Hughie Campbell of The Boys finds comfort in Billy Joel and 80s pop-rock. Here is his extended mix for the dark and troubling times we are living with. With Billy Joel, Huey Lewis & The News, Toto, Bonnie Raitt, Elton, The Cars, Todd Rundgren and many other true greats of pop-rock radio. Cheer up it might never happen (don’t you just hate it when people say that?).
Words and concept by Keith, cover art by Lina Moon
In episode 8, Season 2 of The Boys (Amazon Prime), Starlight asks Hughie about his love of Billy Joel. The two are on a drive to find help for their ill-fated mission to take down Vought International and its team of corrupt superheroes (supes) ‘The 7’. For those that have yet to come to the series (quite possibly the best thing on TV right now) hapless Hughie, the foil to anti-hero Butcher (who leads a motley crew hell bent on vengeance against The 7), is in way above his head. Hughie is a wimp to Butcher’s hardcase, and often finds himself overwhelmed and stressed out by Butcher’s default position of resorting to extreme violence. But Hughie has also got nowhere else to go, and finds himself not just one of the crew, but a sort of ballast to Butcher. As their relationship entwines and their situation deteriorates through a series of ultra dangerous scrapes with the supes, Hughie is barely hanging on. Through all the trauma, he finds comfort in watching old music videos of among others, Billy Joel.
Hughie tells Starlight (one of the supes but also, Hughie’s new girlfriend) that a cherished childhood memory is of dancing to Billy Joel songs together, and, since his mum subsequently abandoned him and his wet blanket father (played by Simon Pegg), all is explained. The music choices are superb - a great example of ‘music supervision’ (who are also called ‘supes’, funnily enough) and how music can enhance a TV show's mood, sometimes through being in stark contrast to the on-screen material. The Boys would have been good if Hughie was into ACDC (or perhaps Motley Crue, Van Halen or Ratt), but Billy Joel is so much better. Billy Joel is the perfect match for Hughie (played to comic-tragic perfection by Jack Quaid).
It got me thinking just how music can be like that. We listen to music for many reasons - to lift or change the mood, to accompany any number of activities, to help us relax. But for many of us, music can be our shield and our comfort blanket at the same time. It can be our armour, talisman and protector - and that is what Billy Joel is to Hughie. Indeed, episode 3 of Season 2 begins with the video to Billy Joel’s 1985 hit ‘You’re Only Human (Second Wind)’ in which Joel is talking a teenager down from hurling himself off of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Joel has stated that he wrote the song as a way to help young people struggling with depression and thoughts of suicide but was concerned that the song sounded too depressing, so he re-wrote it upbeat with a jovial melody and lyrics that stressed personal forgiveness and optimism about life. So there again, just perfect for everything that Hughie’s character is dealing with in The Boys.
It seems appropriate then, to expand the theme, given the challenges we are all going through on some level, at these strange times we are living with. So here to help us is Hughie’s Tunes Radio, led by Billy Joel but with a band of merry music heroes including Huey Lewis & The News, Toto, Bonnie Raitt, Elton, The Cars, Todd Rundgren and many other true greats of pop-rock radio.
Personally, I find nothing more reassuring than a good old pop-rock guitar break - short (usually limited to eight bars), melodic and with just the right level of distortion. Many of Hughie’s Tunes include fine examples, including Journey’s mournful ‘Send Her My Love’ (from Hughie to Starlight of course), Randy Crawford’s superb 1981 chart hit ‘You Might Need Somebody’ (Hughie to Butcher?). But also, rarer cuts: remember Rosie Vela’s one off 1986 outing ‘Zazu’? Of course not, though you may recall the minor hit from it ‘Magic Smile’. We opt for opener ‘Fools Paradise’ (more appropriate to Hughie’s plight), and how about Cliff Richard’s ‘In The Night’ from 1980 album I’m No Hero? Surely an album Hughie should get to know!
If Hughie reminds me of another more famous fictional anti-hero, it’s Winnie The Pooh. Nervous and bumbling, always in the thick of someone else’s problem, but somehow making just one right move - on purpose or otherwise - to help out. I once read a book on this called the Tao of Pooh. Maybe I’ll write the equivalent for The Tao of Hughie. Chapter one might be, that by listening to upbeat, uncomplicated pop-rock, we can all go easy on ourselves and find a way to be comforted and have some fun. After all, we're only human and we’re gonna make our share of mistakes.
Playback notes: play on shuffle and for added comfort, try the accompany videos to the singles on this collection, courtesy of YouTube
Check out Lina Moon’s artwork on Instagram
If you haven’t yet, do watch The Boys. If we are living in the ‘golden age of TV’ I’m not so sure. My theory is that the glut of scripted drama flooding onto streaming platforms is lowering the bar (when did you see something as good as Mad Men, Deadwood, Breaking Bad, The Wire or The West Wing?) but The Boys is right up there, and sets the high bar for TV comic book adaptations. We’’’ be back with another installment of Hughie’s Radio Vol. 2 soon. Hang in there.