Friday 27 November 2009

Friday night gear change

This is a prime example of the thinking that says "Great song so far, but we have to pad it out to about three minutes". The song itself is indeed great for the first minute and a half, grinds to a natural halt during a delightful percussion section (at which stage it should have been faded out) , stops completely ... and then starts again with just percussion/vocals (see also "Living on a prayer") before the band comes back in, at which stage Messrs Chinn and Chapman think "Shit! We haven't even got two minutes' worth" so for the next minute and a half there are four (count them) gear changes, each sounding more strained that the previous one:

5 comments:

banned said...

Being a child/yout of the 70s' I was a realtime The Sweet Victim but do not recall this song at all. I expect that we ( groupthink thing ) ignored it for trying to ape the proper reaggae that was becoming popular at the time.
Nice analysis btw.

Andrew K said...

I don't think you'll find many gearchanges in this piece of Chapman/Chinn memorabilia . . . probably because the band was incapable of them. It's based on the traditional three-chord bash, but with one of the superfluous chords omitted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofDCsRhT57o

TheFatBigot said...

"Papa rumbo rumbo hey papa Joe coconut"

They don't write them like that anymore.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, I didn't remember it either, but it was on a Sweet Greatest Hits CD I bought at Woolies a few years ago.

AK, woah! Racey! Possibly the uncoolest band ever.

TFB, agreed, the lyrics aren't up to the standards of "Wig Wam Bam" (Hiawatha didn't bother too much/About Minni Ha Ha and her tender touch) but hey.

banned said...

"Racey - Lay Your Love On Me"
Thank you, that was really horrible.