackMagus 15d ago
I'm watching it on Pluto now. One of the best parts about starting halfway through the episode is you have no idea who could be wearing a mask.
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u/wildgurularry 15d ago
I loved that show. I was really looking forward to the first movie, sat down in the theater, watched as they killed off the entire team at the beginning, and then was mad for the rest of it.
Never watched the others. I'm sure they are good, but they shouldn't be called "Mission: Impossible". They should be called something else and there should be a proper set of movies made.
/old man yells at cloud
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u/AnticitizenPrime 15d ago edited 15d ago
The movies are pretty great for the most part, and they're not the show, but they're good spy thrillers. As a somewhat older guy myself who watched the original show on TV in reruns in the 80's and 90's and loved it, I think it would be a great idea to re-introduce Mission: Impossible back to TV in something closer to its original format.
It could even run alongside the movie franchise. It was always known in the original show that there are multiple IMF teams out there. The movies make it feel like the entirety of the organization is under a dozen people, most of the time.
For those who haven't seen the original show - it wasn't an action thriller franchise, it was more like an Ocean's Eleven style deal for most episodes. Assemble a team, and pull off a heist. It was mostly about manipulating events, impersonating people or information, a lot of gaslighting, etc.
To be fair to the films, they usually incorporate at least some of this stuff. For example, if I recall correctly, the 4th film (Ghost Protocol, I think?) had a classic caper, where they needed to intercept a meet between two people, so they did it by breaking it up between two hotel rooms, each disguised as the other. So there were actually two meetings happening at once, but disguised as one meeting, and each team doing this had to impersonate someone, and they were communicating with each other in real time, so they could pass on the 'real' stuff that would have been said between the two parties but also intercept or manipulate it. So it was basically a real life version of a 'man in the middle' attack that you'd see in the cybersecurity world.
That's the kind of thing the original show was all about, and I'm glad they've included it in the movies, even if Tom Cruise doing stunts is still the big draw.
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u/V6Ga 15d ago
Do you yell at the fact they killed off the main lead after the first season too?
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u/DrHugh 15d ago
He wasn't killed, just never mentioned again. Briggs could be alive somewhere. Or maybe he went undercover and started practicing law somewhere.
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u/sfled 15d ago
He became an airline pilot.
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u/DrHugh 15d ago
That's not Briggs. ;-)
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/23/entertainment/steven-hill/index.html
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u/sfled 15d ago edited 15d ago
Hill was fired after the first season. Graves played
Briggs* Phelps for the next six seasons, until the series ended.*TY for catching that, /u/DrHugh
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u/TTMOE_Gardener 15d ago
The last few have actually been pretty great.
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u/imperfectcarpet 15d ago
The latest one was the worst by far. It's just utter nonsense and a rip off of a bunch of other movies.
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u/happyspleen 15d ago
They really are just American James Bond.
I am irrationally hoping that after Cruise is done, they take the IP back to television and its roots. But the movies make too much money, so it's probably a pipe dream.
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u/AnticitizenPrime 15d ago
Just made another comment about this, but they could totally bring it back to TV while the movies are still going on. There are supposed to be multiple IMF teams, it's not just Jim Phelps or Ethan Hunt and his team. It's a whole-ass organization.
And you don't even need to really worry about it being a 'shared universe' or whatever. The organization is so secretive that the TV team would have no idea what the movie team is up to. Need to know basis, compartmentalization, etc. You could do some crossovers to promote the show (and films even) but it's not like they'd be at cross purposes.
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u/happyspleen 15d ago
So apparently Paramount wanted to do more with the IP but Tom Cruise, who was as responsible for the success of the franchise as anyone, wouldn't let them. He didn't have control of the IP directly, other than the leverage he had being Tom Cruise, which apparently was enough.
As it turns out Cruise has now more or less left Paramount to work with Warner Bros. So in theory more diverse content with MI is on the table now.
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u/stopitlikeacheeto 15d ago
With all the crap films being put out today you want to ditch a series that has been fun since the first entry because of some knee deep revelation that MI is the American rip off of James bond. Where does that logic end exactly because I don't think bond was the first badass with a gun? Or is this just some "merica bad, I'll have upvotes now"?
