"Rock the Dragon" origin?

[Coycoy88]

I recently ripped the instumental version of the song - (http://www.4shared.com/audio/mE48zrTk/R ... menta.html) And when trying to look for the original composer/arranger of the track on Google, I keep getting mixed answers. Some places say Shuki Levy & Kussa Mahehi did, while other places say it is one of Faulconer's early works for Funimation. Can anyone shed any light on this subject?

[VegettoEX]

I don't understand how there can be any confusion at all. The song debuted in 1996 with FUNimation's first dub of the DBZ TV series, as done in conjunction with Ocean Studios for the voices and Shuki Levy (& Kussa Mahehi) for the music. Faulconer Productions wasn't brought on-board until 1999 with the in-house production of "season three", a full three years after "Rock the Dragon" had first gone into use.

Its only CD release was, of course, on the soundtrack to the FUNimation dub with music by Levy and Mahehi.

The company continued to use it onward into season three of their DBZ dub, but that doesn't really have any impact on anything you're asking.

[Coycoy88]

Thanks for the quick reply VegettoEX! I appreciate it.

[Ashura]

To further clarification, while it's credited to Shuki Levy & Kussa Mahehi, it was most likely composed by Ron Wasserman... better known for the epic Power Rangers theme song, as well as the dub insert song 'She's Got the Power' in Sailor Moon.

Saban's MO back then was to replace all the music in every show they had their hand in, and then when they resold their version of a show to foreign markets they would rake in the money from the music royalties. As such, when they employed musicians, they would retain as much of the rights to each song as possible. If you see Haim Saban credited on any music, it's likely not because he did much more than pay for it.

[cRookie_Monster]

To further clarification, while it's credited to Shuki Levy & Kussa Mahehi, it was most likely composed by Ron Wasserman... better known for the epic Power Rangers theme song, as well as the dub insert song 'She's Got the Power' in Sailor Moon.

Saban's MO back then was to replace all the music in every show they had their hand in, and then when they resold their version of a show to foreign markets they would rake in the money from the music royalties. As such, when they employed musicians, they would retain as much of the rights to each song as possible. If you see Haim Saban credited on any music, it's likely not because he did much more than pay for it.

Yeah I'm highly suspicious of that track...it doesn't sound like Shuki Levy at all. His guitars are usually synth for one thing. I almost posted something to that effect but I couldn't find any documentation to the contrary...so I held my tongue. But it feels like a "Faulconer" thing all over again. It sounds like some band, not a composer in a studio with MIDI gear like I know Shuki usually does.

Listening to some Ron Wasserman on Youtube, yeah the style matches waaaayyyyyy better. So personally I believe you.

[Gonstead]

It definitely fits Wasserman's style of music rather than Levy's. The guitars being the main reason.

Maybe it was arranged by Shuki and Ron just played the instruments + vocal?

It's sad though, Shuki and Kussa's soundtrack for the original Ocean Dub was really well done and yet wasn't fully released to the general public. Instead we got the television soundtrack, which in itself isn't complete either and are just the musical arrangements for the first 11 or so episodes + OP and ED themes and not the individual music pieces themselves.

[Ashura]

The reason I'm fairly sure he composed it is due to the fact that Ron Wasserman's very friendly with the Ranger community and released all of his music to them for free. During this, I believe Rock the Dragon was one of the extra songs he gave them.

I believe some of the background tracks also cross-over into Power Rangers territory, since there's at least a few which are used in both.