Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Off-topic Tuesday: Get Victimized by R. Cade and the Video Victims

Okay, time to tackle the biggie. This is not a song, but an entire album of video game songs. Yes, Pac-Man Fever wasn't the only one in the U.S.! (These two scans courtesy Discogs.com.)



Get Victimized was released in 1982, almost surely AFTER Pac-Man Fever's release. The songs were written by "D.J. Michaels" and John Lombardo. The actual performers are unknown. We only have this one comment on Discogs that reveals a bit more:

Get Victimized does not use as many sound effects from the original games as Pac-Man Fever does, but they're there. Also unlike Pac-Man Fever, not all the songs are about individual games. Some are just about the arcade: "Victim of the Video", "Video Magic", "In the Arcade", "We Fell in Love at the Video Arcade", and "Change Attendant". It seems Michaels and Lombardo were *really* convinced half the songs needed to be love songs, even if it was about being in love with a game machine, as is the premise of "Video Magic".

As for game songs, two retread games Pac-Man Fever covered ("Donkey Kong" and "Defender Contender"), two cover sequels to Pac-Man Fever games ("Ms. Pac-Man" and "Frenzy") and one covers a not-quite-so-new-at-the-time game ("Scramble").

The album pretty much acknowledges that the Pac-Man Fever album in the first line of "Ms. Pac-Man":

"Pac-Man fever got me started
And I play every day
I never thought another game
Could make me feel this way"

"Ms. Pac-Man" also reveals that the writers may have done less research on the games than Buckner & Garcia:

"I still play ol' Pac-Man
I'll be loyal to the end
But ever since I met his sister
I know I found a friend"

Anyone who's seen the Ms. Pac-Man intermissions knows she's NOT his sister. And Ms. Pac-Man was released early in 1982. Although, admittedly, we don't have the release date of Get Victimized, odds are it wasn't *that* early in the year.

There was one single released off the album, "Victim of the Video" (with "We Fell in Love at the Video Arcade" on the B-side). It came in a picture sleeve featuring the same art as the front of the album on both sides.



Surprisingly, the album — which was only released on vinyl and cassette, not CD — has not disappeared in the digital age. It's available on Spotify, YouTube, & Apple Music.

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