Superstitious was the first single to be released from Europe’s fourth studio album, Out of this World. Out of this World was released in 1990. One album later, Europe would go on a temporary hiatus as grunge and then generic pop replaced Europe’s style of metal as MTV’s favorite style of music. The band reunited in 2003 and has since released six more albums. Europe rocks!
This video for Superstitious was filmed in Long Island, New York. The video was directed by Nick Morris, who was a very busy video director in the 80s and the 90s. He also did the video for Europe’s best-known song, The Final Countdown.
If you were a member of the band Europe in 1987, you were all about rocking the night!
And what better way to rock the night than by going to the Hard Rock Cafe and watching one of your own music videos on television?
There were actually two videos filmed for this song. The first one was a simple performance clip, featuring Europe rocking and the audience rolling. The second and more popular video features Europe going to a Hard Rock Café and discovering that the first video is playing on TV! This, of course, leads to the band rocking and rolling in the restaurant. In the 80s, a hair band rocking a chain restaurant was as common a sight as a flapper doing the Lindy Hop in the 20s.
This video was filmed at an actual Hard Rock Café in Stockholm. The first Hard Rock Café was opened in London in 1971 and the company really didn’t start to expand worldwide until 1982, five years before this video was filmed. At the time of the video, the Hard Rock Cafe brand was still very cool and a pretty big deal. (Yes, those shirts used to really stand for something.) When the Stockholm Hard Rock Café first opened in 1985, it was only the chain’s seventh location. (Today, by comparison, there are 180 operating Hard Rock Cafes.) The Stockholm restaurant is currently still open but I don’t know if Europe still hangs out there.
In 1983, the Swedish heavy metal band, Europe, released their first album. It was called Europe. The first album is always the easiest to title.
In The Future To Come was their very first single and this was their very first video. The video features the band performing on a windy plain and singing about the possibility of the world ending as a result of a nuclear war. This was a theme to which they would return in the best-known song, The Final Countdown. Joey Tempest was only 19 when he wrote this song and it very much reflects a 19 year-old’s worldview but, at the same time, Europe rocked.
For those curious, here are the lyrics for In The Future To Come. It should be remembered that these lyrics were written at a time when many people agreed that nuclear war was an inevitability. In the 80s, many believed it wasn’t a question of whether or not it would happen. Instead, it was a question of when it would happen.
So many tears ago the people on this earth They were laughin’ They didn’t think of anything else Than love and peace But generations failed to see That they were causin’ Trouble for the future They didn’t know that one single war
Would continue to increase But I’ll be beside you ‘Cause I want to hide you
I’ll cover my pain Or I’ll gone insane Oh Lord where will it end When tomorrow is done Oh Lord can we stop to pretend That we can survive in the future to come
As long as you can see As long as you can feel There’s no cause for alarm As long as you can touch As long as you can more
It ain’t too bad But one day or another This world would maybe Be destroyed forever A holocaust maybe be spread And drive us all mad
The Swedish band Europe will always be best known for The Final Countdown but they also found some success with Carrie, a power ballad that was written about a break-up. Was it a break up with girl named Carrie? Not according to lead singer Joey Tempest, who told Songfacts that there was no Carrie. “It was a far more general thing, actually.”
Carrie was a big hit in the United States. In fact, in the States, Carrie even charted higher than The Final Countdown and it remains the band Europe’s highest-charting song outside of the continent of Europe. The music video was directed by Nick Morris, who also did The Final Countdown.
It’s Election Day! If this song can work for waiting on a burrito, then it can work today.
As for the music video, it’s your standard mid-80s concert video. They do a good job of capturing “the final countdown” itself visually, as well as that come-to-our-concert thing that was prevalent in 80s hair-metal band music videos. The concert footage was shot at two concerts at Solnahallen in Solna, Sweden on the 26th and 27th of May, 1986. They also shot some additional footage during sound checks for those concerts.
Director Nick Morris has done around 40 music videos.
Fiona O’Mahoney produced at least 19 music videos. Sadly, according to a memorial site, she passed away in 2010. It also looks like she and Nick Morris got married.
I hope you enjoy this music video on what is otherwise a very serious day.
Through the Shattered Lens 