Comments on: Theme song from The Wire, season 4?

Question: Theme song from The Wire, season 4?

xmutex — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 21:45:41 -0800

Anyone know who does the theme song on this season's (season 4) The Wire? Damn it's good.

By: bonesy

bonesy — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 21:58:30 -0800

From Yahoo Answers:

The name of The Wire's theme song is "Way Down in the Hole." There are actually 4 versions, one for each season.

Season 1 - recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama
Season 2 - recorded by Tom Waits (he actually wrote the song.)
Season 3 - recorded by The Neville Brothers
Season 4 - arranged by Doreen Vail and recorded by members of a Baltimore Boys Choir.

By: bonesy

bonesy — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:07:48 -0800

ah and from an interview:

Specifically, our theme was arranged and produced by Doreen Vail, Maurette Brown-Clark and J.B. Wilkins. The young voices featured are those of Ivan Ashford, Markel Steele, Cameron Brown, Tariq Al-Sabir and Avery Bargasse. The musicians are Ronald Lindsey and Thomas Crosson. Mike Potter engineered the session.

All of the boys are from Baltimore and Tony Small, who directs a boys choir locally, found them for us.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:52:47 -0800

Really? I thought this season's cover the weakest. The way it's a slave to the beat is just alien to me.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:11:22 -0800

I also thought it was easily the weakest. At the same time it's excellent they got kids to do it as they're the focus of the season.

By: box

box — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:29:32 -0800

I'm no stranger to being a slave to the beat, but I still think that this is the weakest version.

And, despite their efforts, and unlike that conversation that Chris and Snoop had, there's nothing particularly B'more-music-specific about it. Which is a shame, especially since, largely thanks to Hollertronix and Spank Rock, B'more music is relatively high-profile these days. And all those spoken bits, the "Keep him down in the hole, yo"? Cheesy.

The Blind Boys of Alabama version is my favorite.

Oh, and here's a link where Blake Leyh, who works on the show, talks about the end-credits music, and about the possibility of a The Wire soundtrack. Favorite quote: Some labels have shown interest in an "inspired by" soundtrack release, which would really be a way of using The Wire brand to promote something else. We aren't interested in doing that.

And a well-done soundtrack, with that Young Leek song, and 'You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly,' and the Nighthawks version of 'Sixteen Tons'? That would be very, very good.

By: saladpants

saladpants — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 08:20:26 -0800

I laughed when I saw this question because my wife is absolutely enamoured of this season's rendition. I prefer the first season personally.

By: dhammond

dhammond — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 12:25:40 -0800

The way it's a slave to the beat is just alien to me.

Intentional or not, that kind of fits into one of the show's themes, IMHO....that people are captive to the system.

By: letitrain

letitrain — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:44:24 -0800

I LOVE this season's version. I found this question from a Google search. Thanks!