John Darnielle Records Unofficial, Charming The Last Jedi Song for Rian Johnson: “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi And Eats Their Bones”

John Darnielle (of The Mountain Goats fame) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson are just a couple of goofballs, apparently, because they put out this very silly Star Wars song that Johnson has dubbed the “canon” song of The Last Jedi. It’s not actually the official song–it’s just a joke–but, it’s really gosh darn delightful.

It all started with a tweet from musician John Darnielle, which he wrote in response to the announced title of The Last Jedi:

The resultant ditty is now on Rian Johnson’s personal Soundcloud page, along with only one other track–Johnson’s commentary on his movie Looper. However, Rian Johnson is also a musician himself; he plays the banjo in a folk duo called The Preserves. That said, I’m not sure if Johnson also co-wrote this song, or if John Darnielle wrote and recorded it by himself. In any case, if you like John Darnielle’s work, you should check out the Mountain Goats as well. There are many other silly (and serious) songs there for you to enjoy.

Here are some more tweets from John Darnielle explaining how the song came to be:

See, every now and then, the internet is an okay place because it allows creative people to connect and come up with incredibly weird ideas.

I’m not sure who the youngster is that gets to play the role of “padawan” in Darnielle’s song, by the way, but I’m guessing it’s one of Darnielle’s kids. I hope John Darnielle goes on to explain to that youngling that if they want to avoid having their bones feasted upon by the Ultimate Jedi, then perhaps they should study the art of becoming a Force ghost–a difficult prospect, certainly, but one that would allow their bones to disappear after death, thereby allowing them some dignity. There aren’t very many Jedi with whom to study that art, however, so it might be impossible now. I guess we’ll have to wait and see the movie to find out how that plays out.

The idea of an Ultimate Jedi who eats the bones of other Jedi sounds pretty metal. I hope that’s what The Last Jedi is about. I realize they’ve already finished filming it, but like, come on. It’s not too late to edit the movie and add this song in, right?

(via io9, image via Soundcloud)

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Maddy Myers

Maddy Myers, journalist and arts critic, has written for the Boston Phoenix, Paste Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and tons more. She is a host on a videogame podcast called Isometric (relay.fm/isometric), and she plays the keytar in a band called the Robot Knights (robotknights.com).

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