(previously in Program Eleven/I: Novas 0.1)
(previously in Program Eleven/I: Novas 0.2)
(previously in Program Eleven/I: Novas 0.3)
(previously in story time: Novas 5.4)
Jack and Susan broke the Simulation once but failed to escape. With their memories erased, they are still Agents of SYSTEM, separately developing their music careers. But the geostrategic game is constantly interrupted by simulations of nuclear war.
So much for a triptych. Quadriptych?
(There is a trilogy structure here: 0.1, 0.3, 0.4. 0.2 is the odd one out, being more dreamlike and adjacent to the fiction of Novas).
Novas 0.4: The Light Catches You
01 Nicole – A Little Peace (1982, Germany) SUSAN
Just like a flower when winter begins
Just like a candle blown out in the wind
Just like a bird that can no linger fly
I'm feeling that way sometimes
But then as I'm falling weighed
I picture a light at the end of the road
And closing my eyes I can see through the dark
The dream that is in my heart
A little lovin', a little givin'
To build a dream for the world we live in
A little patience and understanding
For our tomorrow
A little peace
A little sunshine, a sea of gladness
To wash away all the tears of sadness
A little hoping, a little praying
For our tomorrow
A little peace
I feel I'm a leaf in the November snow
I fell to the ground, there was no-one below
So now I am helpless, alone with my song
Just wishing the storm was done
A little lovin', a little givin'
To build a dream for the world we live in
A little patience and understanding
For our tomorrow
A little peace
A little sunshine, a sea of gladness
To wash away all the tears of sadness
A little hoping, a little praying
For our tomorrow
A little peace
We are feathers on the breeze
Sing with me my song of peace
Novas: It’s some time after the events of 5.4 (In The Land Of Angels), which itself comes after 0.3 (The Second Hand Unwinds). Jack has fully entered the Simulation; Jack and Susan broke the Simulation once but failed to escape. Their music career is starting to develop.
This song (or rather its German original, Ein bißchen Frieden), won the 1982 Eurovision song contest and the English version went on to number-one in the UK. She was 17 at the time.
Something about this song seemed to capture for me that 1980s nuclear moment, and the rest of this list spiralled out from that.
02 Synthi and Gert – Sister Susie’s Synthesizer (1978, Germany) SKYWATCH
Here comes Susie
Sweet little Susie
She's a really swinging kind of lady
She knows no music
But she can really move it
With an electronic machine
Now did she hire it?
Or did she buy it?
No-one in the town just seems to know
But this little lady
Sure sounds mighty crazy
When she starts playing a tune
It goes:
Sister Susie's synthesizer
It can really hypnotize ya
When you see her playing on the keyboard
Sister Susie's synthesizer
There is simply nothing finer
You're just never gonna be bored
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Sister Susie's synthesizer
You just wanna be there by her
When she starts a-playing on the keyboard
In the evening
When she's in bed a-sleeping
Susie's always dreaming of [Brian Eno?]
But his own music
Just can't meet it
Like Susie's electronic machine
Now she's ambitious
And I'm suspicious
She's gonna get a concert in the town hall
I don't mean maybe
It sure would sound crazy
When she starts playing a tune
Susan has a fanclub.
The EMS Synthi A became available in 1971. Synthi and Gert appears to have been a one-off single project by Michael Chambosse, Chris Evans-Ironside, and Ludwig Rehberg. There’s got to be more to this story, I assume.
This was a track I remember as a kid in the 80s, and I originally had it on 3 (now Harmony of the Spheres) but it didn’t really work there. Now it has a home again!
03 Heaven 17 – We Live So Fast (1983, England) JACK and SYSTEM
Move it!
Please
Don't ask me to stay
I'm leaving this town
Don't worry now
Believe me as I believe that luck
Is on my side
The future is mine
If I can find
A way through these strange days of my life
We live so fast (motion, motion)
No time to waste (music, music)
We live so fast (motion, motion)
Take the first step and reach out for tomorrow
We live so fast (motion, motion)
We can't stand still (move it, move it)
We live so fast (motion, motion)
Move out of my way, it's time to make it happen
The streets
Deserted and cold
They're not paved with gold
But I don't care
For those who think young will still survive
Making their move
Hoping to prove
That they can face
This big city small world big time
We live so fast (motion, motion)
No time to waste (music, music)
We live so fast (motion, motion)
Take the first step and reach out for tomorrow
We live so fast (motion, motion)
We can't stand still (move it, move it)
We live so fast (motion, motion)
Move out of my way, it's time to make it happen
But now
I know their ways
I've found my place
So the truth is
There's nothing to stay for so I'll go
I'll pick up the phone
Still searching for home
We live so fast
Alone but not lonely I move on
Motion, motion
Music, music
Motion, motion
Move out of my way, it's time to make it happen
Jack and Susan aren’t quite on the same page. He’s being drawn to the big time and she wants to stay lo-fi.
