Just a Game
JAG
Change To Win
Christof Bachmeier
Arena Rock
1988
Gabor72
22 December 2018 - 02 July 2024
Just a Game was a sample posted on WatZatSong by Gabor72, a prolific poster of AOR music. Out of 108 samples, this was the only sample that remained unsolved for a number of years, before becoming one of the larger FMM searches.
The song started getting attention within the lostwave community in January 2024, easily winning the FMM new song channel poll and immediately getting placed in Main Unknowns. While the WatZatSong OP, Gabor72, had long since been dormant on WatZatSong – we had his 107 solved samples to go off of.
Early on, two major leads were investigated – the first being the idea that Just a Game could be from some sort of sporting goods commercial. A now deleted Redditor even found a record in the US Copyright Database titled Just a Game for a Nike commercial – but that was quickly ruled out. The other early lead was a song called Just a Game – released in Germany in 1985 by an artist named Der Gerd - after a few weeks, this was ruled out as well.
PersonOfDistraction contacted multiple AOR experts, including Frederic Slama, who is an AOR artist, Dan, owner of the website heavyharmonies.com, Strutter Magazine (an AOR magazine run by a man named Gabor), and many others. One such contact was Discogs user AORForever, who said he was certain the vocalist was German.
We found that Gabor's WZS profile picture was taken from Facebook and statrted trying to see if we could find a way to find him online & contact him.
PersonOfDisctraction heard back from YouTuber AOR Melodic Rock Rarities who said he believed he had JAG in his massive collection and that it sounded extremely familiar.
Then, we found the right Gabor on Facebook - only to learn he had recently passed away. Despite the fact that it is NOT ADVISED, we contacted Gabor's living family members. Luckily, this eventually led to Gabor's daughter, Dorka, being willing to help us.
After waiting about a month due to a move, Dorka was able to find the full Just a Game on her father's computer, where it had incorrectly been labelled as being by Der Gerd.
After listening to the full song and looked at the full lyrics, user Cubing Crusader found a listing in GEMA for a song called Just a Game – with alternate titles that matched the lyrics we now had word for word – attributed to Christof Bachmeier.
Funado found an artist with the same name and it seemed like he was a decent fit. But all we could find was instrumentals by him. Then, in going through an archived version of a website for a production studio Christof owned, PersonOfDistraction found that he had been a member of an AOR band named Zuckerband – and that album was on AOR Melodic Rock Rarities channel – who was the person who had previously said that JAG sounded very familiar to him.
Kutsu got in contact with Christof Bachmeier, who eventually confirmed, he was the artist responsible for Just a Game, which had been recorded in 1988 under the band name “Change to Win” for a charity concert for children in Africa. Only 200 of 500 LPs were sold; Christof would later ship the rest to all lostwave community members that wonted one, asking for an optional donation to charity.
Here I stand, all alone again
Now I realise the signs are pushed away
A thousand times, I tried to remind myself
To live for the moment, be happy with me
But I lost the chance, 'cause I didn't heed to my heart
And it hurts so much to feel everything has gone
Let's make it a start
Let's realise what we're doing
Not the money or the power
Will catch you when you fall
See the children in the desert
See their hopeless, desperate eyes
Ask the father what he feels
When his hungry baby cries
But I lost the chance, 'cause you tried to get it all
And you won't understand until your back is to the wall
And now I know, it's just a game
And I don't need the rules to play
Maybe it's happy, maybe it's sad
But you can't choose the way to play
And now I know, it's just a game
And I don't need the rules to play
Maybe it's happy, maybe it's sad
But you can't choose the way to play
Dead or alive, that's the password up to the top
We got all we want, but we got no time to leave
Oh, we don't care about the real things in life
While they kill ourselves
For a little bit of printed paper or gold
And we won't understand until our back is to the wall