#92 - Silent Running

Artist: Mike + The Mechanics
Album: Mike + The Mechanics
Video: This video from DailyMotion includes a brief scene in the opening which was not in the version that MTV showed in the top 100 countdown.

"Silent Running" is the first single from the first Mike + The Mechanics album. I have always liked this song and was intrigued by the narrative, very atypical lyrics for an 80's pop song. I've always associated this song with the book "A Wrinkle In Time", which also confronts the unusual theme of how a child is affected by a father's travels through time.

The video effectively tells this story as a young boy is presented with a key from a friend of his father's. The time travel is represented through imagery of outer space, computer equations, and the richly descriptive lyrics. The boy uses the key to open the door to a room filled with blinding white light, and finds an image of his father who has left a message to explain his reasons for leaving. We see explosions which signify that an apocalypse is looming. The mother senses trouble and goes upstairs, just in time to see her child disappear in a flash of light. Fade to the stars in the sky, and the haunting refrain, "Can you hear me? Can you hear me running?"

Alas, we cannot hear him. For it is a Silent Running.

Mike + The Mechanics was initially a side project of Genesis' founding member Mike Rutherford. However, the effort met with such success that the band continued to record seven albums over the years, including one as recently as 2011.

And today, one of the greatest musicians of our time, Bono of U2, celebrates his 52nd birthday.