Heaven 17 (ex members of Human League) two years after “Let’s All Build A Bomb”.
04 Kate Fagan – I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool (1980, USA) SUSAN
I don't wanna be too cool
I don't wear no Rockets
I don't get the best seats
I don't really care
I'm just not impressed
I don't wanna be too cool
I will wear [Neo]
Can't afford [Perquest]
I don't really care
I'm just not impressed
I know it's only chemical
I know your cool is chemical
I know your hair is chemical
I know your breath is chemical
I know your nose is chemical
I know your clothes are chemical
I know that cool is chemical
I know that's it, you're chemicals
I don't wanna be too cool
I don't know no rock stars
I don't snort the good stuff
I don't really care
I'm just not impressed
I don't wanna be too cool
I don't wear the hip clothes
I just shop at [Ampex]
I don't really care
I'm just not impressed
I know it's only chemical
I know your cool is chemical
I know your hair is chemical
I know your breath is chemical
I know your nose is chemical
I know your clothes are chemical
I know that cool is chemical
I know that's it, you're chemicals
Susan doesn’t to be too cool.
No I can’t figure out what 1980s brands those are that Kate’s name-dropping. She’s probably not actually buying her clothes from Ampex, the military electronics contractor that pioneered commercial audio tape recording. Though it would be extremely cyberpunk if she was.
05 The Art of Noise with Max Headroom – Paranoimia (1986, England) JACK and SYSTEM
Relax
You're quite safe here
Am I dreaming?
No!
Where am I?
In bed?
Then what am I doing?
Ah! T-t-talking to myself!
Look, I must have a star on my door
or better still, a door
Swing doors up
up-up-up
Okay doors
Swing
(paranoimia)
Swing
(paranoimia)
Swing
Now I know I'm dreaming
How do I get to sleep?
I'll count those bars on the window
One, two three
Sleep
(paranoimia)
(paranoimia)
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
How do I get
How do I get to sleep?
Please let me sleep!
P-p-poetry! That'll work
"Come sweet slumber
enshroud me in thy purple cloak"
Doesn't even rhyme
Is that my Teasmade?
I can't stand tea
Tea
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Paranoimia, paranoimia, paranoimia
Ah.. Happy Harry's night club!
How am I going to get to sleep?
Trust me
Trust me
Trust me
Trust
Jack starts to doubt his reality, again.
Max Headroom! Slumming it with The Art of Noise. Or vice versa. I seem to enjoy Trevor Horn stuff but despite him being a founding member of Art of Noise, who were briefly huge in the nerdier side of 1980s UK New Wave music, I doesn’t always click with me. But this one’s pretty good.
06 Protect and Survive – The Importance Of Your Radio (1980, UK) SKYWATCH
When you take cover
in your inner refuge
you must not go outside
until it is absolutely safe
and if the fallout is heavy
you may be in your refuge
for quite a long time.
Although the danger from fallout
will get less and less
as time goes by
you will never be able
to judge for yourself
how bad it is.
Advice will be given to you
on the radio
so keep listening.
This advice over the radio
and other instructions and news
will be very important to you
while you are cut off
from the people living around you.
So make sure your radio
is in good working order
and if you have a spare radio
keep it in your fallout room.
Radios must be battery operated
because your electricity
may be cut off.
So be sure to get some spare batteries.
SYSTEM doesn’t even know where SKYWATCH keeps getting these bulletins from.
The infamous British nuclear civil defence media that terrorized a generation. I’ve put 1980 for the publication date because that’s when they became public knowledge, but I’m not sure exactly when they were made. The one about proper disposal of corpses while huddling under a bunch of suitcases inside your ‘fallout room’ (probably the lavatory) and not ever knowing if it was safe to even get up because of all that invisible, undetectable radiation… well, it was a bit grittier than Keep Calm And Carry On, although they were made for much the same kind of situation.
The bland, businesslike despair seeped into all of the culture. More so in Britain than America, perhaps. More than anything else, these films helped propel the anti-nuclear movement. That’s why they were classified, I guess. Until they got leaked.
A collection of the whole lot.
