Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans

May 1, 2017 7:14 PM

It's the Sgt. Pepper's/Star Wars mashup you didn't know you needed. Palette-Swap Ninja has adapted the entirety of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into a long form musical adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope.

• "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans/With Illicit Help From Your Friends" - Track 1 & 2
• "Luke is in the Desert" - Track 3
• "Never Better" - Track 4
• "Imperial Holes" - Track 5
• "He's Leaving Home" - Track 6
• "Being From the Spaceport of Mos Eisley" - Track 7
• "The Force Within You" - Track 8
• "AA Twenty-Three" - Track 9
• "Dianoga" - Track 10
• "Keep Moving Keep Moving" - Track 11
• "Reprise/A Day in the Life of Red Five" - Tracks 12 & 13

posted by ursus_comiter (53 comments total)

Holy shit this is great.
posted by nevercalm at 7:34 PM on May 1, 2017 [8 favorites]

I enjoyed that a lot more than I thought I would. Weird Al would be proud.
posted by Miss Cellania at 7:37 PM on May 1, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ms Fisher would have gotten a good giggle.
posted by sammyo at 7:40 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Excellent. I really liked Imperial Holes. Lols.
posted by parki at 7:44 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:50 PM on May 1, 2017

This is gonna get me through 2017.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 7:52 PM on May 1, 2017

This is great. Now I kinda want Empire and the White Album.
posted by neilbert at 8:15 PM on May 1, 2017 [7 favorites]

That is amazingly well done.. My cheeks hurt from smiling.... Thanks...
posted by HuronBob at 8:26 PM on May 1, 2017

This is great. Now I kinda want Empire and the White Album.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Alderaan
La la look the planet's gone
posted by leotrotsky at 8:26 PM on May 1, 2017 [19 favorites]

I also like Happiness Is a Warm Blaster (at your side, kid)
posted by leotrotsky at 8:29 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was so prepared to not like this. It won me over in no time, dammit.
posted by treepour at 8:37 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Jumps directly to A Day in the Life...
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:43 PM on May 1, 2017

...and I'm thoroughly pleased.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:49 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm glad I got to see this before Disney's vampires lawyers did.

An old favourite of mine is Beatallica. Beatles songs played in the style of Metallica.
posted by adept256 at 8:51 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

This was perfect. Stayed up past my bedtime to watch it all, since it's bound to be yanked by morning.
posted by Mchelly at 8:57 PM on May 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I thought hey, that'll be good for a chuckle, ended up singing along with the whole damn thing. That was just too good.
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 9:08 PM on May 1, 2017

I'm only up to "He's Leaving Home" but this one is the best so far. Can't stop laughing.
posted by good in a vacuum at 9:26 PM on May 1, 2017

Spoke too soon, "Being From the Spaceport of Mos Eisley" might be even funnier.
posted by good in a vacuum at 9:30 PM on May 1, 2017

Luke is in the desert is so perfect because it buries the lede.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:37 PM on May 1, 2017 [6 favorites]

I'm gonna have to give the prize to "Dianoga."
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:37 PM on May 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

OMG. Sitting here waiting to find out if we're going on strike, and this is saving my life.
posted by OolooKitty at 10:38 PM on May 1, 2017

The lyrics that replaced the "standing alone at the top of the stairs" line He's Leaving Home just made me guffaw in the office. Very weird looks.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 12:01 AM on May 2, 2017

So back to where it all started? "Many people don't realize that when Star Wars was originally released in 1975, it was actually a musical." The new one has much better lyrics, though.
posted by effbot at 1:39 AM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

Awesome. Totally awesome. That's what Fair-use is all about. And why we're supposed to have a Commons. Limited times my ass.
posted by mikelieman at 2:27 AM on May 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

The Skywalker Sister
No Right Hand Man
My Nice shot (don't get cocky mix)
You'll Strike Back
Jabburr, Sir
It's Quigon Uptown

help
posted by adept256 at 2:54 AM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bang bang Phasma's Silver Armour.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:59 AM on May 2, 2017 [10 favorites]

this is so goddam good
posted by Sebmojo at 3:09 AM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was so prepared to not like this. It won me over in no time, dammit.

Somebody has spent a lot of time getting the scansion just right. None of it feels forced.

A really good idea really well executed. It's the kind of thing that would make you laugh even harder when you'd finished it than it did when it first occurred to you.
posted by flabdablet at 5:54 AM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Somebody has spent a lot of time getting the scansion just right. None of it feels forced.

