For Orchestra

“I got that devilish flow rock and roll no halo”

This piece is loud, and makes you want to shuffle, and then some. Released on my birthday January 25, LMFAO is a band that began in 2006 by Redfoo and SkyBlu (Stefan Kendal Gordy and Skyler Gordy, respectively). It’s a fantastic song and I was thrilled to arrange it.

You can hear the heavy influence of Guns N Roses and Final Fantasy in this arrangement. In fact, the song I frequently referenced The Final Fantasy VII Sephiroth Theme Song Advent Children Version and Slash’s guitar solos. I wanted this piece to have that edge, but I also wanted to grab the beauty of it, while throwing in a neat little addition: Beethoven’s Fur Elise.

This arrangement is heavy, but that’s only telling of the original piece, which has heavy drums, a melodic synth line, and an awesome loud hook. So after the basses and cellos did their talking in order to bring home the bassline of the original, I wanted the flute player to ‘calm it down’ before the solos picked back up again. It reminds me of a video games live concert, but I make it a point not to add guitar in my arrangements, because I like to keep with just the standard orchestra ensemble.

But why is there a solo in this piece if there wasn’t a solo in the original? When I arranged it I kept ‘feeling’ a solo section, and it got to the point where I kept hearing violins and vibraphone battling it out in an intense section that built up to the final chorus.

I really enjoyed the lyrics ‘devilish flow’, because to me, it implied about breaking the rules. To me it meant about coloring outside the lines, not having a care in the world, and being the best. Bobby McFerrin always had that mindset, and that’s what I always looked up to. One funny thing when I first heard this song was that I wasn’t the only one who thought the lyrics were “No Lennon Or Zeppelin” instead of “no led in our Zeppelin”.

I hope you enjoy this piece. Not surprisingly it grew on me pretty quickly, and I hope to do more pieces from LMFAO soon.

Previous Song

Next Song      

Previous Article

Next Article