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David 01-06-2020 04:52 PM

Bands You Hate Except For One Song
 
Boston’s a band I’ve never taken to—lots of galumphing songwriting from the perspective of pimply teenage boys and mechanistic arrangements with all the surprise squeezed out of them. Boston was a business idea, not a musical one. Everything about them seemed fabricated—one of the founders attended MIT, and everything he did for the band was akin to a scripting language or parsing module. Still, they sold millions, so what do I know?

But there’s one song that has been a favorite of mine since the day I heard it in 1978, when I bought the follow-up to the debut. It’s the title song, Don’t Look Back. Looking at it soberly, it’s really just as corporate-phony as the rest of the Boston catalogue—but it’s perfectly phony: it’s the apex of everything it aspires to, because it grabs you by the prerogatives for six or seven minutes and doesn’t relent. None of it is genuine in the sense that, say, Beat on the Brat or 1979 is genuine, but there isn’t a single wrong turn or bad punch-in throughout the entire track. The whole articulate song is poised far above the typical bad taste of AOR cock-rock. Even the turn-around in the final minute is already legendary while you’re hearing it for the first time, like a Phil Spector production with the Ronettes. You can try to fight it and reject it as shlock but you’ll fail: you’ll be singing along, tapping your feet, shaking whichever body part you generally shake. You’re transported all the way to exaltation. By the final dying chord, you’re spent. In 1978, this was about as “epic” as experiences bought through Ticketron got.

Of any bands you hate or ignore, is there one song you just can’t dislodge from your brain?

HomerMcvie 01-06-2020 07:13 PM

Well, you could say the same of Journey, Toto, REO Speedwagon, or even (arguably) the Eagles.

Just because it's formulaic and polished for radio doesn't make it bad. If it works for you, then it works for you. Everyone isn't a musical snob(not saying that you are, my friend).

I have a friend in Nashville that loves REO, so I began adding couple of their songs to my playlist on the jukebox at our hangout. It's catchy, feel good music. It ain't gonna cure cancer, but neither is Storms.

For me personally, I've always been more about the music than the lyrics. That's why Think About Me has always been a top five song for me. I just f*cking LOVE the music. I really don't care much what the lyrics are, as long as the music works for me.

YMMV.

jbrownsjr 01-07-2020 02:55 PM

^^^^^ I really love the music in Think About Me, too!! It's so good.

David 01-12-2020 05:32 PM

Well, give a listen to Don't Look Back and tell me whether you don't just go nuts with joy.

Villavic 01-13-2020 08:25 PM

I never liked Rick Astley. I couldn't, and can't stand his songs. My brother got his debut studio album, Whenever You Need Somebody. It was a nightmare to listen those songs. 1987.

Four years later, 90s decade, he released Cry for help. I loved, and still love that song.


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