The Shamen - Move Any Mountain

The Shamen - "Move Any Mountain"

It's been at least 10 years since I last heard this song. I'd almost forgotten it existed at all until I found it on Last.FM earlier this week. But this was everwhere back in 1991 -- a massive hit in the UK, but it was big in America, too. Wasn't it? I remember B96 playing the hell out of this all summer long, but no one ever talks about it now outside of its place in the UK indie dance/rave scene of the early 90s, like it never crossed over to here at all.

My family didn't start taking summer vacations until I was 10 or 11, when we visited the Lake of the Ozarks for three summers before my parents decided to busy themselves with summer moves and other projects. One of my favorite memories of those trips was our visits to the Big Surf Waterpark, probably the most exciting place I'd visited during the first 12 years of my sheltered life. During our afternoon stay, which must have lasted a good five or six hours, "Move Any Mountain" was played at least twice over the park's speakers. Bobbing up and down in the overcrowded wavepool or standing in line for the Space Bowl waterslide, I was already excited and overwhelmingly "pumped" to be there in a way that only an incredibly dorky 12-year-old could be. Yes, bliss it was to be alive. But to be young, with this song as an afternoon soundtrack, was very heaven.

The rest of that summer we sat inside and played Nintendo, or chased each other around the house with Supersoakers. It never occurred to me that this was as good as it was going to get.