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A math guy's random thoughts. |
A math guy's random thoughts. |
Everyone knows the 1985 a-ha hit "Take On Me." The song rose to number one on the USA BIllboard Top 100 in October of that year, powered in no small part by the award-winning and innovative music video shown extensively on MTV. The video is a pencil-sketch slipstream before anyone knew the word, and is part inter-dimensional love story and part adventure. It has echoes of Cinderella, sleeping beauty, and the hero's journey, The video features a-ha's lead vocalist, Morten Harket, morphing from film to pencil-sketch comic-book hero and back again. The song itself features Harket's voice and amazing vocal range. The song is also in a minor key, something that the famous synth riff and the relentless beat masks. If you read the lyrics without the music, though, you will get a feeling of meloncholy loss. There's a sense of sad inevitabilty that all things eventually come to an end, sometimes in just "a day or two." The version of the song I've linked below is not the one in the famous video. This one is still a-ha performing the song, minus the riff and the beat. It's a slower, more soulful version that matches the meloncholy tone of the lyrics. The 1980s version makes you want to dance. This one is...different. They are both great performances, which simply speaks to the artistry of the music, lyrics, and performances. This renditon of "Take On Me" is also what inspired my story, which is what places this song in this Soundtrak series. The story follows closely the plot of the famous video, with some changes in the characters.
Here's the video. |