(previously in Program Eleven/II: Novas 1.1)
(previously in story time: Novas 2)
While Novas 1.1 is a bridge between Novas 1 and Novas 2, it’s very much unresolved and needed a counterpart. The obvious place for that story was the gap between Novas 2 and 3.
BEGIN PROGRAM ELEVEN/II MODULE TWO.
Novas 2.2: A Billion Candles Burning
01 Zingari – Echoes (1985, England) SUSAN and JACK
Echoes, echoes, echoes, from the wall
Vistor, visitor, visitor, come to call
Heard a voice
Come witching me last night
I couldn't see the face
Though I switched on the light
He talked to me with words of despair
He was held in prison
With no-one to care
Got to get away
Help me to run
Why can't you set me free
From my bondage?
I've seen it all
I've done it all before
I gotta go
Where I belong
Echoes, echoes, echoes, from the wall
Vistor, visitor, visitor, come to call
Echoes, echoes, echoes, from the wall
Vistor, visitor, visitor, come to call
Sitting down
I took a sip of my wine
Something's been misshapen
Something with time
Although I couldn't see
His face at all
I thought his voice
Had come from the wall
Got to get away
Help me to run
Why can't you set me free
From my bondage?
I've seen it all
I've done it all before
I gotta go
Where I belong
Echoes, echoes, echoes
Susan receives a neural transmission from Jack, who is now wired into the System on the Company satellite.
Zingari, again. (Last appearing on ‘Ghosts’). Why do I love this crazy little band so much? Something to do with encountering them back in the early 90s. I think. But also it sort of hits the New Wave synthpop sweet spot for me: lyrics that are a little darker and more complex than the sound and band image alone might imply.
02 Billy Idol – Neuromancer (1993, England) JACK and SYSTEM
Age of destruction
Age of oblivion
Age of destruction
Age of oblivion
Discovered love in the rancid days of ruin
My body sweating toxins of my own demise
Only from space can you see how much Earth is burning
Smoking out the innocence inside the child
It's the age of destruction
In a world of corruption
It's the age of destruction
And they hand us oblivion
Neuromancer
And I'm trancing
I'm the neuromancer
And I'm trancing
Man wallows in his insatiable greed
'More' is the answer that sweats from desperate pores
Turn on the lies and secrets of our desolation
Or be smothered by the red-hot core
It's the age of destruction
In a world of corruption
It's the age of destruction
And they hand us oblivion
The neuromancer
And I'm trancing
I'm the neuromancer
And I'm trancing
I'm the neuromancer (age of destruction)
And I'm trancing (age of oblivion)
Trancing (age of destruction)
Trancing (age of oblivion)
And I'm trancing
Denied love in the age of ruin
Suicide toxins of my own demise
In cyberspace you know how much the Earth ain't learning
Smoking out the man inside the child, yeah
It's the age of destruction
In a world of corruption
It's the age of destruction
And they hand us oblivion
Neuromancer
And I'm trancing
I'm the neuromancer
Trancing
Neuromancer (age of destruction)
Trancing (age of oblivion)
Neuromancer (age of destruction)
Trancing (age of oblivion)
Neuromancer (age of destruction)
Trancing (age of oblivion)
Neuromancer
Jack’s new position gives him a view of everything in the Company. It’s not a happy place.
The Bond riff in full roar. Why Billy Idol decided to make one of the signature tunes of his experimental cyberpunk album a Bond song – in the dead years between Licence To Kill (1989) and GoldenEye (1995) even – I have no idea. But I think in 1970s-1990s British music, the Bond song is – as someone once wrote about the giant robot show in Japanese pop culture – not so much a genre as a medium. Anyway, it works for me because the Bond riff is sort of Jack’s theme.
03 Video Kids – Satellite (1985, Netherlands) SUSAN and THE ASTRADYNE CHORUS
Circling round all day all night
Talking about the satellites
Weather reports or telephone lines
They do it all by satellites
They spy on me and they spy on you
But they're giving us a lot of information
They're watching me and they're watching you
They're a major key of world communication
Oh, oh,
It's all run by satellites
Oh, oh
That are high up in the sky
Oh, oh
They do it all by satellites
Olympic games, the news of today
Hahaha
Oops
Let's do it again
Circling round all day all night
Talking about the satellites
Weather reports or telephone lines
They do it all by satellites
They spy on me and they spy on you
But they're giving us a lot of information
They're watching me and they're watching you
They're a major key of world communication
Oh, oh
It's all run by satellites
Oh, oh
That are high up in the sky
Oh, oh
Hahaha
Oops
That's all folks
Goodbye
Susan contemplates the Company satellite system, the core of their control.
I’m sure I remember this strange little European band from the 80s. “Woodpeckers From Space” was the big hit but “Satellite” was the one I loved. Was “Woodpeckers” about the infamous Russian Woodpecker radar signal of 1976? Given New Wave’s obsession with radio nuclear command/control systems, probably. The 80s were just a weird time all around.
