Musings of a dad with too much time on his hands and not enough to do. Wait. Reverse that.
A recent episode of the Python Bytes podcast mentioned this cartoon about a robot uprising that should never have happened:
It should also remind us of the importance of unit tests and properly testing your code before deploying to Production, but so many of us are like the most interesting man in the world:
I’ve been attending lots of high school sporting events of late–football games, basketball, wrestling, etc. Much of the time, the public announcement system will play random music prior to the start of the competition, but you’ll often know when the game’s about to kick-off when you hear that familiar riff from the band AC/DC:
I’m certainly happy to see the nods to songs of my youth–I’m always trying to get my children to appreciate the songs I grew up with. However, Thunderstruck can’t be the only song of its type to fire-up the fans for the upcoming contest. What are the attributes of the song that make it the go-to tune for these sort of events?
With these attributes in mind, what other song might be a decent substitute for this AC/DC classic? Perusing my own catalog, I’ve come up with several potential alternatives:
Let’s go ahead and get this one out of the way: Welcome to the Jungle is the common alternative you’ll hear at sporting events in place of AC/DC.
AC/DC has repeated their Thunderstruck formula multiple times throughout their career. Here are two examples from their 1995 album, Ballbreaker.
This Aerosmith classic doesn’t have the a very long lead-in time until the chorus kicks in, but the musical build-up is sure to energize the crowd.
Armored Saint provides some great options for these occasions, although several of their songs can be a little explicit, so do your homework.
I count Cinderella as one of my favorite 80s bands.
While the intro’s a little shorter than ideal, the guitar and drums are driving and sure to set a nice, competitive atmosphere.
Like Guns n’ Roses, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this Led Zeppelin classic. My guess is AC/DC has found new popularity due to the band’s inclusion in the various Marvel movies. The same could be said of Led Zeppelin. Immigrant Song would likely strike a chord in the hearts of both the young and not-so-young in attendance.
Like their name, Powerman 5000 delivers high octane tunes sure to invigorate sports fans and participants alike.
A great classic from the Iron Eagle soundtrack that needs mentioning.
Saxon is the author of several, hard, driving ditties sure to rile up the masses.
Another of my favorite 80s bands, Tesla has produced some heavy, inspirational tunes worthy of sports competitions. An interesting note is the band’s mention of “the U.S.S.R.” in Modern Day Cowboy.
So, these are my thoughts on potential Thunderstruck replacements from my own song collection. Thoughts? Other suggestions?
Every year, usually in December, I edit down all the raw video I’ve collected of family activities over the last 12 months into a “family movie” that I force let family and friends watch. This year is no exception. I’m particularly excited about the Marvel-style opening segment I built.
I break my movies into chapters by subject such as Christmas related activities, Sports, Theater & Art, Graduations (if any of the kids have graduated from a school that year), etc. Each segment is comprised of edited, relevant video, and, occasionally, a photo montage.
Most years my family goes on a family vacation, so naturally I include video and photos of our exploits. Any photo montage I include is only complete if I set it to music and as these photos are vacation-related, the music should be vacation-themed in some way. To that end, then, here is a list I’ve compiled of vacation-themed songs I look to when editing my family vacation media for the family video:
“Holiday Road” is the theme song of National Lampoon’s Vacation–the quintessential family vacation movie. The movie documents just about everything that can go wrong during a family vacation. I find it cathartic that, while things often go wrong during my family vacations, they never go as off-the-rails as the Griswolds’.
A classic from the great band of the 80s and perfect for your vacation segments in your videos.
The opening line to this song is: “when you’re on a holiday…”. I’d say that fits my criteria. This is a laid-back song that definitely evokes stress-free days on the beach or somewhere far away from your daily toils.
Here’s another breezy song that exhorts you to grab your favorite people and head out to “fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high” or other such remote destinations.
Here’s a little ditty from the 60s about leaving the city and going to some place you’ve never been to before.
One could argue that this really isn’t a vacation song: sure, the singer doesn’t want to work, but he doesn’t want to play, either. He just wants to bang his drum all day. Nevertheless, the song is funny and feel-good and should work well under vacation footage.
Another 80s tune about getting away from your mundane realities.
If your vacation happens to include some sailing adventures, here are a few options that might work for you:
I am a sucker for oldies songs that hit on the themes I need, and this certainly fits the bill.
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