‘Welcome to Your Bright New World’

In case you missed it – the new Rick Springfield/Vance DeGeneres song and video is out: “Welcome to Your Bright New World.”

The song is available on iTunes and Amazon and all proceeds go to Feeding America. Here’s the wording from the YouTube video:

“Welcome to Your Bright New World” echoes the prevailing feeling of our time’s chaotic events and hopes for a better world when the dust settles. This song culminates Season 2 of Rick Springfield and Vance DeGeneres’ “Ultimate Mini-Series: The 60-Second Guide to Songwriting with a Partner”, started off as a way for the two friends to have some fun online while home-sheltering during the current Covid-19 pandemic. But what began as a way to share a few laughs with their online communities grew into a popular multi-episode series spanning two Seasons. You can watch both Season 1 and Season 2 on-demand here:

OK, that’s all the important details.

Now for my 12-year-old self fan reaction.

The floor of his house is the same kind of floor of the house I grew up in!

The theme of the video combines “The Wizard of Oz” (one of my favorite movies- notice the black and white beginning that turns to color and the twister lifting up the house) and “Alice in Wonderland.”

Why is that so cool?

I have two books from when I was younger that are now sitting in one of the bookshelves of one of my sons and they are “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland.” He’s almost the age I was when I first became a Rick Springfield fan and I probably had the books when I was about his age. Now there’s a video in existence that captures three elements of my 12-year-old life: “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland” and Rick Springfield. Cool, right?

OK, maybe I’m the only one that thought it was. Oh well.

Other thoughts about the song/video.

• Very catchy! I like that the song has a positive view, as the situation in the world is getting so dark now we need that hope for a better world once we get through this.

• I wonder where the green sock puppet was? Why wasn’t he included in the video? Did he drink too much Vance Vodka the night before the filming and miss the shoot? Will Spencer the sock puppet have a new career after appearing in the music video?

Next comes the fun part of diving deeper into the lyrics.

Welcome to your bright new world, everything can change from this moment on. There is no need for fear or questioning the gods as we watch Babylon fall.

Our world has changed so much these past few months. But there’s not a need for fear or questioning G-d, there is some kind of purpose for all of this and hopefully it’s all part of developing into a better world. (We hope.) Babylon is defined as a society or a group in a society considered as corrupt or a place of exile by another society, a place of luxury and corruption. Have you watched the news lately?

We stand together or it all falls apart. Fire burns and it’s been lit from a spark.

Basically, we’re all in this together. Fires are destructive and can destroy communities – and it can take only one person – and one spark – to start the fire.

So welcome to your bright new world, we’ve crossed the mountain range, we’re unbending, strong, there is no exit here, no impossible odds, as we reach Avalon’s shores.

Flash forward to the future after we’ve gone through this challenging time, staying strong, making it to Avalon (an island represented as an earthly paradise in the western seas, according to Celtic legend).

As the walls start falling

Perhaps this is a reference to “The Wall Will Fall“?

This is of course only my late-night rambling interpretation. What do you think about the song and the video?