All I needed to hear was “Will Arnett is a horse†and I was sold on BoJack Horseman from the start. And, given just that tidbit of context, the show was way deeper than I expected it to be. The existentialism of a washed-up TV star, even in all its ridiculous, animalistic (literally) privilege, really resonated. It was real enough to make me feel all the things and just enough removed from reality (I mean, he’s a cartoon horse) that I wanted to keep watching instead of curling up into a tear-moistened ball of existential crisis. Plus something about the buoyant, horn-heavy theme song always made me feel upbeat.
The latest episode of Song Exploder, the podcast on which musicians break down their songs, featured The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and his multi-instrumentalist uncle, Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, St. Vincent). The duo co-wrote the Netflix show’s theme—though not originally for the show—and they spent a few minutes talking about its creation. As he’d done for years, Patrick sent off some ideas to his uncle, who added horns and sent it back for Patrick to edit and produce.
Noel Bright, the show’s executive producer, also called in to discuss how he came to choose the Carneys’ track, as Pitchfork reports. After playing a bunch of takes and some of the track’s individual modules, the episode airs the original four-and-a-half minute song in its entirety. Check it out above and let us know what you think of the BoJack theme in the comments below.
Image: Netflix
