Posted on 05/21/2022 6:10:57 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Hoping he gets well soon.
Harold F has several songs on the new Top Gun soundtrack as well. I have not heard it yet.
“Danger Zone” is a pop music song, hardly a soundtrack in the ordinary sense, where you recurring themes, mostly done as instrumentals.
I am think “The Godfather”, “The Third Man”, “Doctor Zhivago”, “2001”, “The Sting”, early James Bond, “Gone with the Wind”. Music that can be used for a sense of forboding ... or exhiliration ... or suspense, not merely a catchy tune that opens a movie or is included in it (e.g. “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”).
Did you know that Faltermeyer was writing a theme song for the Chevy Chase film "Fletch" in the studio, when BILLY iDOL who was recording in the studio next door. “That’s great - you should use it for Top Gun!” Stevens of course was Idol's guitarist. And the rest is history.
Cool story - thanks for sharing montag. hard to imagine this song for Fletch. Axel F was great too. Harold was on a roll.
Me too...:)
I always liked the opening scene as well. Funny. I spent a lot of time on the flight deck, and I forgot all that steam from the cats, only remembered it when I saw Top Gun again recently.
My wife asked if I wanted to watch it with her (most unusual) and I said I would, but not on television. I cannot stomach television and commercials. I have the 3D version of Top Gun, so we watched that...:)
A better soundtrack song for a Top Gun type movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tUb0ql7fNs
Ricky Medlocke’s voice has just the right cockiness and power, and that “power chord vocal harmony” as I call it, toward the end, is to die for. (Well, not LITERALLY.)
Well, I just spent the last few hours watching Loggins and Messina videos.
[I love Danger Zone but actually like the Harold Faltermeyer theme song better. Steve Stevens guitar playing is sick.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4kWpi2HnPU
,
Controlled chaos on a flight deck. What was your rating? I was ABF.
Aren't you special with the 3D...LOL. What type of display do you have? I have a LG 65" 4K. I suggest to those who can afford it to get an Ultra High-Definition TV (4K). It's like a window to the world. With a decent surround system, there is no need to deal with the downside of theaters ever again.
Hey shipmate, I was an ADJ right until the time they changed the rating from ADJ to AD when I made E4.
To watch in 3D (it is now dead technology since about 2017 or so) you had to have a television that could handle it, and a player that could play it. You also have to have the bluetooth glasses that are connected to the TV and synched so the the lens polarizes and unpolarizes at 60 fps IIRC.
It is utterly cool. I was very disappointed when they stopped producing them, because they really are fun to watch. The polarized glasses are far, FAR superior to the old red and blue lenses.
So, my television isa 55” from 2012, and my blue ray player is from that year. (My television isn’t 4K, but...I can live with that!)
I used to go to theaters at least once or twice a week. I got fed up with people on cell phones in theaters, plus the high prices. When it got up to $12 or so, it simply wasn’t worth it.
Yeah, I remember now that 3D folded. I saw it in Best Buy and was amazed, but too new of tech so I waited.
When you can afford it, I highly recommend 4k over 1080p display. You'll be astounded. The prices are dropping all the time. Fair winds...
I was a brown shirt (Plane Captain) then a green shirt (Powerplant maintenance) then finally, a white shirt (Flight Deck Troubleshooter). I spent most of my time up on the flight deck...were you a purple shirt? I spent most of my time in attached airing on the USS JFK, but also went on the Eisenhower, the Lexington (blech)...
LOL, we refer to each other as “shirts”...:)
As long as we’re not “stuffed”...:)
Loggins had a hat trick:
Danger Zone
I’m Alright
Footloose
Thanks. I couldn't remember what white shirts were other than the Corpsmen nor the brown shirts, but did get the greens correct. Yup, I was a purple shirt (a grape). Man, did we catch hell for that from the other shirts. All in good fun.
The flight deck operations were the most exhausting and rewarding times of my life. From zero dark thirty to 2100 hours with 4 hours before a mid-watch. The sailors of today have it made from what I've seen in recent documentaries.
