Tales of the Okefenokee - Live Audio Recording from 1972 (Courtesy of Tim Hollis) 

That's just kind of how dark rides are in general, even in the current decade. I personally think Tales of the Okefenokee's disharmonic meshing of audio reels actually adds to the weird charm of the ride, so I wouldn't want it any other way myself.

I'll be the first to tell you that those live recordings are national treasures. They're some of the most useful (and entertaining) things we have regarding the documentation of the Okefenokee, and I think they have a certain bizarre, blurry, dreamlike quality that makes them particularly captivating to listen to. If you weren't aware, you can find three other ride-throughs recorded by Tim Hollis on the same trip he recorded the one in the video on via the link in the description, although because he was iffy about having his voice as it was circa 1972 (at nine years old) being released publicly, I decided it was best to mute each little instance of it appearing in the tapes before releasing them.

Oof sorry but, there replacing splash mountain with the princess and the frog 😑

Tales of the Okefenokee's audio was definitely a little bit on the chaotic side seeing as how all the reels would melt into each other as riders moved past the scenes. I enjoy listening to recordings of old dark rides exactly for that reason.

This is actually what the inside of the ride sounded like, it’s just the crappy speakers they had at the time

A cool thing to do if you have enough time is playing this audio alongside a POV of Monster Mansion that's been sped up to just the right degree. If you're accurate enough, the scenes you hear will correspond to their exact locations in Monster Mansion... in the first half of the ride, at least. Since the boats in Tales of the Okefenokee actually slowed down considerably just before the arsenal scene and then sped back up upon entering the storm, the audio will become completely out-of-sync in the middle of the ride without further editing, but it _will_ actually be back in line by at least the final scene.

Another cool thing I noticed is if you listen closely on some scenes (the carrot patch for example) you can hear the pneumatics working.

Also interesting is the fact that in the arsenal scene, a quick succession of four or five gunshots followed by a low-pitched explosion are heard instead of what we know as the "regular" gunfire audio. I've always assumed that the shots heard in the on-ride recordings are actually live effects produced by some means, while the regular audio is still present but not necessarily audible. If you're familiar with the WDW version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, the gunshots heard during the shootout between the weasels and the police on the right-side track are almost _exactly_ the same as the ones heard in the live recordings of Tales of the Okefenokee, including the pneumatic "snap" before the shots themselves. You can hear what I'm talking about very clearly in this video at 2:27: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8CtBFmVN02I.html You'll just have to bear with the sluggish speed of those post-1993 cars.

@@okefenokee_rabbit I forgot there was a huge difference between the WDW Mr toads wild ride and the DL version mostly because I've only ridden the DL version, but that's pretty neat!

Never mind, it is there, I'm just deaf. It is pretty overpowered by the other sounds though.

@@megatronacepticon Yeah, you can hear it in all four recordings if you listen closely enough. Tim's tape recorder just didn't happen to pick up those particular frequencies very well in that specific spot for some reason. It's the same deal with the washboard band and ghost scene music, albeit to a lesser degree.

We would probably have significantly more footage if only SFoG had maintained the ride with more care and kept it running for another decade or so. In reality, it was shut down just a few years before consumer-grade video cameras became widely available.

@@okefenokee_rabbit very unfortunate I wonder if there's anything else out there hidden away

LuLzMrTom well, since the promotional reels exist, theoretically the entire ride was recorded professionally and only the most attractive scenes were chosen. Though highly unlikely(since even footage deemed desirable at the time was trashed), it is technically possible that a recording of the ride may exist somewhere. But the chance of it being found and the chance of it being in viewable condition are basically impossible

@@okefenokee_rabbitthe ride was a mess before the closing, in the last season of the ride, you could NOT make out anything in the story. even if sox flags had maintained the ride, i doubt any one would understand the storyline.

@@RFO1502 There wasn't exactly much of a story to begin with. The ride was mainly just a series of loosely related vignettes.

Most songs in the Okefenokee soundtrack couldn't be more evocative of the sixties, what with their usage of flute, brass, and weird early synthesizer tones. The style in general is a lot like something that would have been produced for a particularly high-budget televised cartoon special of the era.

I made that comment becaue some of the songs in the Tales of the Okefenokee , ( mostly just the okee waltz , and both of the crow quartet songs ) sound like they came for a 1930's cartoon .

There are three other live recordings taped by Tim Hollis as well, although this one in the best in my opinion. You can find them compiled into a single audio file here: jumpshare.com/b/fLjwH0iZFK6c08JMeGlg There are, however, little bits and pieces of the other three that I had to mute because they contained instances of Tim's voice, and he's stated that he wouldn't be too comfortable with having the voice of his nine-year-old self released to the public.

