Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1985
Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
Buy Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)'" is a song performed by Mike + The Mechanics. Written by Mike Rutherford and B. A. Robertson, it was the first track on the 1985 self-titled debut album of Mike + the Mechanics. It was also released as the band's first single, peaking at number 6 on 8 March 1986[http://www.song-database.com/chhist.php?sid=4570 "Silent Running" chart history], Song-database.com on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 chart, and number 1 on 'Billboard'
Paul Carrack provided lead vocals on the song. Alan Murphy was hired as a session guitarist and provided lead guitar on the track. The song's original title was simply "Silent Running"; the name extension was given when the song was chosen to appear in the 1986 movie 'On Dangerous Ground', which was titled 'Choke Canyon' in the United States.
The song was banned by the BBC during the Gulf War due to its address of war, nationalism and religion, as well as a direct reference to weaponry in the line, "There's a gun and ammunition just inside the doorway."
Composition
"Silent Running" was one of the first songs to come from the Rutherford/Robertson songwriting partnership. It was, in fact, one of a series of songs that the two wrote simply to test how effective collaboration between them would be. When producer Christopher Neil heard it on a demo tape that Rutherford played for him, however, he recommended that it be used for the album.Neer, Dan (1985). 'Mike on Mike' [interview LP], Atlantic Recording Corporation.
According to Rutherford, the song
When Rutherford was looking for a title for this particular song, he says, "I called it 'Silent Running', because I remembered that film so well, and our song, had a spacey feel to it."Casey Kasem's American Top 40 The 80's from 15 February 1986
Music video
The song's video features a few clips from the film 'Choke Canyon', but is primarily based on the completely unrelated story on which the song's lyrics are based.Mike + the Mechanics: 'Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)'[promotional video]. 1986. Billy Drago makes a cameo appearance in the video. It was produced by Paul Flattery and directed by Jim Yukich who had done many videos for Phil Collins and Genesis.
Personnel
'Mike + The Mechanics'
* Mike Rutherford rhythm guitars, bass guitar
* Paul Carrack lead vocals
* Paul Young backing vocals
* Adrian Lee keyboards
* Peter Van Hooke drums
'Additional personnel'
* Dereck Austin keyboards
* Ian Wherry keyboards
* Alan Murphy lead guitar
* Luis Jardim percussion
* John Kirby backing vocals
* Alan Carvel backing vocals
* Christopher Neil backing vocals
* Linda Taylor backing vocals
Chart performance
Covers
The Protomen released a cover of the song as a mash-up with their own song, "Breaking Out" in 2012 as a B-side to their single "I Drove All Night", with an extended cover of the song later appearing as the final song on their 2015 album, 'The Cover Up'.
References
Category:1985 debut singles
Category:1985 songs
Category:Mike + The Mechanics songs
Category:Song recordings produced by Christopher Neil
Category:Songs about time travel
Category:Songs critical of religion
Category:Songs written by Mike Rutherford
Category:Songs written by BA Robertson
Category:Atlantic Records singles
Buy Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1985