BIFF Countdown - End of the World!

End of the World (1962) by Skeeter Davis - Sixteen weeks until BIFF

Mary Frances Penick (December 30, 1931 – September 19, 2004), better known as Skeeter Davis, was an American country music singer best known for her crossover pop music songs.

In this tear-jerker ballad, the end of the world is strictly metaphorical. But truthfully if the world were actually ending, could Skeeter Davis have sounded any sadder?. The opening lines are apocalyptic poetry: "Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Don't they know it's the end of the world?"

Skeeter Davis goes on to wonder why the birds go on singing and ends with a heartbreaking sigh of "I can't understand how life goes on the way it does." I think that I might get a little bummed out if this song isn't playing when the Rapture comes.

End of the World by Skeeter Davis

Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don't they know it's the end of the world
'Cause you don't love me any more

Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love

I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
I can't understand, no, I can't understand
How life goes on the way it does

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

BIFF Musical Countdown - Seventeen Weeks Until the Eighteenth Annual BIFF

Counting down to the Bicknell International Film Festival, July 20 - 21, 2012. Reminder that there is time to plan, develop and create an original video and enter the BIFF Independent Film Contest. Check out the guidelines and enter. Now on to this week's music:

Symphony Of Destruction by Megadeth

Megadeth is a heavy metal band from Los Angeles. Formed in 1983, they along with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax are recognized for developing the thrash metal sub-genre whose songs typically use fast percussive tempos and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work. Song lyrics often deal with social issues. So it is with this song - their most successful hit single from the 1992 album, Countdown to Extinction. Penned by vocalist and frontman Dave Mustaine, the song explores the hypothetical situation where an average citizen might be placed into a position where they can run the country while the public is led like puppets by a phantom government. The politician is assassinated causing anarchy and riots to ensue.

Symphony Of Destruction (1992) by Megadeth

You take a mortal man

And put him in control

Watch him become a god

Watch people's heads a'roll

A'roll

A'roll . . . . . . .

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the symphony

Of destruction

Walking like a robot

Its metal brain corrodes

You try to take its pulse

Before the head explodes

Explodes

Explodes . . . . .

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the symphony

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the symphony

Swaying to the symphony

Of destruction

The earth starts to rumble

World powers fall

A'warring for the heavens

A peaceful man stands tall

A'tall

A'tall . . . . . . .

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the symphony

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the symphony

Swaying to the symphony

Of destruction

Eighteen Weeks To Go . . .

Written by Dave Matthews and Glen Bullard (keyboard, piano), never has the end of the world sounded so breezy, as in When the World Ends. The Dave Matthews Band sings in a laidback manner, “When the world ends, we’ll be burning one…” Matthews seems to assure that as long as he’s got his acoustic guitar, sandals and his 'baby' close by - - the transitions should be smooth and mellow!

When the World Ends (2001) by Dave Matthews Band

When the world ends

Collect your things

You're coming with me

When the world ends

You buckle up yourself with me

Watch it as the stars disappear to nothing

The day the world is over

We'll be lying in bed

I'ma rock you like a baby when the cities fall

We will rise as the buildings crumble

Float there and watch it all

Amidst the burning, we'll be churning

You know, love will be our wings

The passion rises up from the ashes

When the world ends

When the world ends

You're gonna come with me

We're going to be crazy

Like a river bends

We're going to float

Through the criss cross of the mountains

Watch them fade to nothing

When the world ends

You know that's what's happening now

I'm going to be there with you somehow, oh...

I'ma tie you up like a baby in a carriage car

Your legs don't work cause you want me so

You just lie spread to the wall

The love you got is surely

All the love that I would ever need

I'ma take you by my side

And love you tall, 'til the world ends

Oh, but don't you worry about a thing

No, 'cause I got you here with me

Don't you worry about it

Just you and me

Floating through the empty, empty

Just you and me

Oh, graces

Oh, grace

Oh, when the world ends

We'll be burning one

When the world ends

We'll be sweet makin' love

Oh, you know when the world ends

I'm going to take you aside and say

Let's watch it fade away, fade away

And the world's done

Ours just begun

It's done

Ours just begun

We're gonna dive into the emptiness

We'll be swimming

I'm going to walk you down the pathless roads

I'm going to take you to the top of the mountain that's no longer there

I'm going to take you to bed and love you, I swear

Like the end is near

I'm going to take you up to

I'm going to take you down on you

I'm going to hold you like an angel, angel

I'ma love you

I'ma love you

When the world ends

I'ma hold you

When the world is over

We'll just begin...

