FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
Europe – The Final Countdown
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I am moving onto a song from the 1960s or early-2000s…
for my next instalment but, thinking of when I included Boston’s More Than a Feeling a few weeks back in this feature, I think another song from a similar sonic field that gets an even worst rap is Europe’s The Final Countdown. To many, the video and song represents the very worst of Glam Metal/Hair Band; it does not really have much bite or weight, and the lyrics do not seem to mean too much! One might find this song on a collection of the best driving Rock anthems, and there is this feeling that the song is a guilty pleasure and not one you’re really meant to love. Like so many songs that are considered dated and a bit cheesy down the line, in 1986, The Final Countdown did really well. The Swedish band were inspired, apparently, by David Bowie’s Space Oddity in the lyrics, and there was originally no intention to include it on any album – it would be a good song to open their sets. Reaching number-one in twenty-five countries, The Final Countdown became an instant smash! I can appreciate why the song did so well: it has a big chorus and it is easy to sing along to; it is catchy and, if you are not looking for too much out of it, the track definitely delivers. I really love the song, as it is pure fun and gets you in a good mood.
One can definitely not argue with its chart position but, as I say with many of the songs featured in this piece, only certain radio stations are likely to willingly spin Europe’s The Final Countdown – in the U.K., probably BBC Radio 2. Written by the band’s keyboardist, Joey Tempest in 1981, he initially came up with a riff and that was it. Bassist John Levén suggested making that into a track and, when it was presented to the band, there was mixed reaction. Tempest won out and he was a bit nervous that the song was a bit different and soft for a Rock band. The Final Countdown appeared on Europe’s third album of the same name and, whilst that album has received some negative reviews and is not often talked about, AllMusic saw positives:
“One of the most glorious launches in history, the title track for the thrice-platinum The Final Countdown is so bombastically brilliant, such glorious garbage, that this nuclear hair assault could only spew from the vacuous '80s. But the full-tilt follow-up "Rock the Night" rules also: "You know it ain't easy/Running out of thrills." "Carrie" comes off a consummate butane ballad. Meanwhile, the rest of the disc packs so much power that Swedish superheroes Europe get away with all the processed pretension. In fact, the lofty ambition of "Danger on the Track," "Ninja," and "Cherokee" (each as tasty as its title) combines with heated drive and hot delivery to meld The Final Countdown into a unique portrait of propulsive prog and a worthy addition to any hard rock collection.
This is the story; this is the legend told by Teutonic guitars and predictable keyboards ringing pure and hurtling through each and every convention perfectly. The quintet's big-boy Epic inaugural, The Final Countdown deftly combines the Valhalla victory of Europe's heroic debut with the American poodle pomposity that devoured the band. You could live without The Final Countdown, but why?”.
I think AllMusic have it right regarding The Final Countdown as a track and the fact it is throwaway, bombastic and silly. It is a great song that is not necessarily looking to be taken all that seriously, so I think there are a lot of Rock purists that turn their noses up. Often, when I hear The Final Countdown mentioned, people feel a bit reserved and think of it as a guilty pleasure. I just want to finish up with a feature from Louder Sound, where the thirtieth anniversary of the song was marked (in 2016). It is clear that Europe still love the song and, though it experienced some blowback and resistance prior to it being unleashed into the world, the joy it brings to fans all of these years later is palpable and not to be taken lightly
“Inspired by his love of UFO, Tempest laid down its galloping beat with the help of a drum machine, and after the word ‘countdown’ popped into his head wrote a set of lyrics that mention of ‘leaving together’ and ‘heading for Venus’. “After that it all came together quite quickly,” he says. “The voice stays in one monotonous line throughout, with the chords moving underneath. Only later in life did I realise that’s how many classical composers work. It’s hypnotic and quite cool.”
Finally, Europe decided that it was time to, in Tempest’s words, “stick our head above the parapet and do something a little different”. In the studio, with John Norum attempting to channel Deep Purple’s Lazy in his guitar solo, the band vetoed Journey producer Kevin Elson’s suggestion of ditching its intentionally British-style beat for an American-sounding one – more of a four-on-the-floor thing.
Tempest insists now that the commonly held perception of the song causing Norum to quit the band is an over-simplification, explaining: “John’s real problem was with Kevin Elson’s radio mix, which turned up the keyboards and vocals and minimalised the guitar.”
However, nobody within Europe’s organisation was prepared for the success that the song brought, topping the singles charts in 25 countries and almost overnight castrating any kind of credibility that the band might have accrued as a rock band. In his early 20s, with poodle-coiffure pretty-boy looks, Tempest found the pop magazines pitting him against the pearly-toothed Jon Bon Jovi, whose singles Livin’ On A Prayer and You Give Love A Bad Name were also riding high in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
In The Final Countdown’s 30th anniversary year, Europe having heavied up the delivery a little from the original arrangement, and Tempest insists that all the band still enjoy playing it on stage.
“I love looking out at all the smiling faces when then that intro kicks in,” he says proudly. “In all four corners of the world I’m often told that it’s a bucket-list moment for fans who never saw us play it before. And that’s a very special thing for a musician to hear”.
So many years after its release, and I do think that The Final Countdown divides people. I don’t think that 1986 was necessarily the best year for music when you look at Rock but, with albums like Paul Simon’s Graceland, The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead, Run-D.M.C.’s Raising Hell, and Metallica’s Master of Puppets, there was some good stuff out there! Look at other songs from 1986 like Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer, and I think that was a more successful attempt at melting big hair, great choruses and fist-pumping lines. I like that period of 1985-1986, as you had this songs that are a bit dated now but are great fun – like Huey Lewis and the News’ The Power of Love, for example. I have a fondness for Europe’s The Final Countdown, and in a year when we all need some cheer and energy, it is a song that has a whole new quality and meaning! Though some feel it a guilty pleasure, I think Europe’s The Final Countdown is a song you can…
LOSE yourself to.