Love on a Real Train
July 17, 2021 4:54 AM Subscribe
The 1984 single from Tangerine Dream, set to a night time video of the automated Tokyo Yurikamome line from Shimbashi to Odaiba (alternative video, shortened side-view video). The track appeared in the film Risky Business, as well as The Squid and the Whale, Mr Robot, and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Different train video, train composite video.
Those chord changes after a minute and a half of buildup just hit so perfectly.
State Azure did a really good cover of it too.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:39 AM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
State Azure did a really good cover of it too.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:39 AM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Hardcore Poser beat me to it. Been jamming to that version for a while. I love 80s synths, but sometimes...I'd rather get the breadth of modern synths.
posted by MillMan at 12:24 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by MillMan at 12:24 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
It’s too bad these videos didn’t/couldn’t use the original T-Dream track, I think it flows better than whatever cover is used here.
Back when I was a kid in the late ‘70s, this music was the soundtrack for my nighttime rides on various Tokyo trains (mainly the Chuo-sen and Yamanote-sen). You may reasonably tell me that’s impossible since the track wasn’t released until 1983, but I honestly had something that sounded like this running through my head at the time. When I finally heard the actual track in the movie (unfortunately on VHS, not in a theater) I was blown away by how closely the track’s vibe matched what I had internalized at the time. It perfectly captured the disconnect and dislocation I felt, of being completely alone while surrounded by tons of people, all with cool-looking urban landscape sliding by outside.
posted by deadcowdan at 12:57 PM on July 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
Back when I was a kid in the late ‘70s, this music was the soundtrack for my nighttime rides on various Tokyo trains (mainly the Chuo-sen and Yamanote-sen). You may reasonably tell me that’s impossible since the track wasn’t released until 1983, but I honestly had something that sounded like this running through my head at the time. When I finally heard the actual track in the movie (unfortunately on VHS, not in a theater) I was blown away by how closely the track’s vibe matched what I had internalized at the time. It perfectly captured the disconnect and dislocation I felt, of being completely alone while surrounded by tons of people, all with cool-looking urban landscape sliding by outside.
posted by deadcowdan at 12:57 PM on July 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
Always reminded me of T.Dream's Running Out of Time from a few years later, on the soundtrack of Miracle Mile. In fact, I think it's almost the same song.
posted by Rash at 2:27 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 2:27 PM on July 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I enjoyed this.
Never thought about it before, but of course the trains drive on the left as well.
posted by MtDewd at 3:03 PM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Never thought about it before, but of course the trains drive on the left as well.
posted by MtDewd at 3:03 PM on July 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
They lifted parts of the album Force Majeure for the Risky Business soundtrack. But I think Love On A Real Train was original? I think they did some albums that sounded like it, and maybe played it live. (There's hundreds of live concerts out there, and one or two officially released from around the time of the song.)
posted by Catblack at 8:11 AM on July 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Catblack at 8:11 AM on July 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you're a Mass Effect fan, I'm pretty sure their galaxy map theme is a tangerine dream homage, possibly even to this track specifically. It is a very nicely done one if so, though.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:13 PM on July 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:13 PM on July 18, 2021 [2 favorites]
Tangerine Dream is sort of my childhood musical white whale - growing up my older brother had mix tapes of, y'know, totally normal stuff like Jean-Michel Jarre and Genesis and Tangerine Dream that I would listen to while I was delivering papers, and I've mostly managed to find most of that since I've grown up and had to buy my own music, but I've only really sort of found Tangerine Dream's Dominion that itches the childhood nostalgia itch. I don't think it was _all_ the beat-laden stuff like Dominion, but it must have mostly been? Or at least stuff that built up to a release, anyway.
J-MJ was easy, he only had 8-ish albums out before then and Genesis, well, I remember the music videos, but TD has something like eight hundred albums before 1990.
posted by Kyol at 7:42 PM on July 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
J-MJ was easy, he only had 8-ish albums out before then and Genesis, well, I remember the music videos, but TD has something like eight hundred albums before 1990.
posted by Kyol at 7:42 PM on July 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
Saw The Keep in 1983...not a good movie, but that soundtrack! Been a fan ever since. Exit got me through High School and College as my vinyl companion to studying.
posted by Chuffy at 9:14 PM on July 19, 2021
posted by Chuffy at 9:14 PM on July 19, 2021
not a good movie
At least as good as anything from the MCU by my estimate, even though what the studio eventually released is more of a highlights reel than a complete movie.
Also quite hard to track down, especially in anything approaching decent video quality. Best I've found so far (certainly much cleaner than the version Amazon has available for streaming, which appears to have been sourced from the NTSC VHS release) is the one available via BitTorrent with an info hash of 0165ac71fb4d4c210e63832f6f39ab89798fe6e7.
We're unlikely to see an official Blu-Ray release, let alone a director's cut, which I think is a great pity. But posting this has prompted me to go looking again and I've just plunked down some dollars for this promising bootleg. Live in hope.
posted by flabdablet at 12:34 AM on July 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
At least as good as anything from the MCU by my estimate, even though what the studio eventually released is more of a highlights reel than a complete movie.
Also quite hard to track down, especially in anything approaching decent video quality. Best I've found so far (certainly much cleaner than the version Amazon has available for streaming, which appears to have been sourced from the NTSC VHS release) is the one available via BitTorrent with an info hash of 0165ac71fb4d4c210e63832f6f39ab89798fe6e7.
We're unlikely to see an official Blu-Ray release, let alone a director's cut, which I think is a great pity. But posting this has prompted me to go looking again and I've just plunked down some dollars for this promising bootleg. Live in hope.
posted by flabdablet at 12:34 AM on July 20, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by Chronorin at 8:13 AM on July 17, 2021 [4 favorites]