You may or may not know this about me, but I am a fan of 80's pop music. Not all of it. Some of it grates on my nerves as much as the next Jon, but there are quite a few hits that I dig.
Very few do I dig more than Europe's "Final Countdown." The pumping rock beat, the guitar riffs reaching climactic crescendos, the ear-drum-kicking solos, all of it. Well, almost all of it. The vocals are a little reedy and dated.
I also love symphony. Symphony with a beat is even better. The surprisingly aesthetically pleasing string quartet, Bond, is constantly in my playlist, as are other orchestral-based ear-rockers such as E.S. Posthumus and various movie scores.
What would happen if you put the two together, though?
Enter Latvia (Hail Doom!) the closest thing we'll ever get to Dr. Doom's homeland of Latveria. Rather, enter the Latvian Symphony Orchestra (Hail Doom!) and their own trio. This collection of mop-haired musicians manage to strum and bow their way through the most stirring rendition of "Final Countdown" I've ever heard. Don't believe me? Take a listen for yourself.
If you can watch that, complete with every stirring solo and riff lovingly reproduced in glorious symphonic sound and tell me it wasn't awesome, then you're either deaf, or have no soul, or both. I'm not going to rule that out.
Now if only I can find a symphonic recording of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"
Thanks to bwe.tv for the drop!
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3 comments:
Okay, I'll grant you that it is a pretty cool performance, but my loathing for Final Countdown - and Europe (the band) in general - is pretty intense.
This is due to the fact that when I was in Upward Bound when the song was popular, the kid in the room next to me had a Casio keyboard and knew how to play one thing, and one thing only: the intro to Final Countdown.
And play it he did. Incessantly. To the point that I had to threaten him with acts of extreme physical violence to his person and/or keyboard to get him to stop.
The only other song I hate more is GnR's "Patience," which also relates to Upward Bound, as I once suffered through an hourlong non-stop session of the song being played over and over again.
Still, Final Countdown was at least slightly redeemed by Gob Bluth's use of it in his magic act on the late lamented Arrested Development.
(As a side note, a Newsarama interviewer inadvertently referred to Final Crisis as Final Countdown when talking to Grant Morrison. Morrison jokingly responded that the song is vastly superior in every way to Final Crisis.)
Alright, you may have a pass considering that you were mentally tortured by the song at a vulnerable time in your life.
See? Dr. Doom - er - Hawks can be generous!
Oh, and Morrison proved his insight/foresight there, if you ask me.
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