(the title of this playlist has changed: previously it was titled Now They Are Dreams.)
It is an alternate 1985. The Novas, a group of New Wave musicians who escaped from an experimental Simulation, have won a major victory against the all-powerful Company which is taking over their world. But their two leaders, Susan and Jack, have vanished.
Novas 3: Harmony Of The Spheres Act 1
Act 1: Cyber
01 Instant Music – Everybody’s Gotta Mutate (1981, Germany) SUSAN
Everybody's gotta mutate
At their own rate
Everybody's gotta create
Their own new fate
This is the end of the beginning
The beginning of a better world
When your body starts changing
It's time your mind uncurled
Emotion, emotion
There's gonna be heaven to pay
When we get up together on Mutation Day
Everybody's gotta mutate
Whether early or late
Gotta mutate
At your own rate
Gotta realise
It's no use to wait
Gotta mutate
Everybody's gotta mutate
Whether early or late
Everybody's gotta create
Their own new fate
Susan’s ESP is growing stronger. Is she becoming something other than human? Who are the Novas, actually?
02 Fair Fax – Satellite Dream (The Capricorn Disaster Mix) (1986, Germany) JACK and the ASTRADYNE CHORUS
(as the Ministry of Space Research announced, the crew of scout
satellite Capricorn One, Space Commander ? Callahan, Second Officer
James ? and FEMA Sergeant Sandy Woodrich left orbit to check an unusual
asteroid movement they'd observed this morning. A satellite computer
calculation discovered an increasing number of asteroids of unknown
origin and gigantic dimensions headed toward space quadrant 2001. Wait
for further information. The weather forecast: cloudy in the east and a
slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, in the other regions
if the weather keeps it'll be sunny with temperatures up to 46
degrees...)
Do you remember?
Do you remember?
Satellites connecting you and me (satellites, oo, satellites)
Caught in a satellite, satellite dream (satellite dream)
Satellites surrounding you and me (satellites, oo, satellites)
Caught in a satellite, satellite dream (satellite dream)
(Capricorn calling satellite control Houston. Capricorn calling satellite control Houston. Come in Houston, come in.)
(Houston, satellite control Houston, roger, come in Capricorn)
(Asteroids are changing course. New calculation: 2001 minus 5 minus 6
minus 9 minus 9 minus 9. Final destination calculated. My God!)
(Capricorn, come in. What's going on up there? Come in)
(Roger, Houston. Come in. Emergency, repeat emergency. Final
calculation destination: collision course with the Earth! Repeat,
collision course with Earth! Red alert! Mayday! Mayday)
Longing for your face, I wait for your call
I'm sitting near the phone, hope you remember
Trying to hide my tears, to hide my confusion
Is all that's left, just an illusion?
Do you remember?
Do you remember?
Satellites connecting you and me..
(This is John Goodman, satellite control tracking station, Pasadena,
on private call frequency 01. Tammy, Dolly, can you hear me? Calling
Sandy Woodrich, Capricorn satellite. Come in, Sandy. Come in.)
(John... they're coming at the speed of light. I've... never seen
anything like... looks like green... humanoid... mutations! John!
We'll collide! John!)
Do you remember?
On the wall your face within a frame
Trying to reach your eyes but I'm trying in vain
On my bed a pillow you once lay on
Something in my heart says something goes wrong
Do you remember?
Do you remember?
Satellites connecting you and me..
(Satellite control tracking station Pasadena on private call frequency
01. Sandy, losing contact. Check frequency. I'm losing contact.
Tracking station 41, losing contact. Tammy, come in. Tammy, can you
hear me? Come in, Sandy.)
hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me..
Wish she sat within her reach
Wish she saw the TV screen
Wish she saw that I can't do
Wish she saw that's left from you
Can you hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me
Can you hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me
Satellites connecting you and me..
(Capricorn calling Houston. Another explosion of unknown origin
changing asteroid's course. Houston, come in, come in. Pasadena
tracking station, come in. Can anybody hear us?)
Susan is in space. She transfers from an Astradyne shuttle to their corporate satellite headquarters.
Jack is living a simulated life as a faded rock star within SYSTEM. He misses Susan terribly but doesn’t quite understand what’s wrong. Meanwhile, deep trouble is brewing on the fringes of the solar system. An asteroid is approaching Earth and could be an extinction-level event.
Okay, so there’s a radio edit without the cheesy sci-fi but what’s the point of that? Then it’s just a sad song about a lonely German rock star and a girlfriend who won’t call him. And yes, it is doing a straight ripoff of Epilogue 2 from Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds (1978) . But it’s wonderful for my purposes because, apart from being a cheesy childhood treasure, it sets up two parallel storylines here and also gives us this pulp widescreen feel.
