Sounds of Europe (literally)

We're leaving together
But still it's farewell
And maybe we'll come back,
To earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground (leaving ground)
Will things ever be the same again?
It's the final countdown.

The final countdown.

Oh, we're heading for Venus (Venus)
And still we stand tall
Cause maybe they've seen us
And welcome us all, yeah
With so many light years to go
And things to be found (to be found)
I'm sure that we'll all miss her so
It's the final countdown.

The final countdown.

Continuing on with our little travelogue of music, this week we travel to Europe.

I know it seems a little cliche', but it also makes perfect sense to make our first Europe post about, well, Europe.

Europe is a hard rock/heavy metal band formed in Upplands Väsby, Stockholm, Sweden in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno. Since its formation, Europe has released nine studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and nineteen videos.

Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with its third album The Final Countdown, which became a substantial commercial success and sold over three million copies in the United States.The band was a pioneering force in the glam metal/blues metal genres and their third album, The Final Countdown, is considered a masterpiece of the genres. Europe was one of the most successful rock acts of the 1980s and sold over 20 million albums worldwide.

Europe went on hiatus in 1992, reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since then the band has released four albums, Start from the Dark, Secret Society, Last Look at Eden and Bag of Bones. Europe will release its tenth album, War of Kings, in 2015.

The band is mainly influenced by Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, UFO and Michael Schenker Group.

The lyrics to "The Final Countdown" were inspired by David Bowie's song "Space Oddity".  The song was written to be an opening song for concerts, and they never thought it would be a hit. But when their record company Epic Records suggested that it should be the first single, the band decided to release it.

"It’s always a nice feeling. Sometimes you hear it on the streets or someone has it on their mobile phone or something… it’s a nice feeling! Actually, I did an interview about a year ago with a newspaper from America and they talked about how much it’s been used in sports in America… which I didn’t know so much about. Apparently it has been used a lot and it was nice to hear. The ironic thing, though, is that the song was actually written for the fans. It was over six minutes long and was never meant to be a hit or anything like that. It was meant to be an opening for the “live” show. We were putting out our third album and we wanted a really “grand” opening for the show. So, I had that “riff” tucked away in a drawer since my college years and I took it out, found a tempo for it, wrote lyrics and it turned out to be a great opening for that album and for the show as well. Nowadays, we don’t rehearse it but when we play it live, it is still just so amazing! It does communicate so well with the audience and we really love playing it." ~Joey Tempest, as quoted in Interview with Joey Tempest (Lead Vocals - Europe)

http://youtu.be/9jK-NcRmVcw