Sunday, June 19, 2016

Duran Duran Meets Phantasy Star

Song - Roadhog
Artist(s) - Trevor Bastow
Released - 1987
Primetime Usage - 1991-92
Featured Highlight - Rams @ Giants, 1991


Just because the '80s were over doesn't mean their sound was dead.  In 1991, NFL Primetime began using perhaps the most heavily "eighties" sounding piece ever made.  This song, called "Roadhog," took punchy synth to a new level and often accompanied longer highlights on the show thanks to its full three-minute duration.  For those that are fans of either Duran Duran (especially their earlier, "Fab Five" era stuff) or Sega's Phantasy Star sci-fi RPG series, the style of Roadhog should be quite refreshing for you.

Roadhog was written by the late Trevor Bastow.  Trevor, along with his late brother Geoff, were two of the top stalwarts for both Bruton & MusicHouse from the 1970s-1990s.  Geoff, a disciple of the great Giorgio Moroder, was also known for being the producer behind the briefly popular synth-disco act known as K.I.D. in the early '80s.  Trevor was never a major figure in popular music, as far as I know, but I personally find his large library of production music to be even better than his brother's.  Unfortunately, Roadhog seems to be the only Primetime track composed by either of the two Bastow brothers.

The featured game highlight for Roadhog isn't the greatest, but it's still fairly entertaining.  The Rams, in John Robinson's final season, went up to the Meadowlands and handed defending Super Bowl champion Jeff Hostetler his first-ever loss as a starting QB.



2 comments:

  1. Noticed this track also got a lot of usage for highlights narrated by Robin Roberts during that period.

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    1. Yeah, I went & checked and Roberts did a full 40% of the highlights I have with Roadhog. I guess that makes sense, since it seemed to most often accompany longer highlights of less-than-marquee games.

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