Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. This week, I'd like to dip back into
Speaker 2: the Star Wars universe to discuss the beloved blue or
Speaker 2: Tolin keyboardist known as Max Rebo. Anyone familiar with the
Speaker 2: Tatooine music scene during the late Imperial period would recognize this.
Speaker 2: Maestro of the Red Ball jet organ. Max Rebo and
Speaker 2: the Max Rebo Band played for some of the most
Speaker 2: powerful underworld figures of the day, including Job of the
Speaker 2: Hut and later the New Republic era Daimio of moss
Speaker 2: Espa Boba Fet. Now, I intend to mostly focus on
Speaker 2: Max Rebo's fingers in this episode, but in reading up
Speaker 2: on this species in the Star Wars Alien Archive, that's
Speaker 2: an excellent two thousand and nine illustrated book that I
Speaker 2: highly recommend. My entire world was rocked by a startling revelation.
Speaker 2: Max Rebo wasn't playing with his fingers, he was playing
Speaker 2: with his toes. So, first of all, as someone who
Speaker 2: grew up with Star Wars and with those Star Wars
Speaker 2: Kinner toys. This is simply incorrect. I just cannot accept
Speaker 2: this on some level because not only did I have
Speaker 2: the Max Rebo action figure with circular organ that he
Speaker 2: got to put him in and he played. It's also
Speaker 2: one of the very few Star Wars toys from my
Speaker 2: childhood that I held onto. It's currently in my son's bedroom.
Speaker 2: And when you pull Max Rebo out of his red
Speaker 2: ball Jet organ, he has legs. He has a pair
Speaker 2: of stocky legs with toes very much like his what
Speaker 2: I took to be fingers, and he's wearing some sort
Speaker 2: of a loin cloth that I always found interesting is
Speaker 2: the same color as his body, so that they didn't
Speaker 2: bother to paint that anyway. I'm not sure if this
Speaker 2: is truly extended universe material, or to what degree you
Speaker 2: could make an argument for it being cannon, but it's
Speaker 2: just too central to my childhood understanding of alien anatomy
Speaker 2: for me to completely dismiss it. Max Rebo may be
Speaker 2: a blubbery, snooted, flipper eared blue alien from the planet Orto,
Speaker 2: but he is clearly a four limbed biped right I mean,
Speaker 2: that's just how we were raised. But not so according
Speaker 2: to the Alien Archive authored by Natalie Club and Katrina Palante,
Speaker 2: and also not according to behind the scenes details from
Speaker 2: Return of the Jedi, the first film in which we
Speaker 2: get to see Max Rebo in his amazing band. This
Speaker 2: is discussed by Pablo Hidalgo in the twenty thirteen Star
Speaker 2: Wars dot Com post Star Wars Mysteries Getting to the
Speaker 2: Bottom of Max Rebo. The evidence is just irrefutable, I
Speaker 2: hate to admit, as Hidago shares in this post. When
Speaker 2: one looks at the original art by production designer Norman
Speaker 2: Reynolds as well as the actual creature work by the
Speaker 2: legendary Phil Tippett, Max clearly only has two limbs, and
Speaker 2: they translate more as legs than arms when you see
Speaker 2: the full creature. Maybe, as Hidago explores, those ears are
Speaker 2: actually flippers and would constitute a second set of limbs,
Speaker 2: but I don't know. You really need to check out
Speaker 2: the images in this post. There are also additional sketches
Speaker 2: depicting what the real Max Rebo would look like standing
Speaker 2: on these two legs that he uses to play the keyboard,
Speaker 2: and I found this interesting too, because it brings to
Speaker 2: mind the flightless moa, the extinct flightless moa from our
Speaker 2: own world, an actual exam sample of a two limbed
Speaker 2: organism having gradually lost. In this case, it's wings to evolution.
Speaker 2: So to say, the least depictions of or tolin anatomy
Speaker 2: are inconsistent. Maybe we're ultimately looking at two different species here,
Speaker 2: even I mean it's I'm assuming the planet is fairly large,
Speaker 2: there's enough room for two different variations on the same form.
Speaker 2: I hold out hope for that interpretation, as I can't
Speaker 2: bring myself to throw this Max rebo action figure out,
Speaker 2: or at least throw it out of the cannon in
Speaker 2: my mind. Either way, the digits Max uses to play
Speaker 2: his scynth are thick and blunt, ending in apertures that
Speaker 2: his species apparently uses to consume food. After all, they
Speaker 2: don't seem to have a mouth on their snoot or snout. Instead,
Speaker 2: they are these little holes or mouths, even at the
Speaker 2: ends of its fingers and thumbs. Now, I can't think
Speaker 2: of any natural world creatures that closely resemble this, but
Speaker 2: it's worth remembering that you do have things like the
Speaker 2: hagfish that can feed without opening its mouth. It absorbs
Speaker 2: nutrients through its skin, and the hagfish is the only
Speaker 2: vertebrate with this ability, but you have various examples of
Speaker 2: invertebrates sharing the ability. Now, while Max's red ball jet
Speaker 2: organ features keys appropriately sized for his thick fingers, it
Speaker 2: did make me wonder about human keyboard players with thick fingers.
Speaker 2: As pointed out on the blog music Drifter, there are
Speaker 2: slight playing style differences for individuals with thicker fingers, different
Speaker 2: ways to attack the keyboard and attack the piano, but
Speaker 2: this hasn't stopped great keyboardists with thicker than average digits
Speaker 2: in the past, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, who famously boasted large,
Speaker 2: powerful hands with long fingers. Beyond this possible example, I mean,
Speaker 2: you can look to various examples of human musicians that
Speaker 2: have overcome various physical limitations to play music, including playing
Speaker 2: the keyboard with their toes. So, however he does it
Speaker 2: with feet or hands or alien feeding tubes, there's no
Speaker 2: doubting the musical brilliance of Max Rebo and the Max
Speaker 2: Rebo Band. Long may he play in a galaxy far
Speaker 2: far away. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster
Speaker 2: Fact each week. As always, you can email us at
Speaker 2: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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