If you haven't heard we've lost a few famous people this week. The one that Caught my attention was the passing of Peter Cullen, who if you were not aware is famously known as the voice of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh (yes really), and the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime.
I remember being 12 years old the first time I went to the theater to see Michael Bay's 2007 Transformers. Seeing Optimus Prime transform on the big screen will always be a core memory for me. He was quite literally the coolest thing I had ever seen, he was essentially a Gundam with the personality of Superman.
It was like hearing the voice of God.
Even as an adult, listening to Prime hype up humanity as a cause worth fighting for still sends chills down my spine.
As I got older, however, the Michael Bay Transformers movies became less appealing to me as I started noticing more and more of their flaws. Thankfully, a friend of mine did me one of the biggest favors of my life and introduced me to the original 1986 The Transformers: The Movie.
Two things immediately jump out at you when watching this film. First, the animation is a huge step up from the original cartoon.
Second?
The music.
I'm giving this soundtrack five Michelin stars, because Stan Bush absolutely cooked.
Other artists helped, obviously. Shoutout to Lion for delivering one of the best renditions of the original "Transformers Theme," as well as "Weird Al" Yankovic for his wonderfully bizarre New Wave parody "Dare to Be Stupid."
But the real standout tracks are the ones performed by Stan Bush.
Rent must have been DUE, because this man went out of his way to craft two of the most aggressively '80s songs ever recorded.
The first is "Dare," which plays when we're introduced to the movie's main character, Hot Rod (You'd think that would be Optimus Prime, but, spoilers...It's not.)
And then there's the song that kicks in when Optimus Prime finally confronts Megatron for the last time:
"The Touch."
In my mind, "The Touch" is the theme song of Optimus Prime.
The song is pure, raw testosterone in synthesized form. Blazing guitars, triumphant keyboards, and Stan Bush singing like the entire fate of humanity depends on whether or not you believe in yourself. It's the ultimate pick-me-up.
Transformers has given me some fond memories growing up, and I'm grateful to have grown up in a world where a talking pick up truck taught me about the sanctity of human life. That was only possible thanks to the man behind the voice.
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He truly had the power. |
