# Hans Zimmer's Simpsons music from Tombstone?



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

I just watched the Simpsons movie and noticed some tracks sounded familiar. Then I realised the tune is from Tombstone 1993 by Bruce Broughton. If you check this track  from the Simpsons and compare with this time index of track 2  you can see they are the same melody.

Is this actually some kind of famous traditional tune I've never heard of or did Hans use this music from Tombstone here?


----------



## BenG (Jun 18, 2021)

I would say it's likely a nod to famous Western themes that all share that same progression and melodic shape. Some other examples...


( :30)


(1:09)


----------



## dcoscina (Jun 18, 2021)

Hasen6 said:


> I just watched the Simpsons movie and noticed some tracks sounded familiar. Then I realised the tune is from Tombstone 1993 by Bruce Broughton. If you check this track  from the Simpsons and compare with this time index of track 2  you can see they are the same melody.
> 
> Is this actually some kind of famous traditional tune I've never heard of or did Hans use this music from Tombstone here?



Maybe it was for a western scene or something where it quotes Broughton's. Seems a very obvious reference when listening to the two back-to-back.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

BenG said:


> I would say it's likely a nod to famous Western themes that all share that same progression and melodic shape. Some other examples...
> 
> 
> ( :30)
> ...



Hmm yeah you're right they really all are similar. So any idea what the origin of this particular structure of theme is?


----------



## d.healey (Jun 18, 2021)

Which track is it from? I want to hear it in context, but yes it sounds very much like a hefty nod to Broughton.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Which track is it from? I want to hear it in context, but yes it sounds very much like a hefy nod to Broughton.


Not sure what you mean, which track is what from? I posted both tracks in my original post.


----------



## d.healey (Jun 18, 2021)

Hasen6 said:


> Not sure what you mean, which track is what from? I posted both tracks in my original post.


You posted a 19 second extract called "Believe in America" that isn't listed on the OST so I assume it must be from a longer track.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

d.healey said:


> You posted a 19 second extract called "Believe in America" that isn't listed on the OST so I assume it must be from a longer track.


No it's not my youtube channel, that's a direct link to a track from a playlist of the Simpsons movie soundtrack. There may be a longer track with that in it somewhere though. It seems to be a playlist of a lot of short pieces that match particular scenes in the movie. Official soundtracks often miss a huge amount of the music used in a movie so may not feature this part at all.


----------



## d.healey (Jun 18, 2021)

So I just skipped through the whole movie to find where this thing is... It's at around 42:50. It gives context and the choice of music makes sense.


----------



## BenG (Jun 18, 2021)

Hasen6 said:


> Hmm yeah you're right they really all are similar. So any idea what the origin of this particular structure of theme is?


All of these reference the classic Western themes like 'Magnificent Seven' from Bernstein which comes out of Colpand's more pastoral works!

I've always felt that Copland defined the sound of the American west while Gershwin defined the city. That's why City Slickers is such a cool soundtrack mixes the two iconic sounds together in the same score.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

BenG said:


> All of these reference the classic Western themes like 'Magnificent Seven' from Bernstein which comes out of Colpand's more pastoral works!


But the Magnificent Seven doesn't have that melody as far as I know. This melody seems to be really quite specific. Tombstone, The Simpsons and the two examples you gave are all almost the same melody. City Slickers seems to be the oldest reference we've found so far.

How did you find those examples based on my post anyway?


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 18, 2021)

dcoscina said:


> Maybe it was for a western scene or something where it quotes Broughton's. Seems a very obvious reference when listening to the two back-to-back.


Yeah that's the weird thing, it wasn't, he just says 'America' and that is the theme to represent America.. It's weird because I heard it a few times in the movie and it sounded 'cowboy' like to me but there was nothing cowboy like in the movie.


----------



## dcoscina (Jun 19, 2021)

Hasen6 said:


> Yeah that's the weird thing, it wasn't, he just says 'America' and that is the theme to represent America.. It's weird because I heard it a few times in the movie and it sounded 'cowboy' like to me but there was nothing cowboy like in the movie.


I haven’t seen the film so I don’t have enough context to make suppositions beyond what I have. Just on the surface, the two pieces seem very close however.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 19, 2021)

dcoscina said:


> I haven’t seen the film so I don’t have enough context to make suppositions beyond what I have. Just on the surface, the two pieces seem very close however.


No I know you haven't, I was just informing you that the movie doesn't have anything to do with the wild west in the entire movie, so that was rather strange. Yes the pieces are almost identical, maybe he copied it unintentionally or something. It seems strange that we've noted at least four movies that have used this theme so far but still not clear on the origin of it.


----------



## BenG (Jun 19, 2021)

Hasen6 said:


> But the Magnificent Seven doesn't have that melody as far as I know. This melody seems to be really quite specific. Tombstone, The Simpsons and the two examples you gave are all almost the same melody. City Slickers seems to be the oldest reference we've found so far.
> 
> How did you find those examples based on my post anyway?


Ya, that was a bit of a stretch perhaps with the M7 theme!

As for the other examples, they were scores I was already very familiar with and I noticed the very same similarities years ago. The melody is not as important as the I - iii - IV harmony in my opinion. I am certain there are other instances of this and I would bet it originated with Bernstein (Maybe Newman) who borrowed from Copland.


----------



## Hasen6 (Jun 20, 2021)

BenG said:


> Ya, that was a bit of a stretch perhaps with the M7 theme!
> 
> As for the other examples, they were scores I was already very familiar with and I noticed the very same similarities years ago. The melody is not as important as the I - iii - IV harmony in my opinion. I am certain there are other instances of this and I would bet it originated with Bernstein (Maybe Newman) who borrowed from Copland.


The harmony is important but that can be seen elsewhere, while the precise (-ish) melody and rhythm make these incredibly unique. So we have some leads but as yet the origins of this very unique melody remains unknown. Interesting.

Also Hans Zimmer's use of it here seems to be somewhat unique since all the other references are Cowboy films while there's no mention to anything cowboy like at all in the whole Simpsons movie.


----------

