How Long?

The refrain is playing over and over in my head, and that voice is so familiar...my first thought was "is this a one-hit wonder band?" or could it be Mike & the Mechanics? No, this song is way older than the span of that particular Genesis offshoot band. Is it a smooth R&B singer like Luther Vandross, or a richly-timbered white-guy crooner?

Why, it's Paul Carrack, in one of his first bands, Ace. Who's Paul Carrack, and why have I never heard of him before? Listen closely...does his voice sound familiar to you? It's seeped into the collective consciousness, via his higher-profile projects. Are you Tempted to google his name? And, yes, indeed, Mike Rutherford did hire him in the late-80s -- can you hear him calling you?

Will you join me in raising a collective, "What the hell??" when I say why hasn't Paul Carrack gotten the name recognition he deserves?

Artist: Ace
Year: 1974
Rating: Warm

Jump

My strongest association with the song "Jump" is an argument my friend Julie and I had the summer after our senior year of high school. It was about six years after the song's release in 1984, and thus, well into its influence on the rock radio canon. I had argued that the song paled in comparison to the brilliant music of Phil Collins. Julie contended that "Jump" was a better song from a musical standpoint than any Phil Collins song, hands-down.

I wouldn't argue that a Phil Collins song could beat up a Van Halen song behind the bleachers after school; my argument contended that Phil Collins's songs, including, naturally, the Genesis repertoire, were more robust from a sort of quasi-intellectual standpoint. I was basically just arguing against butt rock in favor of art rock. My argument, of course, was dashed from its inception, since by 1990, Phil Collins had long abandoned unconventional prog for soulless pop like Sussudio and insultingly vague altruism like Another Day in Paradise.*

Julie's argument, however, contained actual substance. A student of voice and music theory, she lectured me on the musicality of "Jump," the complexity of the arrangement, the layered instrumental elements, and the tonality of the entire composition. From her words emerged the grey scale picture of Collins's work placed next to the dynamically technicolored break out single on Van Halen's diamond-certified 1984 album.

I was bested.

Either that year, or a couple years on, Julie and I found ourselves at the same New Year's Eve party (at our friend Jen's place). We were listening to our local rock station's New Year's countdown of the "Top 100 Songs of All Time" (or perhaps the Top 105 Songs, or the Top 1,045 Songs). Imagine the cosmic comeuppance Julie felt when Van Halen's "Jump" was announced as the Number One song.

Julie was right: my esteem for Phil Collins only plummeted with the passing decades, and although I couldn't call it the Number One song of All Time, "Jump" has serious staying power. In my head.

Artist: Van Halen
Year: 1984
Rating: Luke Hot

* (Note to the earworm gods: please don't put either of those songs in my head now. Thank you.)

I Know What I Like

Hit me today in this vague sort of way. I had no idea whose song it was, and when I was hunting for it online, I came up with a Peter Gabriel-era Genesis song of epic and boring proggy proportions. But the musicality is more interesting than this bland pop-rock Huey Lewis tune which has managed to lodge itself in my head for more than 20 years.

I know what I like, and this ain't it.

Artist: Huey Lewis & the News
Year: 1986
Rating: Lukewarm

Losing California

Fun live version from a talk show appearance in '99.

Artist: Sloan
Year: 1999
Rating: Hot!

Noteworthy: With this entry, Sloan becomes the most frequently referenced band in my head so far (with Genesis close behind, albeit Genesis entries are dominated by one particular song).

That's All by Genesis

I'm fond of this song, even though the lyrics are admittedly not much beyond what an eighth grader could muster during composition class. It's a bit of nostalgia for loving the song as a sixth grader when it came out, mixed with my appreciation of Tony Banks's moody keyboards. Dig Phil's thinning-on-top, lion's-mane-in-back hair during this period.

Year: 1983
Rating: Warm

Edit, 11/8/09: Unfortunately, the live footage I originally posted here got yanked from YouTube, so now you only get this weak still shot vid. Sorry folks! -S

Red Rain by Peter Gabriel

Thank god my preferred ex-Genesis member, Peter Gabriel, came to mind in the shower this morning. This is a lovely dream-imagery song, appropriate for arrival in one's consciousness early in the day.

Year: 1986
Rating: Luke Hot

LOC and Taking It All Too Hard by Genesis

LOC hit me in the shower this morning, as usual. Then mercifully it blended into another slightly more tolerable Genesis song, also, interestingly enough, about "confusion."

song sample

No, not this confused again
No, not the same mistakes again
You're taking it all to heart
You're taking it all too hard.

Year: 1983
Rating: Lukewarm

Last post (LOC): 2/27/09
Year: 1986
Rating: Cold

Land of Confusion (redux)

* The frequency of this awful song in my neural jukebox requires me to refer to it, henceforth, simply as LOC.

Last post: 2/9/09
Year: 1986
Rating: Cold
Noteworthy: Yes, in the shower once again.

Land of Confusion by Genesis

Oh, dear readers, if you only knew how many times I've been punished by the infinite-loop that this "we've jumped the shark" Genesis song makes through the corners of my mind. And for some reason, it usually hits me while I'm taking a shower in the morning. Perhaps it has worked its way so deeply into my neural pathways that I will now and forever associate shampooing with the insipid imperatives of Phil Collins's pinnacle-of-the-Cold War anthem.

"This is the world we live in/And these are the hands we're given/Use them and let's start trying/To make it a place worth living in."

Over. And over. And over. Help me Peter Gabriel, you're my only hope.

Year: 1986
Rating (song): Cold
Rating (video): Warm