Listener Composes A Hard Rockin’ Version Of ‘Morning Edition’ Theme
James Gardner of Lacey, Washington, says for his take on the Morning Edition theme, he started with surf rock as his base and added ingredients from punk and metal.
Transcript
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
All right, it is time for another listener-made version of the MORNING EDITION theme song. This one has a little bit more of an edge than you might be used to.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: Try listening to that every morning when you wake up. OK, this hard-rockin’ version of the MORNING EDITION theme comes to us from James Gardner of Lacey, Wash. He says for his take on the theme he started with surf rock as his base, and he started adding ingredients from punk and metal.
JAMES GARDNER: I wanted to stay close to the theme but try to play around with it just to give it some things that it doesn’t already have – the sort of driving beat, aggressiveness. I wanted it to, you know, sound like it could be in a different environment.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: A different environment. OK, maybe we should do the show from somewhere other than this quiet studio. So Gardner has performed in his share of different environments. He’s been playing the guitar for over 20 years. He once played a gig back in 1998 where his band didn’t go on until 2:30 in the morning after the headliner, Peter Frampton.
GARDNER: So I could say that Frampton opened for us. That’s not a total lie.
GREENE: For now, Gardner is sticking with his day job as a high school social studies teacher. We did have to ask him if he’s ever used his music to teach.
GARDNER: I’ve threatened to do that actually and mostly they beg for me to not bring the guitar (laughter).
GREENE: Oh, so these kids don’t like rock music. Well, they just need to get off my lawn. So we are grateful for James Gardner’s version of the theme song, and we want to hear some more. You can upload your version of the theme on SoundCloud with the hashtag #morningeditiontheme and then go to morningeditiontheme.npr.org to send it in.
We should tell you this is the last day we are accepting your submissions. So tune in Monday and you’re going to hear our final set of your renditions of our theme throughout the program.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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