I always found the hierarchy of the flight deck by jersey color to be both widespread and regrettable, yet...funny!
I viewed with absolutely zero justification the poor Blue Shirts as bottom feeders and brainless cannon fodder. I viewed the Yellow Shirts (again, with no justification or rationale) as their evil masters. I always viewed White Shirts as near the top of the chain and was oh-so-self-satisfied when I made it to that level! (Pride is indeed a poisonous sin)
One of the things that has always made an impact on the military to me is the awesome responsibility it gives to very young people. I use my own experience to relate it:
When I was 20 years old and a flight deck troubleshooter in the squadron I was in, one of our planes was on the aft portion of the flight deck, one of the last to take off in what they called an alpha strike (like a maximum effort launch, everything that could fly would go...that kind of thing)
One of our planes had oil coming out of the belly, so I took off the wraparound panel (probably 30-60 Dzus fasteners, the kind that take a quarter turn to undo) so there were a lot. I took off the panel, and could see oil leaking at a decent rate from a fitting.
I figured it would take me just a couple of minutes to determine if the leak could be stopped...cut the safety wire, tighten the fitting, if it stopped, I could re-wire it, check the oil level, put the panel back on, and be good to go.
I started working, focusing on the work at hand (my head and upper torso inside the plane) when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked down to see a pair of khaki trousers being buffeted by the wind. It was a Chief Aviation Bosun’s mate, and he was one of the senior people on the flight deck.
I stood up and put my ear next to his mouth, and he yelled “CAN THE PLANE TAKE OFF?”
I yelled back “YES. I NEED TO FINISH SAFETY WIRING THIS FITTING AND PUTTING THE PANEL BACK ON...JUST ANOTHER TWO OR THREE MINUTES.”
He yelled “OK. LET ME KNOW WHEN IT IS GOOD TO GO. THE CAPTAIN NEEDS TO FINISH LAUNCHING SO HE CAN CHANGE COURSE.”
I didn’t give it another thought, got right back in, finished the job, and the plane taxied to the catapult, took off, and I went below.
It was only later that I thought of it: That entire carrier task force, the escorts, billions of dollars of equipment and probably 10,000 men were waiting for me to finish my job so they could change course and begin the next phase of operations.
All waiting on me, an average 20 year old guy.
What really struck me as I thought of it was...this is commonplace. We do this all the time. We load the young people in our military up with awesome responsibilities, and we expect them to perform. And they largely do almost ALL the time. When they don’t, people can get maimed or killed.
One more thing-
I value that Navy experience more than any other in my life, and I am grateful to my country, the US Navy, and the men I worked with who contributed to that experience, both good and bad.
I grew up in those four years. I learned how to be a man. I learned how to accept responsibility and reinforce the faith of those who gave it to me by doing my job well. I learned how to own the responsibility. I learned how to learn, and how to teach others. And I learned how to be good at something, a skill that I had been lacking in up until then.
I thought I was just a dummy, terrible in school, no direction, couldn’t learn anything. I had a pretty low opinion of myself.
Then, when I got into the Navy, I found I would be picked for jobs, I wouldn’t get the same abuse and derision others occasionally got, and I was able to learn and practice leadership. I understood how to navigate the chain of command (knowledge that has served me well in the intervening 43 years)
I learned how to put my head down and do any job, no matter how mundane, dirty, or disgusting and to do it to the best of my ability, something that has also served me well as a civilian.
On many threads about Navy or military affairs, I read things about the current state of affairs, and it breaks my heart. Reading about the collisions of the McCain and the Fitzgerald (not to mention the sad affair of the Bon Homme Richard) made me realize there are other forces at work in today’s Navy, and many of the people serving will not enjoy the opportunity I had.
So, I feel a debt to my country and the Navy I will never be able to repay, the state of affairs of both cause be much anger and sadness.
Thank you and all those who serve in our military. When I read about a person in their 20s who does something incredibly stupid, sometimes even criminal, and they are excused because they are “so young” I just think about the responsibilities given to our servicemen.
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