Arr arr! (that's a wookiee laugh, by the way).
posted by h00py at 6:01 AM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bang bang Phasma's Silver Armour

Surely to keep the theme, Abbey Road must be Return of the Jedi:

"Yank, yank, Leia's silver chain gets wrapped around his neck/
"Yank, yank, Jabba's murder is surprisingly low-tech,"

That kind of suggests that the slight post-Pepper curiosity that is Magical Mystery Tour is The Holiday Special, and while I would really love the earlier albums to line up onto the prequels, I fear that Revolver at first glance maps onto The Phantom Menace: "Taxman" is an easy rewrite to a discussion of taxation disputes with the Trade Federation, and I guess upon departing Boss Nass for Theed, Qui-Gon sings "We all jump in a Gungan Submarine."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:12 AM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

Man, they got a lot of rhyming mileage out of "Alderaan".
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:12 AM on May 2, 2017

Somebody has spent a lot of time getting the scansion just right. None of it feels forced.

I was won over at:

"How can this be a consular ship?/
"No ambassador that I can see!"

posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:14 AM on May 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was sold the moment they belted out "Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans". Good God, this is great!
posted by Harald74 at 6:31 AM on May 2, 2017

And also check out An Adventure To Pepperland Through Rhyme & Space, mentioned earlier, for surprisingly good Beatles mashups.
posted by Harald74 at 6:34 AM on May 2, 2017

I've only watched "The Force Within You" so far, and it was mostly aligning with what I expected going in with nothing really special. Then the R2 parts came and I lost it.
posted by LionIndex at 6:37 AM on May 2, 2017

Blog post with download links: http://www.paletteswapninja.com/2017/05/01/new-album-princess-leias-stolen-death-star-plans/
posted by bluesapphires at 7:33 AM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

But surely if you were going to replace something in Star Wars it wouldn't be the music? That's like saying you want to write a new opera to the libretto of The Magic Flute.

Oh, it replaces all the dialogue too? Carry on, then.

(actually, based on watching a few of them, this rules)
posted by straight at 7:34 AM on May 2, 2017

That guitar solo based on the Imperial March is amazing.
posted by straight at 7:38 AM on May 2, 2017

"What would you think if I boarded your ship?" and I spit tea all over my keyboard.

WELL PLAYED.
posted by rtha at 8:28 AM on May 2, 2017

I'm only through Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans/Illicit Help From Your Friends and I'm in love.

Impressive. Most impressive.
posted by nubs at 8:48 AM on May 2, 2017

This is first-rate scansion. We don't get that nearly often enough in parody lyrics outside of, like, Weird Al - and that is a huge compliment to this project. Applause all around.
posted by tzikeh at 10:27 AM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Can you see she's a traitor?
I need those plans in my glove.

Wow! Watched a couple, and they're hysterical.
posted by RedOrGreen at 11:43 AM on May 2, 2017

Almost good enough to salvage my Beatles antipathy. ;-)

Scansion really is the separator of wheat from chaff when it comes to parodies.
posted by sazerac at 11:43 AM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

And in the end
The Yub you take
Is equal to the Nub
You make

Ah aaahhhh...



[Jake Lloyd singing as Anakin:]
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl but she's got an awful lot to say
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl and she's wizard in every way
Wanna tell her that I love her a lot
But it's weird cause she's a teen and I am nine
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
Someday I'm gonna make her mine, oh yeah
Someday I'm gonna make her mine
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:11 PM on May 2, 2017 [6 favorites]

And in the end
The Yub you take
Is equal to the Nub
You make

Ah aaahhhh...

Screaming laughing. Plus one, would plus again.
posted by tzikeh at 2:09 PM on May 2, 2017

Is it just me, does the lyric in "A Day in the Life of Red Five", around 4:07 sound like it was changed for family-friendliness?

Here's the plan, we go in fas'
Keep those fighters off our backs

The way the singer drops the 't' in "fast", I'm pretty sure the original parody lyric was not 'backs'.
posted by fings at 6:56 PM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't TELL you how many times I've complained about Luke's "But UnCLE OWEN..." whine... I thought I might have ruptured something laughing during the chorus of the second video.
posted by hippybear at 7:21 PM on May 2, 2017

Star Wars 40 Year Anniversary -- May 25
Sgt. Peppers 50 Year Anniversary -- June 1

This is so fucking great, thanks for linking! I'm declaring this a YAYpril post even though it's May.
posted by hippybear at 7:24 PM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Great writing, and they really nail both Lennon and McCartney at times, like "The Force Within You" and "Dianoga."
posted by mubba at 7:39 PM on May 2, 2017

I'm pretty sure "The Force Within You" would be nailing George Harrison.
posted by hippybear at 10:25 PM on May 2, 2017

How was "Fixing A Hole" not about the thermal exhaust port?
posted by sourwookie at 7:19 AM on May 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

BECAUSE IT'S NOT AT THE END OF THE ALBUM GOSH
posted by saturday_morning at 5:52 PM on May 3, 2017 [4 favorites]

my name is Luke,
i travel far,
with frends and droids
to the deth star.

rescue princess,
get stuck in trash.
Ben fights Vader,
gon with a flash.

from rebel base,
we set a course.
i shoot deth star,
i use the force.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 10:10 PM on May 4, 2017 [1 favorite]