03 Blondie – Fade Away and Radiate (1978, USA) SUSAN
Ooh baby, I hear how you spend night time
Wrapped like candy in a blue blue neon glow
Fade away and radiate
Fade away and radiate
Ooh baby, watchful lines
Vibrate soft in brainwave time
Silver pictures move so slow
Golden tubes faintly glow
Electric faces seem to merge
Hidden voices mock your words
Fade away and radiate
Fade away and radiate
The beam becomes my dream
My dream is on the screen
The beams become my dream
My dream is on the screen
Dusty frames that still arrive
Die in 1955
Fade away and radiate
Fade away and radiate
The beam becomes my dream
My dream is on the screen
Fade away and radiate
Susan breaks into Jack’s isolation chamber on the Astradyne satellite.
04 Freur – Doot-Doot (1983, Wales) JACK
What's in a name
Face on a stage
Where are you going now?
Memory fades, you take a bow
Here in the dark watching your screen
The curtain falls, the final scene
And we go doot, doot-doot, whooo
And we go doot, doot-doot, whooo
Look at them fall, flicker and fade
Gone are the screams
I put them to bed
Now they are dreams
And we go doot, doot-doot, whooo
And we go doot, doot-doot, whooo
Susan enters Jack’s cyberspace.
05 Daemion – Human Arcade (1982, England) JACK and SUSAN
In the human arcade there are things to do
The corridor shines while you trace the lines on the mirror you
And in the human arcade there are things to see, hee-hee
A penny here a penny there your very own favourite fantasy
And when the evening comes we'll follow you
To where you have to go
But if the night comes down too fast we'll run from you
And it's time that you should know
That the human arcade's been here a while
A year or two or maybe three
No one is too sure you see
Well the people stand in line behind the glass
In the human arcade the image brigade see race and class
And when the evening comes we'll follow you
To where you have to go
But if the night comes down too fast we'll run from you
And it's time we should go
And in the human arcade there is me and you girl
There is no one left alive in here
To watch us die and disappear
And in the human arcade we are on the run
Cause we remember the times when the people did jobs
And machines could run
And in the human arcade there's so much to do
In the human arcade there is me and you
Human arcade, lots to see
Human arcade there is you and me
Human arcade there is so much fun
Human arcade we are on the run
Human arcade, lots to see
Wander round quite aimlessly
In the human arcade
In the human arcade
Susan breaks Jack out of his cyberspace prison and discover that SYSTEM has turned all of Astradyne’s executives into automated cyborgs. There are no humans in charge anymore. The key to the revolution always was here, in space.
06 Eurythmics – It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back) (1985, England) SUSAN
It's alright, baby's coming back
And I don't really care where he's been, no
It's all right, baby's
And I won't turn him around this time, no no no
I'll be your cliff (you can fall down from me)
I'll be your ledge (you can lean upon me)
I'll be your bridge (your flowering tree)
You can still depend on me
And I'll be (the ticking of your clock)
And I'll be (the numbers on your watch)
And I'll be (your hands to stop the time)
I'll even be your danger sign
It's alright, baby's coming back
And I don't really care where he's been
It's alright, baby's coming back
And I won't turn him around this time, no
And I'll be (your grace, your dignity)
And I'll be (your night, your destiny)
And I'll be (your comfort and your ease)
I will be your storm at seas
And I'll be (your sharp intake of breath)
Your work, I'll take no rest
And when the world falls to decline
I'll be yours and you'll be mine
It's alright..
Make it easy on yourself tonight...
Jack awakens and Susan embraces him. They shut down SYSTEM’s core and escape through the station.
07 Full Moon Tan – Believe In Aliens (1983, USA) JACK
Do you believe in aliens?
Do you believe in aliens?
The greatest thrill a man could own
Face to face with a life unknown
Do you believe in aliens?
Do you believe in aliens?
A chosen few accept the task
That man's reach should exceed his grasp
Forget the reasons to be afraid
Forget that you might run away
Do you believe in aliens?
Do you believe in aliens?
Across the frontiers in your dreams
Worlds that we have never seen
The night star might point the clue
Opening a world for me and you
Do you believe in aliens?
Do you believe in aliens?
Jack and Susan steal an Astradyne ship and set course for the incoming alien asteroid.
08 Tandy Morgan Band – Escape from the Citadel (1983, England) JACK (dreaming)
It was after the weather war of '89
As we danced in the streets and we drank our wine
With laughter and singing for the sky to see
As I lay with my lady and she with me
Dreaming all the day
If there be sunshine in tomorrow, then
Tomorrow be my lucky day
Zee said, quick, now we must not wait
For the future is early, the past is late
Let us take to the road at the twilight's bell
And we'll make our escape from the Citadel
Dreaming all the day
If we find sunshine in tomorrow, then
Tomorrow be our lucky day
Don't look back, they told us
Wait for no one else
You've only got your own life
You've only got yourself
Thunder rolled and the grey cloud flew
And we turned up our collar to the crimson hue
Travelled to the land of the April sky
Lovely ZN102 and I
Dreaming all the day
If there be sunshine in tomorrow, then
Tomorrow be our lucky day
Susan and Jack notify the Novas on Earth and enter cold sleep as their ship plots a course for the unknown… pursued by the last robotic agents of SYSTEM.