Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Nights In White Satin, SOON Reaching The End?


A newspaper article came out last week talking about the triumphant return of Hard Rock Park (I don't know why I like blogging about this topic so much, guess I just find it interesting) and quite a stir has developed on the internet from this quote:

The rides similarly play to the park's music focus. Baker plans no major changes.

At least one will definitely go – Nights in White Satin, a “dark” glide-through ride synchronized to the old Moody Blues art-rock standard. Cars glided past 14 scenes in 4 1/2 minutes.

“The park needs to be a bit more family-oriented,” Baker says, and yanking Nights is a move in that direction.


So it appears the Hard Rock Parks best reviewed and most talked about attraction is no more. Really there are two different views on this:

Why It Makes Sense

While it may be cool to me and the readers of this blog, Nights In White Satin The Trip should probably have never been built. A ride about a band no one cares about, and a song no one under the age of thirty has heard of, was bad enough reason, but the whole thing was about drugs. It was an attraction that wasn't family friendly and completely un-marketable. It seems like the infrastructure of ride vechicles and projection screens, would make a re-theme a not to difficult thing to accomplish.

Why It Doesn't Make Sense

The obvious one, is that its a good ride, some even say great (my two In The Loop Co-Hosts Clint & Will even claim better then Spiderman....... blasphemy in my mind, but I've never been on it). The reviews of HRP tended to be along the lines of: good theme, good shows, not a lot of rides, Max RPM was broke, Led Zep is mediocre for a B&M and NIWS is both odd and awesome.

The real reason this doesn't make sense to me is that there isn't a lot of rides at Hard Rock Park and taking away a star attraction won't help that. I mean taking away Nights, Hard Rock Parks 4th best ride is either a kiddie coaster or small flat ride, not a good thing for a park.

If I Ran The Park

With not enough time to do anything with Nights In White Satin The Trip for the 2009 season, I would operate the ride for one more season and then hire Sally to re-theme it as a new family friendly attraction for the 2010 season. Not sure what I would re-theme it too; CoasterBoy on the CoasterCrew forums suggested "Rick Roll The Ride" which would be both hilarious and socially relevant. Personally my dream would be for this to become a Beatle's Yellow Submarine attraction, I mean with the trippy cartoon Beatles and colorful sets it could still have an 'acid' feel but it would be much much more suttle and it would fit perfectely in the 'British Invasion' section of the park.

Nights In White Satin
Never Reaching The End

4 comments:

Unknown said...

First off, I'm glad to see this park on the comeback road. Hopefully, 2.0 will be more stable and better managed. Interested to see the improvments and updates, and have to agree that a Knights retheme is needed so the ride is a better fit. Hopefully the original incarnation is well documented so that it can be enjoyed in the future. My gut STILL says a water park and or rapids are forth-coming as part of making the park more viable to families. Adding more kiddie attractions is a smart move as well as fully utilizing all the performance areas. Pulling people in through big name concerts will hopefully jumpstart things. Really hope to see this unique park succeed.

Anonymous said...

First off, it's "Nights," not "Knights". Even if you're under 30, you should have heard of the Moody Blues. Nights is a pretty well-known classic rock song. But it has nothing to do with drugs. Read the lyrics. It's a love song, pure and simple. The trippy aspect of the HRP ride comes from images generated by the ambience of the song itself and one's own imagination or, as one of the Moodies' lyrics goes, "thinking is the best way to travel." I know people don't like to think or use their own imaginations today, relying instead on constantly punching a keyboard on some electronic device, but in the era that generated Nights and other classic songs, creativity and imagination flourished, sometimes with but many times without drugs. It was all about being aware of what's surrounding you. Remember, like enjoying a beautiful day in nature? No drugs needed. I hate to tell you this, but the Beatles were well into drugs when they created Yellow Submarine. The Moodies were not when they created Nights in White Satin. I am as concerned about kids being "drugged" by constant Internet and technology saturation today as some profess to be about the drug "holdovers" of the '60s experience. It's all drugs--it's all geared toward distraction and trying to escape reality.

Tim Kretschmann said...

Knights was a good ride, but I think your Yellow Submarine ride would also be cool. The licensing would crush them on that, though!

As for a water ride, why not "Splish Splash" and instead of logs or boats, you climb into bathtubs???

Anonymous said...

I am 15 and this is one of my favorite songs of all time. How dare you say this song is about drugs and not geared towards families. The video or the ride from Sally corp, the creators of the ride, shows young children riding with their family. It's a ride for all ages. I was planning to ride this ride someday, then they had to destroy it and put in some crappy 'Monstars of rock'. Seriously? One of the best song based rides, gone. That's a CRIME.