It would be nice—I guess—to close out Adventureland August with a
bang, but the Disneyland Dilettante isn't just about the E-tickets
and momentous events. The smaller stuff definitely has its place here
too...maybe even a more cherished place, considering how often it's
overlooked by not only the general park-going public but even the
aficionados. There are entire websites dedicated to extolling the
virtues of the Haunted Mansion or catering to the exalted fraternity
of Jungle Cruise skippers, but when was the last time you saw even
the smallest blog post praising the Silhouette Studio?
This blog post is not about the Silhouette Studio. It's about a
feature of Disneyland that actually does have a following (though
it's still definitely a niche interest by normal standards):
background music.* This is one of those under-appreciated but
absolutely essential parts of the Disneyland experience, like the
standards of cleanliness. Most guests don't really notice that it's
there. They might not overtly notice if it were gone...but they would
certainly feel the detriment on some level. What would Main Street be
without its light orchestra instrumentals? The New Orleans Square
riverfront without its lively Dixieland jazz? Frontierland without
its Western folk tunes or Fantasyland without its (gasp) actual
Disney songs?
And where would Adventureland be without its...uh...hang on...huh.
Adventureland
does not have an overall area music loop. I can think of potential
reasons for this oddity. Perhaps there aren't enough good places
along the walkway to install speakers for such ambiance. Perhaps the
diversity of the locations represented is such that no single loop
could adequately serve. Perhaps it was decided that any
ambient music would detract from the impression of a remote area
where survival is Priority Number One and performing arts are an
unaffordable luxury.
Or
maybe, given how narrow the walkable space is, an overall loop would
clash with the queue loops for the individual attractions. Because
Adventureland does
have a plethora of background music tailored to its specific
offerings. This, of course, is one way to get around the second issue
mentioned above. So let's take a tour!
Enchanted
Tiki Room Lanai
If
you had no idea there was a music loop in the waiting area for the
Enchanted Tiki Room, I can't blame you. It's only audible for a
couple minutes at a time, fading in after the audience is ushered
into the Tiki Room for the show and then fading out again for the
Dole video and Tiki Garden presentation. It's pretty easy to miss it
entirely. Because of this, it's a very short loop, less than fifteen
minutes. It consists of six bouncy tracks from a single album, Jack
de Mello's Steel
Guitar Magic,
and an enterprising fan has thoughtfully recreated the loop from the
album for our listening pleasure:
Aladdin's
Oasis
This
is my favorite music loop in Adventureland, which is kind of odd,
since the Oasis itself really has nothing to offer me these days. The
music was apparently arranged and recorded especially for Disneyland,
and in a fit of utter whimsy, the arranger decided to put together
something that the thoroughly anachronistic Genie himself might
produce—a collection of popular songs and other familiar pieces,
rearranged for Middle Eastern instruments and re-keyed in the
pentatonic scale. Pay close attention and you'll likely recognize
(among other things), some jazz and big-band standards, the themes
from Lawrence
of Arabia
and I
Dream of Jeannie,
and even a couple of Beatles songs!
Jungle
Cruise Queue
In
the first
post
for Adventureland August, I mentioned that the music for this classic
of classics among Disneyland rides is all diegetic—existing in the
fictional universe of the ride in the same form that we hear. This is
a relatively unusual approach in the parks, surprisingly enough. More
often, area and background music functions more along the lines of a
film score, maintaining an appropriate atmosphere, but understood as
not literally present in the setting. To be sure, in most areas, a
diegetic explanation would not be plausible—you can imagine that
the jazz bands in New Orleans Square are out of sight just around the
corner, but is there really an invisible light orchestra wandering
around Main Street? (Spoiler: No, there is not.)
It's a pity the area themes don't allow for more diegetic loops,
because it's a fantastic way to set a scene and enhance immersion.
The premise of the Jungle Cruise is pretty generic; the queue loop
adds some specificity. It's framed as a 1930s-era radio broadcast,
for continuity with the adjacent Indiana
Jones Adventure...but the Jungle Cruise loop goes a few steps
further. Anyone can throw together a string of big-band hits and call
it a 1930s playlist; the Imagineers took the trouble to choose songs
whose titles evoke exotic tropical locales (“Flamingo,” “Moon
Over Burma”) or travel (“Sentimental Journey,” “Slow Boat to
China”) or at least that mention boats (“Someone's Rocking My
Dream Boat”). The loop is punctuated with news announcements (one
of which mentions the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, cementing the link
between the two attractions) delivered in a proper RP accent, telling
us that this part of the jungle is likely a British colony. We even,
at points, hear the broadcast interrupted by bursts of static, and
another station—playing tribal drum music with monkey hoots—bleeds
through. It's not quite as dysfunctional as the ride itself, but it
sets the stage nicely.
Indiana
Jones Adventure Queue
This
ride actually has two entirely separate queue loops, one for the
outdoor portion and one inside the temple. The outdoor loop, like
that of its neighbor, is disguised as a radio broadcast from the 30s.
But there are several differences. The Indy loop is only about half
as long as the Jungle loop, free of interference, and not so cutely
themed to the tropics themselves. In fact, if there is a secondary
theme there, it seems to be...the United States. Where the presenter
on the Jungle Cruise's station is English, the news announcers here
are almost aggressively Midwestern in their delivery. The playlist
isn't as emphatically devoted to Americana as Jungle's is to its
subject matter, but it includes “(I've Got Spurs That) Jingle,
Jangle, Jingle,”** “Indian Summer,” and “Little Brown Jug,”
which combined account for about a third of its length. I don't know
how deliberate this was, but either way the contrast is interesting.
(It's
not really this slow; the uploader reduced the speed in order to
avoid violating copyright.)
The
indoor queue is something else again—no individual songs or tracks,
but a continuous, tuneless susurration of distant drums and gongs. In
fact, you can hardly call it music...but
it is highly atmospheric and, as far as I can tell, totally unique. I
can't think of any other Disneyland attraction that uses such
carefully crafted pure ambiance in its queue. The closest is probably
Space Mountain, which has artificial radio chat audible in portions
of its queue, but that lacks the sheer implied mystery of the temple
drums. Who is playing—isn't this temple long since abandoned by its
original worshipers and ruined? Where
are they playing, to sound so far away yet be completely inaudible
from outside the temple? Just how extensive is this place?
(Skip
the first 90 seconds or so to hear the drums.)
Tarzan's
Treehouse Area
I'm
including this one for completeness. It's not really a “queue
loop,” is it? Since Tarzan's Treehouse doesn't actually have a
queue area and the music in question isn't so much a loop as a single
piece set on infinite repeat. Said piece is a very marimba-heavy
instrumental medley of the songs “Strangers Like Me” and “Son
of Man” from the film Tarzan.
It does justice to neither its source material nor Disney's usual
standards of background music, and it's rather louder than the music
for such a minor attraction ought to be.
So
there you have it. The music loops of Adventureland. Next
week...something not
Adventureland related!
*
Thus making this the first of a new category of posts: The Second
Sense, all about Disneyland music and audio!
**
“Jengle” and “Jongle” aren't words, are they?
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