@@okefenokee_rabbit I have to agree that this is the best recording out of the four. Do you have any idea why the "storyblocks" footage seems to have been deleted? Is it a membership issue? I'm trying to locate more footage at the moment.

I'm not sure why the footage was taken off of StoryBlocks, but that's been the case since probably October or November. You can still find all of the same clips on Pond5 though, unless those are gone by now as well. Regardless, there's no reason to bother with those watermarked, soundless, split-up segments anyway, because I have the full, un-watermarked version with sound on my channel, as well as a download for it in its original quality.

Those two videos by Lain Shakespeare contain the only footage of the attraction available on the internet. Until more footage is uncovered, that's unfortunately all we're stuck with.

@@okefenokee_rabbit Oh.

What Okee68 I thought you finally found more footage

@@SlushysSecret , Okee68 posted that comment a year ago .

The ride was only four years old by the time each of these recordings were captured, so I doubt any of the speakers had been fried yet. Some of the tapes may have gotten a little worn, although I don't think the management of a high-profile park such as Six Flags would let an audio reel deteriorate to any significant extent before replacing it. If any of the reels sound as though they're playing at an incorrect pitch, it's likely just the fault of the tape recorder itself, as Tim Hollis once informed me that it would sometimes pick up sounds at incorrect frequencies. And if any of the speakers sound quieter than they should be, it's because of either a further proximity from the boat trough, the sound just not happening to land at a place that would have been suitable for the tape recorder to pick up clearly, or some combination of the two.

It's actually pretty funny that you should bring up water moccasins, because just a few days ago, someone in the Tales of the Okefenokee Discord server confirmed that there was an alleged story of some kid jumping out of his boat and being bitten by one.

Lol

Actually, I had a talk with my mom about those water moccasins (Well, she said they were snakes. Same thing lol) a few months ago. From what she told me a month ago after I brought It up again, she witnessed a kid getting bit by one while waiting In line to get on the ride (and also from what Okee said about the kid not staying in the boat while on the ride and getting bit, but my mom's telling me two different stories here since she doesn't remember too much.) She also remembered people putting the kid in a golf cart and escorting him to the hospital and she thinks they also closed down the ride for awhile due to the snakes. Oh, and I was the person that confirmed it in the Okefenokee discord server :)

@@spyrofan1771 Woah!! Is this a common occurrence in water rides?! I've never heard of that happening before!! That's scary to think it might've happened in The Cave (the Speelunker ride).... I rode its replacement when I was like 4, and to think there might've been snakes in there just gives me the chills!!

@@NumeroLetterthe crazy thing is that this has happened in rides like splash at Disney, it’s just that parks these days have found methods to keep them out of the rides

Just a standard consumer-grade tape recorder.

Aka a cassette tape.

I think you actually can make out a few vague vestiges of it, but I think the reason it's practically inaudible is because the song's respective speaker units were located in an outside area with no acoustics and a bunch of people talking.

I think the boat was already in motion when the recording began. If not, then definitely somewhere within the first few seconds. Note that at 0:09, you can hear the boat bumping against the concrete trough as it progresses through one of the curves before the entrance tunnel that merged the forked trough of the loading queue into the single trough of the actual ride.

Assuming that in this theoretical reality it hasn't been significantly altered since 1980 (and assuming the fire, which served as the final nail in the coffin, never happened), it would probably be treated as a hot anomaly due to the fact that it inexplicably still exists despite being an insane 1960s Sid and Marty Krofft fever dream that hasn't been even slightly impressive from a technological standpoint in well over forty years.

Oh 👌

I can't exactly say I'm hearing what you're referring to here. Did you mean to type 2:55 instead?

@@okefenokee_rabbit No. I was referring to the bee scene. I can't really describe what that sound was but I believe it was comeing from Mr. Rabbit.

The only things I'm hearing around the 3:56 point are Mizz Rabbit's voice reel, the bees (very faintly), _possibly_ Fox and Bear panting, and the song. Can you describe the "whoop" sound you're hearing in a little bit more detail?

@@okefenokee_rabbit Sure, but I really don't know how, but I'll try. I believe that I heard the "Mr. Rabbit's Victory" track at least the bees part very faintly, but not really sure if it was in the ride or not.

It might have been the sun laughing?

Most of the bumping sounds are likely just the boat shifting around within the trough.

