Nothing shows the real power of human strength than the ability to fight through hard-times. Recently a few people have really gone all out to show how much abuse the human body and mind can take by taking part in tasks so gruelling that most people would crumble at the first hurdle.
Take the story of Jesse Carey. This man did the unthinkable by listening to Nickleback for not one day, not two days but an ENTIRE WEEK. Yes, you heard that correctly. That is 168 hours of back-to-back Nickleback filth. How he survived this we will never know but what we did learn from this is that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Also worth mentioning, he raised $33,000 dollars for Charity Water during this heroic feat. A brave, brave man.
Another brave human to attempt such insanity is extreme cyclist Jason Zurl who listened to Natalia Kills ‘Free’ for 38 hours straight on a bike ride on one of the most dangerous highways in the world, the Leh Manali Highway in the Himalayas. As well as the horrific conditions that man had to face (he also did this with no stops or sleep) he then had to put up listening to the vocal talents of a women who was recently extremely rude to some poor guy on X Factor in New Zealand (See below). Maybe it was his inner anger that she had been such a bitch that made him pedal faster imagining he was riding over her face as revenge for her crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNgp9T2fzKs&spfreload=10
Reading these heroic stories, I then remembered one of my very own than happened a good few years ago.
I once attempted listening to one single song, on repeat…for 4 solid hours. OK I realise it’s not exactly a week or 38 hours but just let me have this ok? The same 5 minute 9 second song on repeat for 4 hours is by no means an easy task.
Let me set the scene here. Back in the day I used to be in a band and we had just finished a show in Coventry. We were having a discussion about what would happen if people were locked in a house and all they could hear is clown music playing 24/7. Would they go insane? Would they mentally block it out? Would they turn into clowns?
Conversation then changed to, “If they listened to Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’ on repeat, would they end up really inspired?”. That being said, we set out to test this theory on the just over 4 hour journey home. It was time for back to back ‘Final Countdown’.
Obviously on the first play we were all loving life. Fists pumping in the air like we had just won a mighty battle. Air drum solos played with more passion than that scene in Jesus Christ Superstar when he climbs the rock and does that epic high note.
About an hour in we were still on fire. We were pretty much nailing the solo’s without even needing to have a guitar. We just knew what we were doing was right. We were literally ready to run the longest marathon in the world and win, battle a giant octopus to save a sinking ship, win the battle of helms deep with nothing but our bare fists.
Then disaster struck. By hour two it was clear our drummer was fading, and fast. He just wasn’t feeling it and started to get grumpy and was trying to sleep. We tried to encourage him to feel the power but he wasn’t having any of it. We were a man down. From here on in we started dropping like flies. People just lost motivation and started to drift off into a Europe free sleep. It was a tough moment for us all.
Despite this there were some of us who were going to fight it out until the bitter end. Sax player Robin was never one to let a simple thing like repetitiveness get the better of him and so made every power grab more fierce than before and every hit of the snare was like an injection of adrenaline straight into his heart. The more the song played the more we absorbed its power until we were literally glowing. Our auras were glowing with pure electricity. We could have lifted buildings with a single finger. Nothing, I mean nothing was going to defeat us. We had reached epic levels never before seen in this world or others. This was the peak of humanity right here in a old red postal van going down the M5.
We arrived home and it was all over. Most declared “Thank fuck for that!” but those who made it felt something different; pure joy. We had done it! From this moment forward we knew we could tell this story to our grand-children and feel proud about what we had done.
So to sum up this story, if you listen to the ‘Final Countdown’ on repeat you could end up pretty fucking inspired. Either that, or you will be hating life and wishing the song never existed and someone would end your life right there and then. Either way, it’s better than fucking Nickelback!
