I have decided that, from time to time, I should feature some more music here – maybe something obscure, maybe just a favorite, maybe something profound. It seemed Tuesday was a good day to do this, so it has become Dittyday. I mean, what else was I gonna call it? Songday? Musicday?
It won’t be every week, so we’ll still have plain ol’ Tuesdays, but here and there it’ll become Dittyday.
As a start (even though I’ve done this numerous times before, just without a supremely catchy topic name,) I’m featuring an obscure one that not too many people have heard, and it mostly didn’t chart well. Definitely a bit different, but it’s by Thomas Dolby, and if you know anything about his work, you’re just nodding knowingly right now. So let’s just jump into, ‘Eastern Bloc.’
Eastern Bloc – Thomas Dolby
I went looking for more information about this, but there exists little that I could find, which is a shame because there’s this enigmatic little aspect to it. First off, it’s subtitled, ‘Sequel to Europa and the Pirate Twins,’ and while ‘Eastern Bloc’ was released in 1992, ‘Europa and the Pirate Twins’ was a single released by Dolby in 1982 – the third bar in ‘Eastern Bloc’ is taken directly from ‘Europa and the Pirate Twins.’ The first bar opens with some obscure metaphors, potentially referring to the Cold War, but the second bar is more compelling. When watching the news reports of the fall of the Berlin Wall, he suddenly spots someone he’s sure he knew (the whispered, “Europa,” hints at his emotions at that moment.) And he realizes that this glimpse is all he’s going to get, with no ability to confirm. This leads, after the chorus, into the third bar of reminiscing, and we realize that Europa was the childhood sweetheart that he left behind, now freed from the communist state herself.
The chorus has the curious line that, despite the singer’s own escape from the Eastern Bloc, it’s the woman who stayed behind (up until the Wall fell, anyway) that is supposed to rescue him, giving some indication that it’s not the country or the regime that traps one.
Musically, it’s light and catchy, almost frivolous in the face of the subject, with a lot of eclectic instruments that you may be hard-pressed to even identify. The one place where it becomes mainstream, the guitar solo, is performed by none other than Eddie Van Halen, who guested on two songs from the album (this being Astronauts and Heretics.) Dolby had reached his best success in the eighties, and by the nineties the interest in his music was waning, thus the obscurity of this track. Yet it’s fun and dynamic, even as it maintains the standard pop music scheme. And, it leaves us (or at least me) wanting to know a little more of this story, even as we realize there may be no more.
Here in England, it’s so green
Martian men can move unseen
Apparatus underground
Monitor the crunching soundJoey’s gone and Georgie’s gone
Put their best torn trousers on
Found a crowbar and a drill
Headed for the Berlin WallLast night I swear I saw her face
As they stormed the gates on satellite TV (Europa)
Too bad I don’t get News At Ten
‘Cause the CNN would tell a different storyEastern Bloc, Eastern Bloc
You’re never gonna break that deadbolt
How can I shake that gridlock shellshock?Tune it out, tune it in, Europa, Europa
Shine across these waves and rescue me
Loud and clear, through thick and thin, Europa, Europa
Come in, come in, come in, come in, do you read?
Are you receiving me?So I was fourteen, she was twelve
Father traveled, hers as well
Down the beaches hand in hand
Twelfth of Never on the sandAnd we said,
We’d be the Pirate Twins again
In the freezing rain of the Eastern Bloc
And I used to think each time we kissed it was for real
But tonight I feel that the wind has changedEastern Bloc, Eastern Bloc
You’re never gonna break that deadbolt
How can I shake that gridlock shellshock?Tune it out, tune it in, Europa, Europa
Shine across these waves and rescue me
Loud and clear, through thick and thin, Europa, Europa
Come in, come in, come in, come in, do you read?
Are you receiving me?Eastern Bloc, Eastern Bloc
You’re never gonna break that deadbolt
How can I shake that gridlock shellshock?Tune it out, tune it in, Europa, Europa
Shine across these waves and rescue me
Down the years, through thick and thin, Europa, Europa
Come in, come in, come in, come in, do you read?
Are you receiving me?Tune it out, tune it in, Europa, Europa
Shine across these waves and rescue me
Loud and clear, through thick and thin, Europa, Europa
Come in, come in, come in, come in, do you read?Are you receiving me?