The Ghostbusters theme song

It’s Halloween, and that means that everyone is scrambling to find seasonal music beyond Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” In the pharmacy this morning, I heard “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr, and remembered that it’s an absolute banger. This is one of a long list of songs that I loved as a kid, became embarrassed by as a teenager, forgot about in young adulthood, and then learned to fully appreciate in middle age. I watched the movie about a thousand times as a kid and had the soundtrack on cassette. But it took me until recently to understand why I loved the song so much, and why I foolishly became embarrassed by it for a while.

Let’s get the Huey Lewis lawsuit out of the way first. The underlying riff is similar, but Huey Lewis didn’t invent that, it’s a blues trope that’s probably a hundred years old at least. I guess there’s some similarity in the phrasing of Huey Lewis’ first line, and in the first few notes of the horn break? And in the overall vibe? This doesn’t seem actionable to me, but what do I know. Maybe I’m biased because I think Ray Parker’s song is so much better.

There is a lot to love about “Ghostbusters”. Here’s my favorite part, starting at 0:46 in the song.

I don’t know if you’d call this the “hook” or the “chorus” or what. There are multiple levels of hemiola going on. The synth part is pairs of dotted sixteenth notes. The first one in each pair is held out long on D, and the second one in each pair is played short on B. They make a one and a half beat long pattern that cycles in and out of phase with the underlying foursquare drum pattern. Meanwhile, the bassline mainly plays dotted half notes, each one lasting through two cycles of the synth part. There’s a nice contrapuntal aspect, too; the bass descends through the root, flat seventh, sixth and fourth of B Dorian mode, while the synth part keeps repeating the third and root. Here’s a circular MIDI visualization:

 

I learned to be embarrassed by the song because, first of all, how could something so unironically joyful and fun possibly be legitimate? And what’s up with all those synthesizers and drum machines? Those can’t be okay. Also, where does Ray Parker Jr get off being so confident? No, no, no. It took me so many years to get past my white rockist nonsense. I’m glad I did.

Ray Parker Jr has made a lot of other excellent music. He plays guitar on one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs:

He co-wrote and played on this classic by Chaka Khan and Rufus:

He played guitar on this excellent Jean-Luc Ponty album, which also features killer keyboards by Patrice Rushen:

He co-wrote, played guitar and sang on one of the grooviest Herbie Hancock tracks:

He played on this Bill Withers classic:

And this disco banger:

He had a bunch of hits with his band Raydio, including this great Mixolydian flat sixth tune:

He produced some great tracks too, like this one from Brick:

This Halloween, put some respect on Ray Parker Jr’s name!