Buckner & Garcia: Pac-Man Fever

Buckner & Garcia: Pac-Man Fever

1982

Columbia/CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing:1. Pac-Man Fever  2. Froggy's Lament  3. Ode to a Centipede  4. Do the Donkey Kong  5. Hyperspace  6. "The Defender  7. Mousetrap  8. Goin' Berzerk



1982 concept album by musical duo Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia...Authors of the hit songs "E.T. I Love You"...

...and "Pogwild"...

In my world "Cherry Garcia" ice cream is named in honor of Gary Garcia...

 Remember a couple of days when I was pondering how people could actually relax while listening to Enigma's profoundly irritating "Return to Innocence"? 



Well...I guess the same criticism could be leveled at me for enjoying "Pac-Man Fever" so much...The music couldn't possibly be more dated...Musically, it reminds me a bar band picking up a synthesizer and trying to approximate new wave...the lyrics are corny and there's the incessant sound of Arcade Games bleeping away in the background...I guess in that sense it reminds me of Neon Indian...



...But dammit, it's so awesome...They really hit upon a rich topic that no one had really explored yet: Those crazy arcade games that were stealing the hearts and quarters of American kids at the time...

I have a lot of affection for the era in question and I can remember when Pac-Man was such a big deal that he got his own album...I was one of those kids hopelessly afflicted with Pac-Man fever...

 I would play his game...

...then watch him on tv...

...and I'd eat his cereal for breakfast...

...and his pasta for lunch...

...and then when he wasn't looking I was banging his wife behind his back...

...Then next thing I know, he was taking care of my illegitimate child...How did this all happen?!?!?

Who knows? But bottom-line was I couldn't get enough Pac-Man! As much as I would have enjoyed "Pac-Man Fever" being about only him it also covers a host of other early 80's favorites like Frogger and Centipede...

 "Ode to a Centipede" is an excellent song by the way...The singer sounds like a calm serial killer, making soothing threats:

"You can't get away little Centipede.
I'm right behind you.
Don't try hiding behind the mushrooms.
I see you..."

They're  also hep enough to cover a few obscure games too...There's a touching piano ballad in honor of "Bezerk"...

...and even Mousetrap gets its own song...Wait...What the hell is Mousetrap?

Oh, it appears to also be Pac-Man...

You would have to be a total dork to be listening to "Pac-Man Fever" in 2013...But oh well, I'm a total dork then...You can keep Macklemore...



...I'm sticking with "Pac-Man Fever." Let's check it out....