In the realm of comedic television, one of the most successful and iconic shows of all time is South Park. Frankly, we could write you a full-length essay on the novelty and quality of the show, as it is truly superb. Though, as you all know, we are a music magazine. Nevertheless, South Park has become a living legend of a TV show, and while it’s iconic in so many ways, one of its most notable features is its ever-so recognizable theme song, which was created by Les Claypool and Primus.
Videos by American Songwriter
The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, seemingly started to officially develop the show in the mid to late 90s. After their 1995 online version of the show was a hit, the two started to robustly define the show for Comedy Central. While they did the majority of the heavy lifting on their own, they needed some help with the theme song. So, they called up Les Claypool of Primus.
Les Claypool Recalls How the Song Came To Be
In an interview with Rick Beato, Les Claypool recalled how this innocent and seemingly futile task came to be. He started his anecdote by stating, “From what I understood, as they were making the South Park pilot, they would listen to different music…Trey liked one thing and Matt liked another thing, and the one thing they could agree on, from what I was told, was Primus.”
Given Stone and Parker’s mutual affinity for the band, they reached out to Claypool. Claypool accepted, and he attested to that fact by telling Beato, “The funny thing is, what you hear at the end of the South Park episode is what we actually gave them. It’s much slower.” As a matter of fact, it was too slow, so Parker and Stone asked them to speed it up. Per that request, Claypool and his band replied, “We’re on tour, these guys are not even gonna get on television. We’re just like, ‘just speed it up.’”
Well, that is exactly what they did, and once Les Claypool recorded the vocals, they had their finished product. So, for all you South Park fans out there, that is exactly how their infamous theme song came to be. And, it seemingly wouldn’t have transpired that way if Claypool hadn’t embarked on this simple sidequest on behalf of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Photo by Jim Bennett/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.