If there ever was a song that started our whole remix craze here at fan-service.org, it was Dreamfighter by the incomparable Scott Peeples.

You have to understand the backstory. Then, we'd barely become aware of OC Remix and related sites. It was a dark and dirty time, where people like Joel would have to root through the garbage of Kazaa, delving into Spyware so deep it sunk a man to his knees, just to find a halfway decent copy of Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa Megamix. I eventually acquired it via Audiogalaxy, where I found such things as a Cutey Honey image song at a delicious 32 kpbs. It was a desperate era, but we cherished every morsel of sound that we could get our hands on.

Now videogame remixes flow like the Nile river, we need only stand at the shores and lap up the bounty. But it's a different sort of experience. Dreamfighter would rile us up, send us running around the kitchen shadowboxing invisible Glass Joes and Bald Bulls as we imagined ourselves on some sort of spiritual journey. Just about five years ago, I would christin Jerry Little Mac, while I would be his Doc Lewis. The joke stuck to this day, when the irreverant Coach would become my first and only forum avatar. I can still hear his wonderful words. "Join the Nintendo Fun Club today, Mac!" He'd intone. It was hard to get a remix, any remix, back then. We would play these CDs so long I'm surprised they didn't burn right through.

Dreamfighter is a somber, pensive peace, the sort of music you'd expect to accompany a Van Damme picture about spirituality and perserverence. The piano carries us to a land of mystery, only to be superceeded by a rather boss set of strings at 0'28. The tune should be intimately familiar to anyone of my generation. It all washes over you in a haze, left and right jabs. Hit at just the right moment... get a star! By 0'52, the REAL piano comes in and you're seriously ready to do some damage. By 1'12 the drum hits convince you that you could scale any mountain. 2'01 heralds the return of the strings and you feel that you might not be able to make it. A solo at 2'32 causes you to pensively stare at the sky and ask god why he's forsaken you. But seconds later the persistant drums tell you that there's no place for pity in this world. You have work still left to do! And this song isn't yet half over!

These days it's easy to download ten songs in five minutes and throw away eight of them. Now I might be quick to dismiss a song like Dreamfighter for being too slow and pondering. But back in those times, when you had to work for it, I hugged it near and dear to my heart as the next big thing. The simple piano of this song calls for us to remember that without great work, there can be no great reward.

But Could I Drive To This?: I find myself unconvinced. Be aware, the "Victory Mix" on which this song resided was no stranger in the motor vehicle of any of my friends, but this is the kind of song that requires you to be running with all your might, struggling for every last breath. When you've done a 5k run with this song on constant repeat then maybe, just maybe, you've earned the right to do soemthing as inconsequential as drive to it.