Thursday, March 29, 2012

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

Thursday, March 22, 2012

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

Thursday, March 15, 2012

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...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

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 DickersonLisa 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

Thursday, March 1, 2012

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