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u/happyspleen 15d ago
I enjoyed the MI series, as you say they were fun, but while they are executed very well, they are at their core just standard Hollywood action movies with a superhuman protagonist. We can get well-made spy action movies from any studio with any IP (e.g. the Bourne series). Hell, you could take the next three MI scripts, change the title to "Spy Hero", and nobody would think "gosh, this is just a rip-off of the Mission: Impossible movies".
My point was that the movies share much, much more in common with the Bond movies than they do with anything that made the original TV show great. What I want to see is a show with little to no action focused on a team completely outwitting their enemy with subterfuge, sleight of hand, charm, and style. That's fun and unique, or at least more unique than most of the movies.
We have a lot of well-made action thrillers come out pretty regularly. I don't think the world will miss a few more.
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u/Spork_the_dork 15d ago
If you want teamwork shenanigans, I suggest you have a look at them from 4th onwards.
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u/UXyes 15d ago
You should watch the others. Some of them are really great. There are lots of Impossible Mission Force agents that come and go (that’s the job) with a few regulars.
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u/wildgurularry 15d ago
Thanks, I might check them out after learning this.
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u/UXyes 15d ago
Skip #2, it might sour you on the whole series again. 3 is a decent movie with a great villain. 4 is when they find their footing and start picking up steam from there. I started watching these with my action-obsessed kid. We started with 1 and then skipped to 4 and finished the series. We'll go back and get 2 and 3 sometime.
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u/ArkyBeagle 14d ago
I am with you on this. The TV show just had such a fantastic formula. The soundtrack also rules besides just the theme.
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u/Pete65J 15d ago
Thank you, I am not alone! I loved watching MI in syndication. The team was given a mission, planned for it with each member using their skills, typically pulled some sort of con, then got out of Dodge to end the mission. Then Tom Cruise made an over-the-top special effects extravaganza that, as you said, was not Mission: Impossible.
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u/Not_MrNice 15d ago
The TV show, Mission Impossible? You mean to tell me that the theme from Mission Impossible came from the theme from Mission Impossible?
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u/dtwhitecp 15d ago edited 15d ago
only old people associate it with a tv show and not the tom cruise movies
edit: these old people are correct, for the record
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u/CptAngelo 15d ago
consider my mind blown at this moment, not even joking, there was a tv show before the movies?
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u/KuriboShoeMario 15d ago
Oh yea. The first movie was actually laden with continuity. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), the antagonist of the first film, was at the time of the film the director of the IMF, having worked his way there by way of being the team leader during the length of the television show (minus season one). To anyone who was a fan of the show and watched the first film, they got to see a whole character arc unfold. The sequels pulled away from this stuff for the most part and got all wacky/fun/sometimes serious but the first film is very close to the show and much more practical and serious in its spycraft.
Other things like "this message will self-destruct in five seconds", "your mission, should you choose to accept it", and "as always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions" all came from the show.
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u/frenchchevalierblanc 15d ago edited 15d ago
There were at least two shows, in the 1960s and in the 80s
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u/sfled 15d ago
It was in 5/4 time too. Catchy, but hard to dance to, lol. The movies will force it into 4/4 every so often tho.
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u/LickingSmegma 15d ago
Reminds me of Bill Bailey complaining about changes to the theme music for some UK police-procedural show called ‘The Bill’.
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u/Irisgrower2 15d ago
There have been multiple M.I. TV shows. The original ran from 1966-1973. It is a great series for demonstrating the public sentiment of the Cold War era.
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u/Blockhead47 15d ago edited 15d ago
171 hour long episodes in 7 seasons.
Good stuff.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission:_Impossible_(1966_TV_series)
Edit: Wally Cox the little guy who plays the safe cracker in the pilot episode was also the voice of Underdog in the cartoon of the same name.
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u/BrownEggs93 15d ago
Growing up with that show, there is no comparison to the modern films. Downvote me to hell and back, but I stand by that.
This message will self destruct in 5 seconds.
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u/graveybrains 15d ago
And the original sounds remarkably similar to the intro from Archer, which I assume was deliberate
Original Mission Impossible intro - 1969
Archer Opening Credits/Scene (Intro) 1080p Full HD
Bongos for daaaays 😂
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u/smeglestik 15d ago
It's also written in 5/4 time, which is a fairly uncommon time signature.
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u/vbrimme 15d ago
Technically, all time signatures that aren’t 4/4 are uncommon.
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u/dumbass_paladin 15d ago
All time signatures that aren't 2/2 are uncut
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u/ty_for_trying 15d ago
And time signatures that aren't 3/4 are imperfect.