04 The Twins – Satellite City (1981, Germany) SYSTEM
Boy and girl in the year 4001
In the satellite city the future's just begun
Man and woman, immortality of life
In the satellite city they will stay alive
In the satellite, in the satellite city
In the satellite, in the satellite city
Of animal creatures there isn't a trace
In the satellite city there's just the human race
In the satellite, in the satellite city
In the satellite, in the satellite city
Do you want to come with me?
And join the satellite dream?
Boy and girl in the year 4001
In the satellite city the future's just begun
In the satellite, in the satellite city
In the satellite, in the satellite city
Do you want to come with me?
And join the satellite dream?
In the satellite city
Lies the satellite dream
In the satellite city
Lies the satellite dream
The System tries to convince Susan to join Jack.
Another 80s memory. It is a cheesy little song but I love it. I think the quiet menace of it was lost on me as a kid.
05 Luba – Storm Before The Calm (1984, Canada) SUSAN and THE NOVAS
Oh lift up your heads
To see an azure canvas splattered in red
The tempest's eye
Has filled the sky
But if you believe
Zero hour's just a new day's eve
You have been warned
It's just a storm
Before the calm
Oh in the name of liberty
It shall deliver you, deliver me
From evil arms
It's just a storm
Before the calm
Oh lift up your hearts
We're all subjects in life imitating art
The time is now
We wait as one
And if we believe
We can weather all upheavals in unity
It's just a storm
One last storm
Before the calm
Oh in the name of liberty
It shall deliver you, deliver me
From evil arms
It's just a storm
Before the calm
Susan addresses the Novas one last time.
I think I only found this one in the 2010s. Luba didn’t really make it to the New Zealand scene I guess.
06 Romanelli – Connecting Flight (1982, France)
Instrumental
Susan makes plans.
This one though, I remember. Roland Romanelli is probably more famous from the 70s band Space.
07 The Beepers – Video Fever (1983, USA) SUSAN and SYSTEM
Was it just the other day?
You were an achiever
Such a busy beaver
Now we hear you've gone astray
And you're living in the shade
Of a video arcade
And it's just a little to the left
And it's just a little to the right
And it's just unreal how alive you feel
Vaporizing everything in sight
And it's just a little to the left
And it's just a little to the right
Just a few beeps more till you beat your score
And you're gonna if it takes all night
And you never get lonely any more
Never feel blue, not now
Video fever's gone and put the bite
On you
We don't see you on the street
People ask about you
Life is grey without you
Do you ever stop to eat?
Do you comb your hair?
Do you really care?
And it's just a little to the left
And it's just a little to the right
And it's just unreal how alive you feel
Vaporizing everything in sight
And it's just a little to the left
And it's just a little to the right
Just a few beeps more till you beat your score
And you're gonna if it takes all night
And you never get worried any more
Never feel blue, not now
Video fever's gone and put the bite
On you
Jack spirals further into the System. Susan has dropped completely off the grid, devoting all her time to hacking the Company’s satellite control systems.
I think this completes the set of WarGames songs. “The Beepers” were a pretty remarkable project for just a movie soundtrack. I guess this song is popular now after Ready Player One.
Videogame addiction, of course, was the hot new moral panic sweeping America in the early 1980s. Pac-Man Fever (1981) probably being the most famous song to cash in on the craze; but Australia was ahead of the curve with Space Invaders (1979), tied with New Zealand and Computer Games (though that one’s not really about videogame addiction at all).
08 Glenn Frey – You Belong To The City (1985, USA) JACK and SYSTEM
The sun goes down, the night rolls in
You can feel it starting all over again
The moon comes up and the music calls
You're getting tired of staring at the same four walls
You're out of your room and down on the street
Moving through the crowd in the midnight heat
The traffic roars, the sirens scream
You look at the faces, it's just like a dream
Nobody knows where you're going
Nobody cares where you've been
Cos you belong to the city
You belong to the night
Living in a river of darkness
Beneath the neon light
You were born in the city
Concrete under your feet
It's in your moves
It's in your blood
You're a man of the street
When you said goodbye you were on the run
Trying to get away from the things you'd done
Now you're back again and you're feeling strange
So much has happened but nothing has changed
You still don't know where you're going
You're still just a face in the crowd
Cos you belong to the city
You belong to the night
Living in a river of darkness
Beneath the neon light
You were born in the city
Concrete under your feet
It's in your moves
It's in your blood
You're a man of the street
You can feel it
You can taste it
You can see it
You can face it
You can hear it
You're getting near it
You wanna make it
Cause you can take it
You belong to the city
You belong to the night
You belong to the city
You belong to the night
You belong
You belong
Jack has become completely submerged in the Simulation again.
