Blast from the future

Last month saw the release of the new Futurama direct-to-dvd movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs. (This is the second such dvd -- in case you missed it, Futurama's previous last gasp from beyond the grave was Bender's Big Score, and shame on you for missing it!) It's a rare reprieve for a canceled series, and here's to many more.

To sort of celebrate the occasion, and mostly because I just discovered this and think it's cool, I have a brief selection of videos showing the origins of Futurama's theme song, which was composed by Christopher Tyng and inspired by "Psyché Rock", a song off the 1967 album Messe pour le temps présent by French electronic music composer Pierre Henry.

There's even a great retro-futuristic animated music video (from a 2000 release of the compiled remixes, I believe) to accompany the now-familiar, spacey tune. I just love it. Here's Pierre Henry - Psyché Rock:





The song has been covered and remixed many times (for a full list of artists and versions, see here). This is just one of the remixes by Fatboy Slim (also with some nice animation):





Now you probably want to see the Futurama opening sequence, straight up. You don't want to know how long I spent searching YouTube for a suitable version -- none exists. I couldn't even find a good video for the cool new version from the opening credits of Bender's Big Score. What's going on, Internet? As a substitute, the best I could find was this extended version of the song, which includes all of the various comic subtitles from the opening sequence. (The volume's pretty weak, so be prepared to crank it up.)