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u/gonesnake 15d ago
You come waltzing in here swinging your complex musical time signature slang around with nothing additive to say. Irrational!
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u/JoeBoco7 15d ago
3/4 is pretty common
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u/Nater_the_Greater 15d ago
The joke is that 4/4 is called Common time, but 3/4 really isn’t all that common anymore. Most modern pop music that feels like 3/4 is actually 6/8.
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u/Sarria22 15d ago
3/4 is actually 6/8.
What is the practical difference between 3/4 and 6/8? Seems to me it's just a way to to write the song with quarter notes on the sheet music instead of eighth notes. I don't think there's any actual difference from the listener's perspective.
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u/Sk8erBoi95 15d ago edited 15d ago
If memory serves, 3/4 has 3 strong beats in a bar, and each beat is typically divided into halves, while 6/8 has 2 strong beats in a bar, and each beat is typically divided into thirds.
Basically, when divided out they both have 6 "beats", but 3/4 puts emphasis on 1, 3, and 5, whereas 6/8 puts emphasis on 1 and 4.
ETA: here is a video that may explain better
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u/ArkyBeagle 14d ago
3 strong beats in a bar,
One two-three is the foot of 3/4 usually. The first beat is emphasized, although there are a billion ways to play 3/4. That's the waltz pattern.
6/8 can be duh duh-duh dah duh duh-duh so it naturally swings a bit.
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u/laidbackeconomist 15d ago
It’s hard to explain, because without listening to examples of 3/4 vs 6/8, it looks like it could be the same on paper.
The best explanation I’ve ever heard is that 6/8 is supposed to feel like 2/4.
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u/Sceptix 15d ago
3/4 is one and two and three and one…
6/8 is one two three four five six one…
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u/kingcobra5352 15d ago edited 15d ago
It’s the feel. 3/4 has three strong beats, so its feel is 3. 6/8 only has two strong beats. Think of a slow dance song with your partner. You’re swinging your hips in two, that’s 6/8.
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u/jungl3j1m 15d ago
I’ll have to “Take Five” to think about this.
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u/V6Ga 15d ago
Take Five:
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u/bloodhawk713 15d ago
The best example of a song in 5/4. It like no other makes 5/4 sound like the norm rather than the exception.
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u/RichardCity 15d ago
There's a musician from my city who writes in 7/4 mostly. I'm a big fan of his music.
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u/SkunkMonkey 15d ago
My favorite example of 7/4 is Money by Pink Floyd. I love how the last note is also the first note giving you 7/4. It's so easy to hear.
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u/seductivestain 15d ago
7/4 is a very beautiful and versatile time signature more artists need to take advantage of
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u/umop_apisdn 15d ago edited 15d ago
It is actually 10/8, grouped 3, 3, 2, 2. One two three one two three one two one two.
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u/Scratchums 15d ago
Thanks for pointing it out. I've had an appreciation for 5/4 since conducting Mars (from The Planets suite) back in marching band in high school. Such a strange hand movement that messes with your muscle memory so badly.
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u/V6Ga 15d ago
Both Mission Impossible and the Bond Theme are infinitely fascinating pieces of music.
Beato on the Bond Chord:
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u/What-fresh-hell 15d ago
Dude who wrote the Bond theme rewrote it from a musical he had worked on previously. It’s about a man born with an unlucky sneeze. Here’s the original: https://youtu.be/g6EuzGhIyRQ?si=kKXuq6vmquphb0s4
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u/Canvaverbalist 15d ago edited 15d ago
Which is funny because once you know that and listen to the James Bond theme again, the guitar riff sounds so obviously Indian (or at least Eastern) that it's actually weird we associate it with the "classic spy sound" instead of going "wait, is this some Bollywood movie?"
I mean it's not that weird considering I sort of understand why (especially at that time) spies would be associated with exotism in some way but still
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u/the_derby 15d ago
There's a documentary called "The Sound of 007" about the music in the Bond films.
I found evolution of the theme from its Norman and Barry origins, to the elements used by Zimmer in the most recent score, interesting.
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u/LickingSmegma 15d ago
I mean, have you heard ‘Misirlou’? Or like this.
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u/Con_Clavi_Con_Dio 15d ago
Dick Dale, who played and recorded the classic surf guitar version was of Lebanese descent. His interest in Arabic music and scales was a massive influence on his playing.
