
The internet is full of all kinds of mashup videos. And those that are lucky enough to go viral can hopefully last a lifetime rather than be a flash in the pan. But for YouTube user Palette-Swap Ninja, his mashup of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Star Wars to tell the story of A New Hope may last a lifetime.
These videos are a hilarious parody that swaps out lyrics of The Beatles’ iconic album and trades them in for vital Star Wars plot points. All of which you can see just by the titles like “Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans/With Illicit Help From Your Friends” or “Luke is in the Desert.” You can watch the videos below.
Here’s what Palette-Swap Ninja had to say about the ambitious project:
“This year marks two important pop-culture milestones: The 40th anniversary of Star Wars on May 25, and the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band a week later, June 1. Our new album merges both into one full-length concept album titled Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans. It’s the entire Beatles album as accurately as we could record it, only now it tells the story of Star Wars: A New Hope “” in order. We sweat the details on both sides in an effort to do both cultural milestones justice. Writing hyper-specific lyrics that match the original songs’ cadences; reverse-engineering everything the Beatles recorded, from distorted saxophone riffs to Indian tabla rhythms; recording everything from scratch and learning as we went “” well, that’s what takes five years.”
Indeed. The YouTube user goes far beyond just retelling certain plot points. He goes as far as reworking the opening crawl to The Beatles. And it works. There’s a deep level of respect for both source materials, and a lot of that shows because it took five years to complete the project.
And for those who want to take this very funny mashup parody with them on the road, the entire album is available for free (as both 320kbps MP3 and FLAC) on Palette-Swap Ninja’s website.
But if you are unsure about downloading it, you can listen to just a sample (or the whole thing) by watching the full playlist.
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This is great – thanks!
Comment by Ed C — May 8, 2017 @ 10:40 am