I think what this project has taught me is that there’s no hard line dividing the 80s genres. It’s nice to be able to swing from funk to synthpop to rock to power ballad. I started this set thinking it would need a bright, technical sound… but it needed the bite of a bit of genuine emotion. And I couldn’t resist rhyming ‘You Belong / We Belong’. That river of darkness beneath the neon lights is the soul of cyberpunk, after all.
09 Pat Benatar – We Belong (1984, USA) SUSAN (the shuttle launch)
Many times I've tried to tell you
Many times I've cried alone
Always I'm surprised how well you
cut my feelings to the bone
Don't wanna leave you really
I've invested too much time
To give you up that easy
To the doubts that complicate your mind
We belong to the light
We belong to the thunder
We belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We belong, we belong
We belong together
Maybe it's a sign of weakness
when I don't know what to say
Maybe I just wouldn't know
what to do with my strength anyway
Have we become a habit?
Do we distort the facts?
Now there's no looking forward
Now there's not turning back
When we sing
We belong to the light
We belong to the thunder
We belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We belong, we belong
We belong together
Close your eyes and try to sleep now
Close your eyes and try to dream
Clear your mind and do your best
To try to wash the palette clean
We can't begin to know it
How much we really care
I hear your voice inside me
I see your face everywhere
Still we sing
We belong to the light
We belong to the thunder
We belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We belong, we belong
We belong together
Susan has smuggled herself aboard a Company shuttle and blasts off to rescue Jack from the Satellite.
The light and the thunder are the engines firing.
Depending on what order you’re playing the albums in, this is either approaching or departing from “Shadows of the Night”, which was my touchstone for the Susan/Jack relationship. Isn’t this just a perfectly constructed little machine of a song, though?
10 Roger Waters – The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid) (1987, England) THE SHUTTLE PILOT
I used to think the world was flat Rarely threw my hat into the crowd I felt I had used up my quota of yearning Used to look in on the children at night In the glow of their Donald Duck light And frightened myself with the thought of my little ones burning But oh the tide is turning The tide is turning Satellite buzzing though the endless night Exclusive to moonshots and world title fights Jesus Christ imagine what it must be earning Who is the strongest? Who is the best? Who holds the aces, the East or the West? This is the crap that our children are learning But oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning The tide is turning Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning Now the satellite's confused cos on Saturday night The airwaves were full of compassion and light And his silicon heart warmed to the sight Of a billion candles burning Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning Oh, oh, oh, the tide is turning The tide is turning Billy I'm not saying the battle is won But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords And oh, the tide is turning Oh, the tide is turning The tide is turning Sylvester Oh, oh, oh the tide is turning
Susan’s shuttle makes orbit.
One of the earliest records I bought with my own money. It seemed to speak to me then, and still does. But this song (an afterthought, I think; a much happier Roger Waters than appeared on any of his other solo work) most of all. Live Aid (1985) itself may have accomplished little; but the memory of that event, the knowledge that there could be alternative ways of structuring civilization, remains a ticking logic bomb in our planetary consciousness.
I didn’t realise until I put this album together how much the imagery of this song quietly relies on an implied ascension into orbit. From the flatness of Earth to the satellites.
11 Donna Summer – Unconditional Love (1983, USA) SUSAN
What man?
It's a bright and shiny day
I want to say something to you
I love you just like Jah do
We know a place
Where Jah's people can run free
A new kind of love
And we call it agape
Don't take too long to find
True love transcends all time
That nonreactive everlasting love
Give me your unconditional love
The kind of love I deserve
The kind I want to return
Give me your unconditional love
The kind of love I deserve
The kind I want to return
Don't try to change
Or tear your brother down
Let him make his mistakes
And he will come around
Hasten just to pray
And Jah's true word obey
In nonreactive everlasting love
Give me your unconditional love
The kind of love I deserve
The kind I want to return
Everybody sing
Give me your unconditional love
The kind of love I deserve
The kind I want to return
Give me your unconditional love
The kind of love I deserve
This agape love to return
Susan approaches the Satellite to do battle with SYSTEM for Jack’s soul.
Hints of Neuromancer’s space reggae, as well as a musical rhyme for Luba.
(next in story time: Novas 2.7) (in which Susan enters the Satellite)
(next in story time: Novas 5.1) (in which we follow Susan’s neural battle in cyberspace, with 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 being the optional continuation of that battle, as flashbacks she wields as weapons)
(next in story time: Novas 2.8) (in which Susan falls briefly back into the Simulation)
(next in story time: Novas 2.9) (in which Susan, awake, fights SYSTEM directly)
(next in story time: Novas 3) (in which Jack finally awakens)
(next in story time: Novas 5.5 Act 1) (in which Jack returns to Earth and Susan becomes something else)
(next in Program Eleven/II: Novas 3.3) (in which Susan introduces her strange new self to a frightened Jack)