I was watching the DVD (AWESOME!), and I noticed that the theme was not Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones was not the title theme as I remember. Was it added after the first season, or did they change it for some reason? When the show was on TNT a year ago, they had the theme that is on the DVD. Anyone know what is going on?
MD
It probably has something to do with the rights to the song.
shareYeah, they removed the title track (Rolling Stones -Paint it black) and many other 60s hits (such as from CCR) because of copyright reasons. Too bad... :(
But the show still kicks ass
It's a shame they couldn't just get the title song though. Because it really had power to it.
shareIs there a DVD available? Can anyone please tell me where i can get it?
Thanx!
Don't run from a sniper... you'll only die tiered!!
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What song is the opening? I know I won't buy the DVDs. I have all the episodes from CBS and I'll be content with those. The show doesn't have the impact without songs like "Wooden Ships", "Black Moon Rising" and "Paint It Black".
"Sometimes my ruminations are too confusing for someone not inside my head." -Anon
agreed, its like a totally diffrent intro to me.
shareI remember watching Tour of Duty when it was originally aired and I remember the song in the opening credits was "Paint it Black" by the Stones. I think the producers had to change it after it started to re-air in syndication and on video due to some sort of contractual or copyright infringement. It's not too unuseual for theme songs to change after the original run of a show.
shareOn a similar note - does anyone know anything about the peice of music played at the end of each episode? I really liked it & would love to get a copy of it... was is specifically composed for the closing credits of the show, or was it taken from a song? In which case does anyone know the title/composer?
Ms. Jai xx
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I've got the whole show box set, and none of the songs are the same. It went from Paint it Black and Whoopie! We're All Gonna Die! to this horrible original music. And honestly, I used to love this show, but man, it is hard to watch without the 60s music
shareI have only been watching it for about 6 months but they have replaced it with another show at least i n australia lovethe song
Yeah, I just bought the 1st and 2nd season and was suprised by the music.
They replaced some in-show songs with vague instrumentals that kinda give you the idea which song was there in the first place(recognized Voodoo Child, Tracks of my Tears). At least, that's what I think.
The paint it black issue I solved by muting the tv and putting on my Stones cd.
It takes a little extra time to really sync it, but it's worth it. The new opening theme just sucks.
Check it out on the History network it has the original opening and most of the other songs from what I can tell and remember from when it was on the first time around on tv.(at least in canada it does) too bad it airs at 2 AM and only insomniacslike me see it.
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The Canadian History Channel version has stripped almost all the original music, but Paint it Black survived. I was so bummed that they didn't secure the rights for the other soundtrack songs, which went a long way toward authenticating the show. The replacement music is all instrumental (guitar-led rock).
shareI am going down to visit my rents on labor day. I thought a cool surprise would be to sit around with my dad a lil bro and watch these over again. This is going to be very disapointing if I dont hear Paint It Black when the Show starts :(
shareThat sounds like an excellent way to spend a day?
Your very own TOD reunion.
We should all try that!
And with regards to the music? Like someone else suggested earlier, just grab a rolling stones cd with paint it black, and play it in the background.
Love those things that make you go Mmmmmmm
The new opening theme makes it feel like something crappy like LA Law or something :/
sharewow, I musta been lucky, everytime I used to catch this show it had PIB as theme song. really amazing it is this song. my dad told me that Creedence also had songs in this show, but I was too young to remember anything but the Stone's song.
Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. NOBODY
Yeah. If you got the originals eps with PIB, you were indeed lucky.
& Your Dad was right. Creedance Clearwater Revival did have quite a few of their songs on various episodes of TOD. "Have you ever seen the rain, Bad Moon Risin , Fortunate Son, and Who'll Stop the Rain." There may have been more, but they're the ones I remember.
I know a guy from the USA, who taped the entire series from when it aired on CBS way back in the 80's. He did me a huge favour and put some onto DVD for me, so i could watch the original series, with all the original music.
The episodes are awesome.
The music of that era was perfect for the show. Soooo powerful.
"It dont mean nothin' "
I am trying to remember was it Tour of Duty that had a scene in which the Helicopter Pilot is showing off as Wolly Bully is playing?
shareYeah Luke 007! Im pretty sure I know the scene you're talking about.
I think for memory that was in season 3 almost at the end of the series. In episode 57 "The Raid" Lt Johnny McKay is the pilot of the chopper, and he sings along with the chorus of Woolly Bully while hotdoggin his bird over the tree tops.
"I keep tellin ya, the boy aint shy!"
Thanks. I was only about 4 or 5 at the time and vaguly remember that scene.
shareYoure very welcome Luke. Happy to help out a fellow TOD fan.
Love those things that make you go Mmmmmmm
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Yeah I do remember. That final episode was so sad.
Pop had gone home. Roo and Percell missing the closeness that being in combat bought them, on the telephone to each other,lonely as hell. Like a pair of lost souls. Griner with his sight gone, happy to roll around on the ground, playing with his dog.
Then poor Johnny. I felt so sorry for him. WIth what happened to his leg.
He loved flying those Hueys so much. All he wanted to do was go back to Nam and help out his buddies again.
He didnt wanna be some goddamn traffic reporter.
4 or 5??? LOL....I was 23 when Tour first aired.
That doesnt make me old lmao
That makes me ancient LOL.