Ok

Audio only, unfortunately. Keep in mind that this recording is from 1972, years before consumer-grade video cameras were around. A recording of the ride done with an 8mm film camera is always possible, but very unlikely.

I contacted Tim Hollis the other day and asked him if he could send me the other three, and upon sending them he said he would prefer if I didn't make them public due to the recordings containing some particularly-annoying commentary from a nine-year-old him. What I _can_ do, however, is upload cut-up versions of the other three recordings that remove the sections featuring his voice. It might not be as awkward as it sounds, though. In fact, I think the fourth one would only have a few seconds removed in total. To be completely honest, the other recordings aren't even _that_ different from the one I've uploaded here. Some parts are definitely more clear and vice-versa, but once you've heard this one you've heard them all. Not to mention, this one has the best sound quality out of all of them.

@@okefenokee_rabbit Tim said in the podcast that every ride is different due to the music keeps looping over and over again. Can you like post a link to the other three?

Once again, I don't feel inclined to release them as they are currently, and I'll have to cut out bits and pieces of them before making them public in any capacity.

@@okefenokee_rabbit Ok got it.

Not that I know of currently, although I'm sure at least a few more photos will end up surfacing over the years. Also, if you haven't seen it already, I've added an accurate floor plan of the ride drawn by Tim Hollis to the rare images folder: jumpshare.com/b/6MzS8DeL80qN4TREpyfq

I'm sure you've already seen this by now, but yesterday I added a bunch of new stuff to the rare images folder, including new color shots of the 1967 version. I'm also fixing to receive re-scanned versions of Tim Hollis's photos (the ones I used for the "live audio recording" video), as well as upload an awesome 31-second clip of the '67 version that isn't currently online. I might end up getting a hold of even more stuff within the next few days as well.

I have saw the new photos but thanks

@@okefenokee_rabbit Looking forward to this! Will you be uploading that 37 clip of the 67 version? I doubt you will since that and Tim's never before seen pictures will be a major discovery!

The file he sent me is actually just a recording of the footage being played on a computer or TV screen. I suggested that he use a program called Handbrake to actually rip the DVD it's from (Handbrake being the same program I used to rip the DVD contents I've uploaded to my channel), but he hasn't gotten back to me on that. If he sends me a ripped version soon, I'll upload that instead of the video I have now, but if he doesn't, I'll just upload it as it is.

That's presumably the case. There are quite a few tracks that I've never been able to make out in any of the four live recordings, but "Wild Birds Talking" in particular definitely wasn't anywhere in the ride at any point, as there wasn't exactly a location that it would have made sense to play at. The best explanation for its existence is simply that the voice reels were recorded earlier in the ride's development, when the ideas for the scenes hadn't been 100% finalized by the Kroffts.

So this was a unused track?

Yes.

Thanks Okee68 for answering my question.

I don't think they've done much since the 1980s.

You don't need my permission to do that, my guy. I'm looking forward to hearing it if you actually re-create this.

@@okefenokee_rabbit Awesome, thank you. I finally finished it!

The Mr. Rabbit figure in the washboard band had what appears to be light/caramel brown fur circa 1974, as this photo shows: jumpshare.com/v/0buHuUzzERxauthIgQOO?b=6MzS8DeL80qN4TREpyfq Tim Hollis also claims that the black-furred Mr. Rabbit from his photos of the fishing scene and Christmas scene was actually a very dark brown. I personally can't see it, but that's what he's told me.

What other kind of music would you expect to accompany a scene in which two crooks end up soaking in a pond and covered in frogs?

The little bit of earrape in the music

That's what happens when you throw a very loud, shrill audio reel into a dark ride with no soundproofing or compartmentalization. For reference, the earliest I can clearly make out the screaming chicken is at 1:03/1:04, while the latest I can clearly make it out is at 1:58. That's nearly a full minute, or nearly one-fourth of the ride's duration.

Okee68 Right, that’s crazy. Kind of unfortunate that it’s so distracting because from what I can tell, it wasn’t even an important part of the ride at all (?)

@@katieduquette6391 It's kind of funny how you can still clearly hear the chicken during the ghost scene (in which the kidnapping scenario is resolved) and even a little bit beyond.

Okee68 Yeah, the ghost scene gets kind of lost, you can barely hear that spooky distorted guitar

That was a joke I only said that because of how all of it is mixed together.

Dead meme 🫤

What a coincidence that this was 6 months ago and this comment was 6 hours ago when I saw it.

@@SlushysSecret don't worry this is the only ohio meme I done.