Europe, Framed
Hello again, readers, and welcome to this week's very special Framed. For the first time in the history of our award-winning blog, we would actually prefer that you watch this week's video over reading this week's captions.
Yeah, it's the best video we've ever had. Seriously.
Don't get us wrong, we'd like you to read the captions, too. But if your time is limited, watch the video first.
This week we honor Europe, a mid-'80s hair metal band that--to our mind--recorded the definitive metal song and video with "The Final Countdown," a stupendous, some would say bombastic, song/keyboard riff that should be your ring tone right now! The lyrics, ostensibly inspired by David Bowie's "Space Oddity," combine a certain astronomical naïveté ("We're heading for Venus and still we stand tall / 'Cause maybe they've seen us and welcome us all") with... well, little else, really. But Europe was from Sweden, which is almost like another planet, so let's cut 'em some slack.
We're keenly interested in what you guys have to say, so, please post away. Can you name another video that defines the heady days of hair metal so well? Are you ashamed that Europe sold over four million albums right here in the US of A? And are you at all scared to learn that Europe has reunited and will be releasing a new album in early 2009?
We await your verdict.
1 - Fun Framed Fact: crazed metal fans actually started global warming!!
2 - "I have caught the fly! Who's your daddy now, Mr. Miyagi?"
3 - "Don't hurt us, Europe! We accept your myriad colonial crimes!"
4 - "Seven ball. Far pocket."
5 - "I implore Framed's readers to ignore any homosexual implications in this week's video."
6 - "Even though I'm playing the keyboards acceptably well, I'm being tormented by tiny, music-hating gnats that are undefeatable. I see no fairness here."
7 - In Sweden, seizing massless photons is great sport!
8 - "Let this hard drumming establish my manliness once and for all!"
9 - "Wow. Evidently everything on this stage blows!"
10 - "Well, no wonder you're in pain, dude... y'know, zipping up might have proven a barrier to those music-hating gnats."
11 - "And these are extra gold records Van Halen was throwing away."
12 - "Why, I also enjoy the immaculate cinematic masterpieces of Ingmar Bergman! Perhaps we should discuss them in great depth in the privacy of my room."
13 - Savvy rock critics of the '80s weren't kidding when they warned readers about faceless rock!
