“But in the end we thought the original choice and title were best because that rhythm made you want to jump up and down.”Ī few years ago, talking about The Final Countdown, John Norum told Classic Rock: “When I first heard that synth intro my reaction was: ‘No, this is nuts. “For a day the song was actually called The Final Breakdown,” Tempest says with a laugh.
Joey Tempest's Top 10 Europe Songs That Aren't The Final Countdown.Europe confirm Final Countdown 30th anniversary tour.In the studio, with John Norum attempting to channel Deep Purple’s Lazy in his guitar solo, the band vetoed Journey producer Kevin Elson’s suggestion of ditching its intentionally British-style beat for an American-sounding one – more of a four-on-the-floor thing. “We were a guitar band… it was something very unusual for us,” Tempest explains.įinally, Europe decided that it was time to, in Tempest’s words, “stick our head above the parapet and do something a little different”. It’s hypnotic and quite cool.”īut despite being presented to his bandmates, the song – still a cumbersome six-and-a-half minutes long – was left off Europe’s first two albums. Only later in life did I realise that’s how many classical composers work.
“The voice stays in one monotonous line throughout, with the chords moving underneath. “After that it all came together quite quickly,” he says. Inspired by his love of UFO, Tempest laid down its galloping beat with the help of a drum machine, and after the word ‘countdown’ popped into his head wrote a set of lyrics that mention of ‘ leaving together’ and ‘ heading for Venus’. “At the bar, John Levén and I started talking about how we could take things further.”
“Our manager suggested letting them play my one-minute piece, accompanied by their laser show – just for fun,” Tempest says.