Musical Countdown - Nineteen Weeks 'til BIFF

1999 by Prince
Drumroll - - Twenty weeks left until the Bicknell International Film Festival. It was the early Eighties when you first heard this song, and you thought that 1999 was so far away. The funkiest apocalyptic rocker of them all, Prince (Prince Roger Nelson) hit the streets and set the world's expiration date a little early - - two thousand zero zero (Remember 'He was dreamin' when he wrote this). Solution? No problem, party like it's 1999.

Prince shares the vocal lead with Dez Dickerson, Lisa Coleman and J.J. (Jill Jones) with 1999, a protest against nuclear proliferation. 

I was dreamin' when I wrote this

Forgive me if it goes astray

But when I woke up this mornin'

Coulda sworn it was judgment day

The sky was all purple, 

there were people runnin' everywhere

Tryin' to run from the destruction, 

U know I didn't even care

CHORUS

say say two thousand zero zero party over, 

oops out of time

So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999

I was dreamin' when I wrote this

So sue me if I go to fast

But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last

War is all around us, my mind says prepare to fight

So if I gotta die I'm gonna listen to my body tonight

CHORUS

say say two thousand zero zero party over, 

oops out of time

So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999

Lemme tell ya somethin'

If U didn't come to party, 

don't bother knockin' on my door

I got a lion in my pocket, 

and baby he's ready to roar

Yeah, everybody's got a bomb, 

we could all die any day

But before I'll let that happen, 

I'll dance my life away

Oh, they say 

two thousand zero zero party over, 

oops out of time

So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999

say we're out of time

say two thousand zero zero party over, 

oops out of time

So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999

1999

Dont ya wanna go

1999

Dont ya wanna go

1999

We could all die anyway

1999

I don't want to die

I rather dance my life away

Week Twenty of the Countdown to BIFF

The BIFF Countdown Continues . . .
This weeks choice, "99 Red Balloons", was suggested by Mr. BIFF himself - -  that is Tory Davis (Owner and operator of The Wayne Theater). It is just about the most fun tune that one can find about nuclear war.

Nena's real name is Gabriela Kerner and prior to forming her own group, she was a member of a band called The Stripes. In 1981 she and a boyfriend moved to West Berlin and there formed her band, Nena. Guitarist, Carlo Karges, got the idea for this song from seeing balloons being released at a Rolling Stones concert. He wrote the lyrics and Nena's keyboard player, Uwe Fahrenkrog-Peterson, wrote the music. Of course the original version was in German: 99 Luftballoons (1983).

The story song tells of Nena and the listener purchasing 99 balloons in a shop and letting them go up into the sky. The balloons show up on radar as unidentified objects, and both the Soviets and West Germany scramble planes, go to full alert, and prepare to counteract a perceived nuclear attack! Remember at that time the Cold War was still in place (The Berlin Wall did not fall until Nov. 1989), and West Germans were living in the shadow of weapons pointing east and west, weapons built-up between the Soviet Union and NATO.

Frankly it’s fun to dance to the unknown when facing apocalyptic war, right? 

99 Red Balloons (1984) by Nena

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got
Set them free at the break of dawn
Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base bugs in the software
Flash the message, something's out there
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky as 99 red balloons go by

99 Decision street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by

99 knights of the air
Ride super high tech jet fighters
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify, and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go

A Great Suggestion . . .

Countdown Week Twenty-One! Sandy Borthwick nominated this song - another great one with a great story.

This week's pick was written as a Vietnam War protest song by 19 year-old P.F. Sloan in 1965. Originally viewed as a Dylan-type tune, the song was first offered to and rejected by The Byrds. The Turtles, another LA band, also recorded the song on an album released shortly before Barry McGuire's version. The song was again recorded by Jan and Dean (1965) on their Folk 'n Roll album. And The Grass Roots recorded another version on their debut album, Where Were You When I Needed You (1966).

Mid-July 1965 Barry McGuire, formerly of The New Christy Minstrels, was in the studio with a group of top-tier LA musicians that included P.F. Sloan, Hal Blaine, and Larry Knechtel. McGuire has claimed that "Eve of Destruction" was recorded on a Thursday morning in one take from words scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper. It was done as a rough mix and never was intended to be the final cut; however a copy of the recording was "leaked" out. A disc jockey began playing it on air. The following Monday, at 7 a.m., McGuire's record company called, telling him to turn on the radio - - his song was being played. It was an instant hit; the plan for completing a more polished vocal track never happened. By September, Barry McGuire's version of "Eve of Destruction" was number one on the charts.

