When I'm not writing about military aviation for Simple Flying, you'll often find me listening to music while completing projects around the house. Such was the case recently when an "80's Old School Classics" playlist pushed a nearby speaker to its limits as I painted the walls of our mud room. As I stooped over to dip my thirsty brush into the pail of fresh paint, one particular song caught my attention.
The song was "Dreams" by Van Halen. I put my paintbrush down, sat atop my rickety wooden stepladder, and just listened. The nostalgia was palpable.
Like many of you, presumably, I was a teenager when I first heard this song in a music video on MTV. For those who haven't seen it, the video features 4 minutes and 54 seconds of the US Navy Blue Angels performing their dazzling aerial acrobatics in their McDonnel Douglas A-4 Skyhawks. As a kid, it was a sensory delight, one of the coolest things my youthful eyes and ears had ever experienced.
To this day, the song's triumphant chorus still gives me goosebumps. "It was a very, very spiritual moment, and that song is a very, very spiritual song." - Sammy Hagar, from an article on UltimateClassicRock.
com As the final notes of "Dreams" faded to silence, I picked up my trusty paintbrush to get back to work when it occurred to me that perhaps an audience consisting of military aviation enthusiasts might relate to this song as I do, with similar fond memories and personal connections. As such, I thought it might be fun to revisit that.