Max Rebo, King of Indie: Annivyrsary 1983
ISSUE #264
“The Max Rebo Band was a 12-member band that played during the Imperial Era. The group was originally composed of the Ortolan Max Rebo, who starred on the red ball jett organ, Sy Snootles, the Pa'lowick who served as the lead vocalislt, and Droopy McCool, who played the chindinkalu flute. At one point, the group was hired by Jabba the Hutt to stay at his palace on the planet Tatooine. One of their greatest hits, "Lapti Nek," was one of Jabba's favorites.”
Thus spake official Star Wars canon profiling the Max Rebo Band, who made their feature debut in The Return of the Jedi, the highest grossing movie of 40 years ago. If you happened to have seen it post-1997, when George Lucas started tinkering with one of pop cultures largest-looming touchstones, you heard Max Rebo play not “Lapti Nek,” but a new composition called “Jedi Rocks,” a gaudy and god-awful song that totally obscures the fact that John Williams—John Williams!—wrote a real funky big ol’ banger back in 1983 that you can only hear now on this exclusive Earwyrms playlist (as well as the official soundtrack album of The Return of the Jedi).
Give it a listen. Hear that? Dare I say it represents pop music from 1983 in microcosm, perfectly deploying that fun, funky, Degobah–swamp–bubble popping bassline typical of, say, Madonna (debuting this year), Cyndi Lauper (hell yeah), “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “Let the Music Play,” and New Order’s “Blue Monday,” a single that stayed on the U.K. Independent Singles Chart for 186 weeks. Music production had been pared down to a science, by ‘83 which meant to break through you had to have a hit music video. With MTV at full power in the pop machine, this new form could make (“The Safety Dance”) or break (any indie artist, who had to resort to other markets) a band or star.
Still, eternal music absolutely flourished, with a total of five(!) Earwyrms Canon picks in this year alone. Some stories of note: the invention of Detroit techno, as embodied by the single “Clear” by Cybotron; the birth of English indie rock as we know it with The Smiths debut and follow up singles (“Hand in Glove” and “This Charming Man,” respectively); and the birth of American indie rock as we know it with R.E.M.’s Murmur.
But the biggest news of 1983? The Max Rebo Band played Jabba’s Palace when Luke and Leia came back for the Han Solo. You had to be there, baby. The way Droopy McCool wailed on that chindinkalu flute… those were the days, baby. Those. Were. The. Days.
1984 has been called the greatest year in pop, and I think it might still be true. If 1974 was music’s fallow period, ten years later was its opposite. We danced in the dark beneath the killing moon and under purple rain—this was the year the critics and the people met in the Minneapolis streets.