Forgiving the description of Droids as an ‘obscure Star Wars animated series‘ and the odd choice to pick a picture of one of the worlds most revered drummers playing guitar, Den of Geek look at Stewart Copelands track Trouble Again, the music he recorded for the opening credits of Droids.
https://youtu.be/LyHtY9t2kfI
“Yeah, we did a whole song,” Copeland reveals. Somewhere, deep within the vaults of Lucasfilm, exists a full version of “Trouble Again.”
But how exactly did the musician get involved with Star Wars in the first place?
“I was commissioned,” Copeland remembers. “It was an incoming call from Lucasfilm to create songs for two different animated series that they were making; one about Ewoks and the other one about Droids. And they said, just write us some songs on the general idea.”
Kenner had already produced a toy line based on the series, including action figures of series regulars Thall Joben, Jord Dusat, and Kea Moll, new figures of R2-D2, and a C-3P0 with removable arms. They also designed models of the show’s spaceships, the ATL Interceptor and Side Gunner.
“I went to meet George Lucas at the ranch and the meeting comprised of handing me these toys,” Copeland says. “And the mission is to sell these toys, write songs that will sell these toys. And there were cuddly furry ones for the Ewoks and mechanical kind of robots and stuff for the Droids. So, I went home and wrote songs about toys.”
And while the Ewoks theme, done by blues artist Taj Mahal, is itself another standout in Saturday morning cartoon music, it was Copeland’s “Trouble Again” that summed up the ethos of Star Wars: Droids. “That particular song, in fact, most of the songs, about half of them I suppose, were with Derek Holt, who was an English musician who had a band called Climax Blues Band for you nerds out there,” Copeland says. “We co-wrote that. That song there, ‘Trouble Again,’ was mostly his. I mean, I did the music. I think that’s his lyric mostly.”