07 Sandra – Hiroshima (1989, Germany) SUSAN
Fly little bird
to Hiroshima
and away your load
Speak the magic word
to Hiroshima
let the sky explode
Hiroshima
The shadow of a man
at Hiroshima
where he passed the moon
in the wonderland
at Hiroshima
where he died too soon
And the world remembers his face
remembers his place
was here
Fly little bird
to Hiroshima
and away your load
Speak the magic word
to Hiroshima
let the sky explode
And the world remembers his name
remembers the flame was
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima was the flame
Now it's there we know his name
We remember and the place was here
The shadow of a man
at Hiroshima
where he passed the moon
in the wonderland
at Hiroshima
where he died too soon
And the world remembers his name
remembers the flame was
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
oh oh
oh no no no
oh no don't do it
Susan is feeling worried.
Sandra married Michael ‘Enigma’ Cretu a year before they together produced this track… which was written in 1970 by Dave Morgan, who made Earthrise!
08 Information Society – Growing Up With Shiva (1983, USA) JACK
Growing up with Shiva
It's not as easy as it seems
It's getting harder to sleep at night
And I don't always like my dreams
Say say everybody's living down here
I don't hate but I certainly fear
White is white black is black
And everyone knows we ain't going back
As time goes by it gets more clear
Ain't nobody gonna leave from here
Let's all live in festive desperation
Cause we're all flushed with annihilation
Give me a yard and I'll take a mile
Because chaos never goes out of style
You can trust him
He's no fair-weather friend
And he'll stay with you
Until the bitter end
We're all familiar with life at Versailles
And I've got the feeling time's passing us by
We've realised our true intention
We're relaxing in the tension
Let's dance our dance and sing our song
And hope to God that we are wrong
Scared of being bored and bored with being scared
I wonder if anybody really cares
Growing up with Shiva
It's not as easy as it seems
It's getting harder to sleep at night
And I don't always like my dreams
Jack is starting to get serious about the nuclear threat, and it’s bringing him and Susan together.
Information Society were a nerdy hacker band before it was cool, and then not cool, and then cool again, and then whatever it is now.
09 Siouxsie and the Banshees – Into The Light (1981, England) SUSAN and SYSTEM
Into the line
I see it fine
Into the line
Our hearts entwine
Remember when
Your time again
Remember when
Your time again
Standing in the light
Always sitting on a line (always sitting)
Never on a side
Always wanting to be right (always wanting)
Standing in the light
I never wanted to be right
Now I'm attracted by the light
And blinded by the sight
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
I see it bite
Into the light
A new horizon
Bleached into white
Kept out of sight
Bleached into white
Kept out of sight
Standing in the light
Always sitting on a line (always sitting)
Never on a side
Pushing out the light (pushing out the light)
Standing in the light
I never wanted to be right
Now I'm attracted by the light
And blinded by the sight
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Into the line
I see it fine
Into the line
Our hearts entwine
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Dead ahead in the night
burning in the light (burning in the light)
Knowing that it's right
Driving in the light (driving in the light)
Dead ahead in the night
burning in the light
Knowing that it's right
Driving in the light
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Remember when, when, when
Your time again
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Into the light
Susan sees the inevitable blast wave of the future approaching.
Given that her name is Susan, it was inevitable that Siouxie Sioux would appear but it was hard finding something that connected. (I tried so many times with Cities In Dust and it just… wouldn’t.) I love this song right here though. It gives me deeply Linda Hamilton at the end of Terminator (1984) vibes.
10 The New Troubadours – Change Can Come (1973, USA/Scotland/Slovenia) SUSAN and THE ALIENS
Change can come
in the twinkling of an eye
in the ripple upon a lake
Change can come
in the colour of a flower
in the sparkle of morning dew
When the light
catches
you
In that tiny moment
you are transformed
And the radiance of Christ
shines forth in reply
from within
and has made itself known
and from the two is born
a new world
Come let us join
our many golden flickerings
and create one light
together
forever
Change can come
change can come
change can come
This time there was something new. She remembered the dreams.
And here’s the original Spangler / Matanovic New Troubadours, recorded in Findhorn in 1972 (I think).
Milenko Matanovic of the Troubadours is in his 70s and still working as a community builder. His latest book, “The Case for Everyday Democracy“, came out this year (2019).
11 Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero (1985, USA/England/Australia) SUSAN and SKYWATCH
Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can't make the same mistake this time
We are the children
The last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder if we
are ever gonna change
Living under the fear
till nothing else remains
We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond
the Thunderdome
Looking for some way
We can rely on
There's got to be something better out there
Love and compassion
Their day is coming
All else is castles built in the air
And I wonder if we
are ever gonna change
Living under the fear
till nothing else remains
All the children say
We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond
the Thunderdome
So what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light?
Or end in the dark?
Give it all or nothing!
SKYWATCH wasn’t finished yet.
I’ve always thought it was a pity that the third Mad Max movie wasn’t received quite as well as the second, since it was apparent that George Miller much more thought and love into it. Perhaps this song was the best part, though.