My Summer Lair Chapter #321: How Many Songs Have Your Heartbreaks Inspired?
Back in 2007 a video game documentary injected us into this wild world where die-hard gamers compete to break world records on classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was directed by Seth Gordon. In that video game documentary viewers met Walter Day, introduced as the world’s video game referee. A referee who oversaw the contest with the reigning champion Billy Mitchell.
Walter and Billy are back…in another strange kinda video game documentary: Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad Of Walter Day. This one is directed by Ed Cunningham.
Arcades & Love Songs is a documentary follow-up to The King of Kong: specifically the scene where Walter Day reveals that he had his heart broken in the mid-80s. And that heartbreak prompted hearing “big rock, love songs” in his head.
As you can tell from the title Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad Of Walter Day is Walter’s attempt to begin writing, recording and singing those big rock, love songs…to get them out of his head and into our world.
Walter is also 74 years old and unlike video games where you have multiple lives…it’s now time to share his music. (And his passion for Taylor Swift. That often comes up in Arcades & Love Songs.)
Arcades & Love Songs isn’t a joystick nostalgia trip.
This documentary centered around the heartfelt friendship Billy and Walter have…based on all those years of playing video games.
For civilians it’s gotta be a surreal experience to end up in a documentary…I asked both of them about that to convey what that’s like. Two documentaries, really…King of Kong and now Arcades & Love Songs. Most people (generally) don’t end up in 1 documentary. These gents have two.
Behold the Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad Of Walter Day trailer:
Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad Of Walter Day is a poetic meditation on legacy.
Following the release of King of Kong fans have been asking Walter about his music. They didn’t just see him as a video game referee with the zebra stripes and all that.
Rather they were inviting him and providing him with the opportunity to display his musical talents.
So friendship, competition, and legacy…music it’s all happening in Arcades & Love Songs.
Another aspect I was curious about…how do Billy and Walter maintain their confidence?
The each have passionate beliefs in their own unique talents. They each offered such unique approaches to that struggle…if you’re a creative individual you’ll benefit from their distinct responses.
Beyond old school arcade games…the fame, the friendship, what Walter Day is attempting (doing, really!) is what it truly means to level up in life.
If you want to listen to Walter’s music, you can check it out where you listen to music: YouTube and Spotify for example.
Here’s a Costco Sample…this is Love in a Changing World:
Nifty, yeah?
Can I make a request? If you’re gonna go on Spotify or YouTube to listen to more of his music, please do give My Summer Lair a follow on either platform.
Especially, on Spotify the podcast has been flourishing over there in the past year or so. Shout out to my new Spotify followers and listeners. (Thank you for boosting the podcast.)
Arcades & Love Songs @ W • T • F
Host Sammy Younan
Recorded: Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 3:00 pm (EST)
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