Classic or Dud: Alan Parson Project's "Don't Answer Me"

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I've always liked this song a lot--from "Ammonia Avenue", if I recall, right? Never really took the time to read the lyrics, but the song has an almost jarring (by today's standards) innocence to it, like it would be the perfect soundtrack to two teens kissing awkwardly in the backyard and blushing.

Was Jeff Lynne involved with this in any way? It evokes Lynne with the guitars/drum production, and the vocals evoke ELO...

Anyway, I say definite classic.

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

I love the song. I'd like to hear Matthew Sweet cover it, along with "Eye In The Sky".

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Classic! Not afraid to admit that this song can move me to tears if heard under the correct conditions.

― Jamie F, Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

Absolutely classic!

In fact, just reading the title brought the entire song into sharp focus in my brain.

Wasn't the video for this animated? I recall it being quite well done.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 18 August 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Song = classic

Video = SUPER CLASSIC

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 18 August 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I think the video was some kind of animated comic book/Casablanca/Dick Tracy-type story, right? That was a great vid...

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 18 August 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

This video is played almost hourly on VH1 Classic. I mean, sure, it's great....but enough is enough.

Alan Parson's finest hour remains "The Raven" on Tales of Mystery & Imagination.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 August 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

"The Raven"? Hmm, I'll have to go give another listen.

― Edward Bax (EdBax), Thursday, 18 August 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Listening to this one more--still love this tune!

Reading the lyrics, they are really good and a little ambiguous (is it unrequited love among two friends or a formerly intense, now broken-up relationship?), but definitely more depressing than they sound on the surface, against the music.

When you are just listening to this casually, it sounds positive and hopeful, the usual love song pap ("If you believe in the power of magic...", "If you need to believe in someone..."), but these are shot down by the next lines ("...it's all a fantasy", "...just pretend it's me").

― Joe, Friday, 3 August 2007 21:02 (eighteen years ago)

Great song. Sounds very much like a classic Phil Spector effort from the early 90s. Prefer the title track from that album though.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 4 August 2007 08:16 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, someone asked if Jeff Lynne was involved. That kind of makes my heart glow. There is a fantastic thing on You Tube of ELO doing "Mr. Blue Sky".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Ncxw1xfck

― Bimble, Saturday, 4 August 2007 08:24 (eighteen years ago)

Anyway, Alan Parsons and Eric Wolfson, with their experience, didn't need Jeff Lynne.

They are very much part of the same genre though, the genre that I prefer to call pomp pop or prog pop.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 4 August 2007 18:05 (eighteen years ago)

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