You know, I really wish I could
get home from work at 2 in the morning and just go to bed. But for whatever
reason I can’t. So I end up writing blogs posts at 3 in the morning, and I’m
sure they don’t make any sense. And these blog posts lead to me looking up youtube music videos. Go figure, it all comes full circle.
My discovery of “The Price of Love” tonight brings John Waite to 4/4 on songs he's sung that I’ve heard. Not
bad for a relatively unknown artist, well if you can call someone with 7 top 40
hits, including a #1, as unknown. And
that’s not counting his work with Bad English and the Babys or his duet with Allison Krauss--if you listen to nothing else I link to here, listen to that one. Granted, it’s a lot easier to sound great when established songwriters
and musicians like Neal Schon, and Jonathon Cain are the accompaniment. And if
you’re singing with Allison Krauss I don’t think anybody cares what you sound
like as long as it’s not terrible--and trust me, he's not terrible.
But still, “The Price of Love” is
definitely one of the better 80s power ballads I’ve heard. I know, I’m obsessed
with Journey, and Bad English sounds a lot like Journey—given that Schon and
Cain were big parts of Journeys sound and songwriting, this makes sense (they
are now certainly the biggest parts of Journey). I think John Waite even sounds
quite a bit like Steve Perry, though that I might just be imagining. I like
power ballads, but this one stands out to me lyrically.
Your typical power ballad, as
exemplified by Foreigners “I Want to Know What Love Is,” (sorry Kelly Hansen fans, but Lou Gramm singing this destroys Kelly singing it. That's just "The Way it Is") which is generally
considered to be the original, is basically cheesy, schmaltzy stuff. And this
is too. It feels like it’s more though. It seems to realer to me somehow. I’ll
pick out some highlights and show you what I mean.
This house is not a home without you
It takes two hearts to share
Your eyes will always see through me
And bring me to my knees
And I will always turn to you
You’re everything I need (and my favorite lines)
And through the good and bad times
You have always been there
We hold each other close (he alternates this with tight. I think it’s just to mess me up
while singing along
You tell me it’s alright (and skipping to later)
We’re more than lovers more than friends
There are more good lines of
course, I just tried to get the highlights. So, here’s the rest of my John
Waite playlist: “Missing You,” “When I See You Smile” with Bad English, and “EverytimeI think of You” with The Babys.
In other news: Steve Winwood
plays mandolin (listen to the "Mandolin Rain") on “Back in the High Life Again,” making him officially my new
hero. If I was cool, I’d play mandolin. And speaking of good lyrics, I love
these as well. Highlights:
It used to seem to me
That my life ran on too fast
And I had to take it slowly
Just to make the good parts last (jumping to next verse)
You used to be the best
To make life be life to me
And I hope that you’re still out there
And you’re like you used to be
What a thought, I’m using this
blog to fulfill its original purpose! But what's missing here is the important questions: Does Journey do Bad English songs in their current shows? Did Bad English do Journey and The Babys songs at their shows? As @notbillwaton would say #thingstoponderatnight. (I bet they at least did "Missing You." That's John Waite's signature) Sorry, for all the links I threw in trying to be clever. Enjoy them.
Comments
Post a Comment