In the batch of singles I found at Repo Records a couple months back, we are now to our fourth single of 6 and second from the band Europe. This one is the fourth single off ‘The Final Countdown’ and is a song that would catch a lot of grief today as the song is “Cherokee”. With today’s over sensitive, my feelings get hurt easily culture, “Cherokee” would probably be frowned upon with a bunch of white guys singing about Native Americans. “Cherokee” was released in November 1987 and didn’t do as well as their other singles, It only went to #72 not getting anywhere close to the Top 40.

The song was written by Joey Tempest. It was inspired by a book the wife of the album producer had. He had read through it and was inspired to write about the plight of the Cherokee nation as the U.S. government relocated them to Oklahoma from their native land of the lower Appalachian Mountains. Over 4,000 died on that march. It was the last song written for the album.

The copy I have is the standard U.S. version with the single being the album version and not the shorter edited version. The B-Side being “Heart of Stone” off the same album. I also have a “demonstration-not for sale” stamp on this one as well, but it is backwards and on the B-Side so not sure what is going on with these. Maybe they were used for Promo purposes…and maybe not.

A-SIDE:

The song is a mid-tempo rocker that starts off with some Swedish. The song kicks off with drummer Ian Haugland saying “Nu ska vi spela!” which means “We’re gonna play now!” in Swedish. There is a tribal drum beat, then some guitars, keyboards, bass and normal drums. Joey sings the song at a very deliberate pacing, but the lyrics are so cheesy and this song is really bad no matter how you look at it. Whether its subject matter or just the lyrics themselves, it is not a favorite song of mine.

And to pour salt on the wounds, the video is atrocious as the depiction of the Indians in the video is so historically inaccurate. For one, the Cherokee tribe didn’t use teepees…stereotype much!! Plus, throw in the fact they have them as desert/plains indians when they actually lived in the wooded mountains. Come on people, get it right.

B-SIDE:

The B-Side is “Heart of Stone” off ‘The Final Countdown’ album. This is the album cut and not a special edit. The song was written by Joey Tempest and seems to be about a man pining for his lost love, but she is done and is giving him the cold shoulder. She wants nothing to do with him anymore and has closed out her heart to him. It is a mid-tempo rocker and feels very dated with its sound, but Joey does sound great and Norum’s solo is really good as well. Not a bad B-Side as it is probably better than the actual single.

And there we have the second single in the Europe run. A couple more to come and will be up soon so you won’t have to wait too long. Thanks for stopping by!