Love those things that make you go Mmmmmmm
Big name bands often get very restrictive about how much you can continue to use their music in shows like this. Going to DVD and having to renegotiate the music rights for a single-use song can bump the cost to produce that box set dramatically, and having to do it for the title track could potentially double the price (yes, imagine every DVD box set that gets sold paying The Rolling Stones just as much as the studio that produced the entire show). In the TV-to-DVD boom, a lot of series have had to drop the title song, and short-run shows that aren't expected to sell well have had to cull their entire soundtracks. Keen Eddie (about half a season before it got cancelled) was one such show, and a lot of people were really ticked off to find out that all of the well-known songs that fit seamlessly into the show had been stripped and replaced by low-budget stuff. Las Vegas was a show that actually placed disclaimers on the DVD box sets to let you know that you will not be listening to the Elvis song in the opening credits (pity, as that title sequence is about the only time I can stand to hear Elvis sing). But yeah, losing PiB in the title sequence really kills my interest in buying this series on DVD. Now, if there was an easy way to strip the replacement songs out and burn new personal-use-only DVDs with the original music restored, that might help, but PiB is probably the only one that could easily be done with, as it's the only audio in the opening credits. Doing that with dialogue or sound effects going on at the same time would make it a nightmare to pull off.
shareFirst, thanks to people who've posted in this thread... I'm from Australia and I loved Tour of Duty when it was on TV, but it never (as far as I know) got a DVD release here. So when I found out today it had a US release, I was planning to import it... until I found out about this music travesty!
Ok, I can see how one or two songs might just have to be replaced... I might not like it, but I can see why (I first discovered this could happen when I bought Return of the Living Dead on DVD a few years back). But to re-score the ENTIRE show seems pretty ludicrous, especially one that not only was hugely reliant on it's chosen score of period music, but one that I dare say would not be so fondly remembered if not for said music! Especially 'Paint It Black' for the opening titles... I cannot hear the song and not think of Tour Of Duty!
I have the series on VHS, and while I would love to update, really feel disinclined to buy something so badly butchered as these DVDs apparently are (as I said, even if they HAD lost PiB and kept the rest, or one or two songs in the show, I'd understand... but losing 90-100% just seems like they couldn't be bothered paying for the rights to anything!).
Now, if there was an easy way to strip the replacement songs out and burn new personal-use-only DVDs with the original music restored, that might help, but PiB is probably the only one that could easily be done with, as it's the only audio in the opening credits. Doing that with dialogue or sound effects going on at the same time would make it a nightmare to pull off
http://www.dennisyang.com/archive/category/tv/
It has the intro with original and new music. The new stuff sounds like some cheesy McGuyver background music.
There is also a link to a petition to get Sony to release the original the way it should be.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mnbjv/petition.html
This is a travesty.
Yep, I agree with feeling ripped. While I understand all the reasons behind the loss of the original music, it just isn't the same without Paint it Black. I am sending my set back and will not buy the rest of the series. That one song added so much to the show and also got me interested in the Rolling Stones when I was a teenager.
sharesame here. That song branded itself in my mind when I looked at the show as a little kid. It won't be the same without it.
shareI just bought the first season DVD since I remember loving to watch this series with my dad who was himself a Vietnam vet. I had no idea the PiB theme was removed as well as every great song during the show. The replacement songs are on par with the background music in porn. I probably won't buy season 2 or 3 now knowing this. The only orignal song is the ending credits theme. Hopefully Sony or whoever can find a way to work this out. Anyone thinking of getting the DVDs, you've been warned.
shareI think the music was an integral part of the show. The reason why I'm posting here is I recently heard 'Paint it black' in a commercial here in Germany. As I'm 31 by now I obviously couldn't hear that song when it came out. So I immediatly associated it with 'Tour of Duty' which aired around 1990 here.
Everytime I hear I hear the song and even other songs from that era bits and pieces of the show come to mind.
TO you end2endburner: DITTO.
I loved this show as a kid and that is a bummer to hear the dvd has different music to it. That takes away from it, especially since the music matched the era of the time the show took place during. It's like taking a movie (A Knights Tale comes to mind) and infusing it with modern rock instead of music of the period. It doesn't have the same affect especially for those of us that remember the original music score. I'll still eventually buy the series on dvd however.
Tour of Duty is my favorite TV series of all time. I was a senior in high school when it premiered, and I remember having to set the VCR to record the first episode because I had to work the night it aired. I ended up taping all of the episodes on VHS, and I still have them all today. However the quality has deteriorated over time and I never used good tapes to begin with, but of course hindsight is 20/20.
I have been tempted to buy the DVD set, but I am holding out hope that one day it will be available with the music back in place as it should be.
I remember the VHS release in 1990 of the pilot (plus second ep) had the original soundtrack except for the beginning sequence (yup, no "Paint It Black").
It's a shame the TNT re-runs and the DVD release don't have the era music.
I'm not bothering with purchasing the DVD.
The didn't have right. Most of the music is replaced by generic music. I remember seeing it on TV back when it was first aired and the music was all the great sixties hits. I even got my mom to get me all those compilation albums. They had like 6 or something, each with 20 songs or something. So the series was FILLED with classic sixties and early seventies songs.
But on dvd it basically all removed and replaced by generic or rights free music.
The UK DVD release has the original music restoired. If you can get a region 2 player that would be a way to enjoy the series. Multi-region players are available in the UK and EU, (or via region hacks on remotes) so why does it seem so tough in the USA?
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