Space Age Whiz Kids is a song by American rock musician

Joe Walsh Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: the James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr B ...

, and guitarist for the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

. It was released as a

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from his sixth studio solo album, '' You Bought It – You Name It'', being Walsh's eleventh single.

Meaning

The song was written during the latter part of the 1980s video arcade craze, and its lyrics are a personal commentary, critical of then-modern American culture against Walsh's older pinball and pool generation. The lyrics also reflect a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

view on this, with lines such as: ''"I feel a little bit mixed up, maybe I'm obsolete"''.

Promotional video

The music video starts out in an old-fashioned arcade in black and white. Walsh, pushes his way up to a

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

machine. The video then turns to colour - depicting that he's in the present. Now, there's a bunch of video games instead of pinball machines, Walsh tries to talk to the kids sitting around but they ignore him. They show the old pinball arcade and everyone is covered with cobwebs. Here are scenes of Walsh and his band where Walsh is dressed in a jumpsuit with sunglasses and an Indian-style headband with a feather on the side. He and his band are on white circular platforms in the middle of blackness. Towards the end, Walsh walks through the futuristic arcade in a full-blown space suit. With someone chanting "I like Space Age Whiz Kids" is on a floating video game screen that flies around the arcade. The closing shot is of a video game entitled "Whiz Kids".

Track listing

7" Single (Warner Bros. Records – 7-29611, Warner Bros. Records – 9 29611-7, Full Moon – 7-29611, Full Moon – 9 29611-7) : A "Space Age Whiz Kids" – 3:40 : B "Theme from Island Weirdos" – 3:13

Chart performance

"Space Age Whiz Kids" peaked at #52 on the US,

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Space Age Whiz Kids Joe Walsh songs 1983 singles 1983 songs Songs written by Joe Walsh Song recordings produced by Bill Szymczyk Songs written by Joe Vitale (musician) Full Moon Records singles Warner Records singles