LAST EDITED ON Feb-02-12 AT 01:31 AM (EST)
I was rustling through an old box of stuff yesterday and came across a mix tape I made back when my high school posse and I were playing the old Marvel Super Heroes game, whence came Don Griffin. Behold Guardians of Vacationland: Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture, the state of the art in comics-based-gaming-related music trackage circa 1990, and stand astonished at how little my taste in music has changed since then.
Guardians of Vacationland
Original Soundtrack from the Motion PictureSIDE ONE
1. "Liberty"
Steve Vai
Passion and Warfare
Theme song for the Guardians campaign. Good opening-credits montage music.
2. "Life's Been Good"
The Eagles
Eagles Live
Actually a song from one of Joe Walsh's solo albums, performed during an Eagles gig with substantially altered lyrics. Don's tongue-in-cheek anthem, as discussed here. "I live in hotels, tear out the walls / I have accountants pay for it all," in particular, was in this context a reference to the traditional X-Men approach to egress: Never use a door when you can make a new one.
3. "Heavy Metal"
Sammy Hagar
Heavy Metal: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Fight scene music, particularly for throwing down with Sentinels. One of these days I'm going to write a UF mini entitled "Desperation on the Red Line".
4. "Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing"
Joe Satriani
Flying in a Blue Dream
I don't remember the specific reason this was included; possibly just because it rocks.
5. "These Days"
R.E.M.
Lifes Rich Pageant
The lyrics to this song are largely surreal and partly unintelligible, but there was something really evocative of the mood of the game in the bit of the chorus that goes, "Carry each his burden, we are young despite the years / We are concern, we are hope despite the times."
6. "Rock and Roll"
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV
This was the theme of one of the other characters on the team, who had to be persuaded not to take the superhero codename "Lovemachine".
7. "Fire Woman"
The Cult
Sonic Temple
Kind of obligatory for a team that featured frequent guest appearances by Rachel (as she was then) Summers.
SIDE TWO
8. "Gimme All Your Lovin'"
ZZ Top
Eliminator
Theme music for the "Road Trip" adventure, in which our heroes decided to find the American dream by driving cross-country. We did that years before they did it in Generation X.
9. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
R.E.M.
Document
It really was the end of the world, or at least the end of a world, and Don really did feel fine.
10. Movement 4: Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 5 in C minor
You know, the part that goes bom BOM BOM, bom bombombombombom, bom bobom, bom boBOM! It's good saving-the-day music.
11. "Stairway to Heaven"
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV
I don't remember why this one's on here either. I suspect one of the other players lobbied for it; there was one of us who was a much bigger Zeppelin fan than the rest of us.
12. "A New World"
Boston
Third Stage
This turned up on a lot of my '80s and early '90s mix tapes, for several reasons: A) It rocks, B) It rocks, and C) It's 36 seconds long, and so was a useful cue for nudging up the length of one side or the other to fit a particular size blank. (The making of mix tapes is a lost art, I fear, in this age. I certainly wouldn't be anywhere near as good at it now as I was in the day.)
13. "Wonderful Tonight"
Eric Clapton
Slowhand
The song that was about halfway finished when, in the traditional style, the school dance our heroes were attending was attacked by... I forget, HYDRA, I think. It's just as well. Don was dancing with the wrong girl, and if they'd reached the third verse it would've become really obvious. Ah, mutant high school romance.
There was a second volume of the GoV soundtrack kicking around once upon a time, but I fear it has been lost to history. I remember now that it had two tracks from the Black Crowes' Shake Your Moneymaker ("Twice as Hard" and "Could I've Been So Blind", if you're keeping score at home), "Just What I Needed" by the Cars (and probably "You Might Think" as well), ELO's "Do Ya" and "Love Removal Machine" by the Cult on it.
Nostalgia! It's what's for dinner.
--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
And now with youtube links for those of us compiling code. >Guardians of Vacationland
>Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture
>SIDE ONE
>1. "Liberty"
>Steve Vai
>Passion and Warfare
>2. "Life's Been Good"
>The Eagles
>Eagles Live
(sorry the link isn't a live one; the concert versions have awful sound quality; if you find a decent version, tell me - t.)
>3. "Heavy Metal"
>Sammy Hagar
>Heavy Metal: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
>4. "Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing"
>Joe Satriani
>Flying in a Blue Dream
>5. "These Days"
>R.E.M.
>Lifes Rich Pageant
>6. "Rock and Roll"
>Led Zeppelin
>Led Zeppelin IV
>7. "Fire Woman"
>The Cult
>Sonic Temple
>SIDE TWO
>8. "Gimme All Your Lovin'"
>ZZ Top
>Eliminator
>9. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
>R.E.M.
>Document
>10. "Movement 4: Allegro"
>Ludwig van Beethoven
>Symphony No. 5 in C minor
>11. "Stairway to Heaven"
>Led Zeppelin
>Led Zeppelin IV
>12. "A New World"
>Boston
>Third Stage
>13. "Wonderful Tonight"
>Eric Clapton
>Slowhand
Bonus tracks:
"Twice as Hard"
Black Crowes'
Shake Your >Moneymaker
"Could I've Been So Blind"
Black Crowes'
Shake Your >Moneymaker
"Just What I Needed"
The Cars
The Cars
"You Might Think"
The Cars
"Do Ya"
Electric Light Orchestra
"Love Removal Machine"
the Cult
"Superman"
R.E.M.
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
Trigger Argee
Manon, Maccadon, Orado, etc.
Denton, never leave home without it.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." - HST