i really, really like the verses, particularly the long leadup to the first chorus. on that score this is one of the best ballads of the time (i'm hesitant to call this a "power ballad" because there's no power! no guitar anyways).
but the chorus is always a disappointment -- sodden and melodically uninteresting.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:37 (fourteen years ago) link
xhuxk to thread (his was the first positive piece I ever remember reading about the song). Always loved this song, a good time/place record for me (fall, 1984).
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:39 (fourteen years ago) link
I love it too, although it always makes me think of Miami Vice.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:40 (fourteen years ago) link
for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz2cUX0CNA8
since i don't like the chorus, i'm not too thrilled the the endless reiterations of it at the end. the gospel choir doesn't do much for me, except to remind me that this was supposed to be, like, their magnum opus or something.
i still am happy when this comes on the radio.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
will always love this song for that scene in Fucking Amal. /twee
― The Devil's Avocado (Gukbe), Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:45 (fourteen years ago) link
song title makes a great faux pick-up line, IMO.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:46 (fourteen years ago) link
http://freakytrigger.co.uk/old-ft/essays/2001/01/foreigner/
― Michael B, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I love this song, more than "Waiting For a Girl Like You."
― Anatomy of a Morbius (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I appear to be against the 80s
Still like this, though I kind of agree about the chorus. It's a bit teary-eyed drunk and overwrought.
― DavidM, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:49 (fourteen years ago) link
tom's article was a good read, although i think he's barking up the wrong tree trying to read the zeitgeist by the fact that _this_ song was big. lot of songs were big, they don't add up to a coherent picture. this one might have been big because it's catchy, has a decent and familiar-sounding lead singer, "soulful" chorus, etc.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:52 (fourteen years ago) link
I, too, wish to know what love is, so this song has special meaning to me.
― mo radalj, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:55 (fourteen years ago) link
the "you" in the chorus is unfortunate. the song is about a sad sack who can't get no love. who then is this nearby object he addresses? it's hard to imagine, and kind of dull.
anyway, the basic "concept" of this song (musical concept, that is) is to have a massive contrast between verse and chorus. long, slow, depressive verses, with very deliberate chord changes. big, booming, more melodically articulated chorus in major chords.
as a song, it's kind of trite. but the upside is that it forced them to do that odd moody thing on the versus, which tom rightfully likens to joy division, and which satisfies. but the overall gestalt is very un-joy division, so unless they had some big change of heart i can't agree that this sounds like them a few stadium tours down the line.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 19:56 (fourteen years ago) link
i guess it's the shift from the excruciatingly sweet/constipated "can't stop now/i've travelled so far" to the boringly bouncy "to change this/lonely/life" that disappoints most.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 20:01 (fourteen years ago) link
it's like, "wait, that's what i was waiting for?!" eh.
― amateurist, Tuesday, 11 August 2009 20:02 (fourteen years ago) link
I like the moody bass drone that underlies the verses; an unexpected dark touch for such a mainstream band. Plus I'm a sucker for gospel b-vox. This song almost makes up for the execrable "Juke Box Hero."
(Is it just me, or does this song sound like "Creep"?)
― Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 02:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Classic. I'll say nothing bad about it.
― Alex in NYC, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 02:54 (fourteen years ago) link
really? it's not a festering pile of putrid sputum, alex????
― scott seward, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:12 (fourteen years ago) link
locally, it was used in ads for the SPCA, so I associate it with cute kittens and puppies.
― free jazz and mumia (sarahel), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:14 (fourteen years ago) link
love it, maybe even more than 'urgent.' i can't agree about the chorus -- the sense of uplift seems very genuine, moreso than any other power ballad i can think of.
greil marcus called this the best single of the 80s (or second to 'bizarre love triangle,' anyway).
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:23 (fourteen years ago) link
greil marcus is a doofus.
― amateurist, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:25 (fourteen years ago) link
I WANNA KNOW WHAT LOVE IS
I WANT YOU TO BLOW ME
― galumphing lummox (bug), Wednesday, 12 August 2009 03:30 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_8Uv-y8Dbc
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Monday, 26 June 2017 09:48 (six years ago) link