Surf-rock music in Space Mountain?

[Heppenheimer]

I bought one of those Disney music collections on Itunes the other day, and it contains an interesting piece I'd either never heard or noticed before. The track is listed as "Space Mountain" and it's basically a surf-rock version of "Aquarium" from Saint-Saen's "The Carnival of the Animals" (you also hear the straight-forward orchestral version of this piece at the beginning of Impressions de France at Epcot). The track is attributed to Dick Dale and the sound is unmistakably in his distinct style (probably best remembered today for his version of "Misirlou", featured over the opening titles in Pulp Fiction).

I can't remember hearing this track, either in the Disney World or Disneyland version of the ride. When and where did they use it? I started visiting Disneyland in 2016, and the only tunes I've heard on the ride are the spooky music for the Ghost Galaxy overlay, and the usual music that sounds like a sci-fi/techno hydrid of the Dies Irae. I never remembering hearing it in Disney World.

 

[marni1971]

Disneyland. 1996.

The sound system that literally broke the ride.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Disneyland. 1996.

The sound system that literally broke the ride.

Sounds like there's more of a story behind this?

 

[marni1971]

Sounds like there's more of a story behind this?

The cars were retrofitted with speakers, computers and batteries. Heavy batteries.

The ride was closed without notice overnight in 2003 due to stresses the cars had exerted on the track way beyond the design limit. It reopened two years later with new track and new cars - with a purpose built and properly integrated Soundtracker audio system.

In a nutshell.

 

[Heppenheimer]

The cars were retrofitted with speakers, computers and batteries. Heavy batteries.

The ride was closed without notice overnight in 2003 due to stresses the cars had exerted on the track way beyond the design limit. It reopened two years later with new track and new cars - with a purpose built and properly integrated Soundtracker audio system.

In a nutshell.

Wow. Tomorrowland seemed to have nothing but bad luck around that time.

 

[marni1971]

Wow. Tomorrowland seemed to have nothing but bad luck around that time.

Some was self inflicted

 

[lazyboy97o]

To elaborate a bit more, Disney knew the track was failing and had already scheduled to replace the track, starting later in 2003. The track did not last as long as Disney had expected and closed early.

Themed Attraction Podcast has a good interview with Tom Morris where he discussing the development of adding audio to Space Mountain.

Themed Attraction Podcast - Themed Attraction

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