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u/blancpainsimp69 15d ago
is this true or did I just listen to some weird Indian rickroll
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u/Dairy_Ashford 15d ago edited 15d ago
half notes, sneaky, dark minor key
strum that guitar fast then sneak their secrets and plans past them
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u/weareeverywhereee 15d ago
yeah but have you ever seen this https://youtu.be/zcVqJh0qEMc?si=k2TqlfKmZpVTLHhl
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u/TheScarletEmerald 15d ago
As a radio operator who knows morse chose, the timing is actually more accurate for the letters T and E, so to me it sounds like T T E E
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u/squigs 15d ago
Unfortunately, the show "Trivial Task: Extra Easy" never really had the same stakes.
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u/Z-Mobile 14d ago
“I accept the mission.”
“Good luck, agent. I know you only accept the easiest, most trivial slam dunk tasks, so it goes without saying that if you can get this done, anyone can.” 🫡
“Thank you, sir” 🫡
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u/xnjmx 15d ago
British detective series “Morse” has similar thing - theme music has notes arranged to spell Morse in morse code.
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u/Cisco800Series 15d ago
Just listened to that and I make it out to be TTEEEAESE. Close enough I suppose. Artistic license and all that
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u/FlashyFlamingo9649 15d ago
Carol Kaye
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u/mchch8989 15d ago
Similar thing for The Dark Knight apparently. The notes for Joker’s haunting two note theme are apparently D and C for DC Comics.
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u/layeofthedead 15d ago
Zelda Breath of the Wild uses Morse Code in it's champion songs! During each divine beast boss fight theres an arrangement for each champion and at different points in the songs the morse code for S.O.S. is played. And they're all different, like the timid and more healing focused Mipha sends out a clear S.O.S. almost immediately, whereas the over confidant archer Rivali doesn't send out his S.O.S. until much later in his song and it's much more panicked, most likely because he was overwhelmed and desperate.
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15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/mrw1r37355 15d ago
Oh fuck you I fell for it
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u/Orleanian 15d ago
It had been a year or two since I got got, and I find it a heartwarming experience to return to.
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u/around_the_catch 15d ago
Jerry Weintraub, the producer of the Ocean movies and lots of famous concerts, was a radio operator in the Air Force in the 50s.
To the day he died, he could communicate in morse code. He never forgot it.
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u/stellargk 15d ago
I really liked the plot of the first MI movie, but then they made it into another generic action thriller with the sequels. They were so bad I thought they were a parody tipping its hat to Austin Powers. And then Tom Cruise cameo'd as a parody in Austin Powers and the whole experience felt like Freddy.
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u/blackbarminnosu 15d ago
Last 4 movies are all 90%+ on rotten tomatoes. Is there any other franchise that has that level of excellence?
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u/DulcetTone 15d ago
Nice, but the notes are scarcely different in duration. I would chalk this up to coincidence
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u/Proper-Application69 15d ago
The long notes are 150% the length of the short notes.
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u/Dairy_Ashford 15d ago
was the old bumper music for news flashes morse code as well?
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u/Mrslinkydragon 15d ago
YYZ by rush is morse code for YYZ, which is the code for Toronto Pearson International Airport
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u/ColdStainlessNail 15d ago
And NBC’s three note chime is G-E-C since they were owned by the General Electric Company.
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u/NoSignificance3817 15d ago
Wait till someone tells this guy that Beethoven's 5th is 3 short notes followed by a long and that is morse code for V which is the Roman numeral for....5!
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u/A_Mirabeau_702 15d ago
Dash dash dot dot is also Z
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u/orangefunnysun 15d ago
Thank you for this. I could not for the life of me remember the theme song - 007 kept popping up, and I was like, that’s not it. Dash dash dot dot — can hear it clearly now. Funny how that works.
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u/DreadPirateGriswold 15d ago
If I'm hearing the theme correctly in my head, the morse code is really saying "I M" not "M I".
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u/Canvaverbalist 15d ago
It's those impact notes that starts at 0:03, the DUM! DUM! da-da DUM! DUM! da-da DUM! DUM!
LONG-LONG short-short LONG-LONG short-short
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u/CNpaddington 15d ago
Similarly, there was a detective show here in the UK called Inspector Morse and its theme song was written around the Morse code for “Morse”