Kid Kool - or so I thought I was...

When I wasn't 'nerding it up' on my NES or playing road hockey I enjoyed jammin' with a buddy on our keyboards.  At the time I had a Casiotone CT-370 and I believe he used an older Yamaha PSR something model if memory serves.  At any rate, one of our favorite things to do was to take a certain piece of music from Ninja Gaiden and embellish it.  I think it was part of the ending sequence. To jog our collective memories the tune was a little bit reminiscent of the "Lonely Man" theme from the Incredible Hulk TV series. Kind of a moody little number that implies some loss and some requirement to carry on, to endure (in spite of that loss) and to overcome.  It's about as uplifting and emotional as MIDI got in those days.

Here's a link to the part of the game I'm referencing:

http://www.nes-snes-sprites.com/NES%20Soundtracks/mp3/Ninja%20Gaiden/Ending_Part_1.mp3

While my friend and I were trying to come up with new edits for the game interludes my brother was feverishly stitching together all of the cut-scenes from the game with our handy dandy VCRs. I've got to say that I think besides the epic music in that game the cut-scenes were one of my favorite features.

Every time I sit down at a piano or keyboard to noodle around it always seems to be the piece I play.  I guess you could say it has ingrained itself on my psyche to the point of being my chopsticks.  Ninja Gaiden is my chopsticks. There you have it.  I will clearly never be a Bach, Beethoven or Chopin and I have long since abandoned my keyboard aspirations for a 6 string hobby, but I'll always have those days. Kid Kool, indeed.

Here's a test to see if anyone out there reads this.  If 3 comments are left on this entry I will dust off my keyboard and post a video of me playing this little ditty from Ninja Gaiden ( or some 'hopefully' reasonable facsimile).