The song is a grave warning of imminent apocalypse, and considered by some to be the epitome of a protest song. It was banned by some radio stations in the U.S. and was placed on a 'restricted list' by the BBC - - it could not be played on 'general entertainment programs.' It expressed the frustrations and fears of young people in the age of the Cold War, Vietnam, the nuclear arms race, and the Civil Rights Movement. Antigovernment, hypocrisy, racism, injustice; "Eve of Destruction" has it all.

Click here for linked connection to YouTube site.

Eve of Destruction (1965) by Barry McGuire

(Warning: Contains graphic photos)

Written by P.F. Sloan

The eastern world it is explodin',

Violence flarin', bullets loadin',

You're old enough to kill but not for votin',

You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin',

And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',

But you tell me over and over and over again my friend,

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?

Can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?

If the button is pushed, there's no running away,

There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave,

Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin',

I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin',

I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation,

Handful of Senators don't pass legislation,

And marches alone can't bring integration,

When human respect is disintegratin',

This whole crazy world is just too frustratin',

And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China

Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!

Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,

But when you return, it's the same old place,

The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace,

You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,

Hate your next-door-neighbour, but don't forget to say grace,

And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,

You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

No no you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Musical Countdown - Twenty-two Weeks till BIFF

In looking at possibilities for inclusion in this Countdown list, it's strongly evident that 'end of the world scenarios' have been the focus of songs and songwriters for a long, long time - - and there is no sign that that will change in the future. Unless, we truly would get wiped ....

This week's entry on the BIFF musical countdown is vintage Bob Dylan from almost six decades ago. A young Dylan delivered a light, humorous, whimsical song on the dark subject of devastation by a nuclear war.

The "talking blues" is a style of spontaneous improvised songwriting. Twenty-two-year-old Dylan created some of this song beforehand and about half in the studio during the final recording session for the album: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. He made five takes and the fifth version was selected. The format of the "talkin' blues" allowed Dylan to address the serious subject of nuclear annihilation with humor, and "without resorting to his finger-pointing or apocalyptical-prophetic persona".

If you would like to learn more about the talking blues, you can listen to an NPR program "Listen To The Story" (6:13 minutes) from All Things Considered.

Talkin' World War III Blues

Lyrics to Talkin' World War III Blues (1963) by Bob Dylan:

One time a crazy dream came to me
I dreamt I was walkin’ into World War Three
I went to the doctor the very next day
To see what he had to say
He said it was a bad dream

I said, “Hold it, Doc, a World War passed through my brain”
He said, “Nurse, get your pad, the boy’s insane”
He grabbed my arm, I said, “Ouch!”
As I landed on the psychiatric couch
Tell me about it, dream-wise

Well, the whole thing started at 3 o’clock fast
It was all over by quarter past
I was down in the sewer with some little lover
When I peeked out from a manhole cover
Wondering who turned the lights on

Well, I got up and walked around
And up and down the lonesome town
Just a-wondering which way to go
I lit a cigarette on a parking meter and walked on down the road
It was a normal day

Well, I rung me a fallout shelter bell
And I leaned my head and I give a big yell
“Give me a TV dinner, I’m a hungry man”
A shotgun fired and away I ran
I don’t blame them much though, I didn't know any body there

Down the corner I seen another man
turning around by the hot dog stand
I said, “Howdy friend, I guess there’s just us two”
He screamed, down the road he flew
Scared, thought I was a Communist

I spied me a girl, before she could leave
“Let’s go and play Adam and Eve”
I took her by the hand and my heart was thumpin’
She said, “Hey man, you crazy or sumpin’
You seen what happened last time they started"

I remember seein’ some newspaper ad
So I turned on to Conelrad
But I didn’t pay my Con Ed bill
So the radio didn’t work so well
Turned on my record player —
It was Fabian singin’, “Tell our Ma, Tell Your Pa
Our Love’s A-gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah”

I seen me a Cadillac window uptown
There was nobody around
I got into the driver’s seat
And I drove down 42nd Street
In my Cadillac. Good car to drive after a war

By this time I was feeling blue
Needed somebody to talk to
So I called up the operator of time
Just to hear a voice of some kind
“When you hear the beep it will be three o’clock”
She said that for over an hour
And I hung up

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then
Sayin’, “I’ve havin’ the same old dream
But mine's a little different, don't you see
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me
I didn’t see you around”

Time passes and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees its self
Walkin’ around with nobody else

All the people can be part right some of the time
And some of the people can be all right part of the time
All of the people can’t be all right all of the time

Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that