Two Grown Ass Men Chat About "Thunder Island"

The song "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson is one of the most hot fire, bodacious, awesome songs of the 70s. Sung about some sort of tryst with a girl who's hair was "the color of an Indian Summer", the song reached #9 in 1978. As a child, I always had assumed that Ferguson and that fine ass little lass got stranded on Thunder Island in some sort of Blue Lagoon type thang and just banged like rabbits. Well, the other day at work, my co-hort Jeff Hill disagreed with these findings. The following transcript is what followed (Please Note: Vampiro is Vampire Weekend):

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:05 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

And you call yourself a music fan. That’s child’s play.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:06 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

Kids are the ones who don’t hold the infamous Vampiro in high regard…

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:09 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

Adolescent minds are the ones who put Vampiro up on a pedestal. I put some effort in and gave them a listen with an open mind. I just didn’t feel them except for 1 track.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:10 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

And their cover of ‘I’m Going Down’.

I can’t believe you don’t like ‘Eye In The Sky’ by the Alan Parsons Project btw…

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:14 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

My bad, they have two good songs. That was a good cover.

It’s an epic journey that I want no part of. The most epic journey I can be a part of is with my man Jay Ferguson out on Thunder Island.From: Jacob Eickholt

Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:15 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

They also have a killer cover of “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac as well…as well as most of their songs.

That is a very epic journey. As a kid I always felt like he was accidentally stranded there, and that it was a very similar situation to Brooke Shields on Blue Lagoon.

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:18 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

I wouldn’t know about that cover.

Oh he wanted to be out on that beach. I look at it like Leo getting a secret map to go out on a beautiful paradise where only the beautiful ones are welcome like in the hit film ‘The Beach’.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:22 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

You should.

Are you sure? I like that theory but were there other people on that beach too? I feel it was just them and they passed the hours without number, then escaped and had to say goodbye to the island.

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:28 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

It was just him and his boo out on that island. The severe weather brought them closer together and their relationship grew stronger after leaving Thunder Island.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:30 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

Who are you, a romance novel writer? It was a dude and some chick brought together by circumstance, and all they did was discover each others company and never talk again after leaving that magical island.

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 2:45 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

Jay Ferguson was a gentleman sir! I will not sit here and allow you to drag his good name through the mud.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 3:47 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

He was no such thing. An amazing tunesmith, yes he was. He was similar to my styles…

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:02 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

He may have been running around before but that island changed him. After the storm he realized just how sacred life is. He realized that if he could conquer everything that Thunder Island threw at him, he could conquer anything else in life. That island made him a better person.

From: Jacob Eickholt
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:05 PM
To: Hill, Jeffrey
Subject: RE:

You need help. PS I am going to publish this as a transcript on my blog.

And life is not sacred…

From: Hill, Jeffrey
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 4:10 PM
To: Jacob Eickholt
Subject: RE:

If Jay Ferguson still tours and if he ever comes to Minneapolis, we are so getting front row tix.