Defending The Indefensible: Amy Grant

Neil Diamond gets a lifetime pass for writing "I'm A Believer"

Neil Diamond was never in need of a stripped-down, rustic sound. Half of what makes him him is the pomp of it all.

those songs sucked, is the problem. i'd listen to tape of him doing his good tunes with just a guitar on a stool or whatever, but those songs were not that good.

goole otm - the record sounded great & so did his voice but the songs were lame. I saw A.G. open with "My Father's Eyes" by herself: she can really play! "my father's eyes" is picked not strummed but here she is strumming away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqRbSzpBL1o

& oh my God this song...this SONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI6pME9P2ek

Neil Diamond gets a lifetime pass for writing "I'm A Believer"

― people are for loving (HI DERE), Monday, August 9, 2010 6:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

But that led to this so pass rescinded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUyu5prWjTE

interesting point of eschatology: posting that abomination in a lovely amy grant thread will get you such a talking-to on judgement day

But that led to this so pass rescinded.

So by far my favorite songs on The Collection (which runs in roughly reverse chronological order) are the relatively slick and sparkly, '80s pop-new-wavey-produced stuff at the beginning -- "Stay For Awhile," "Love Can Do" (both dated 1986 -- previously unreleased before this album I gather -- and written with Michael W. Smith and Wayne Kirkpatrick), "Everywhere I Go," and "Angels" (both dated 1984, from Unguarded). You can definitely hear her already transitioning toward Heart In Motion with those; their lyrics seem to be inching toward the secular, too. The rest is okay, for the most part ("El Shaddai" is one sort of weird standout), but not nearly so engaging or fun to me. Which makes me think I should pick up Unguarded and Lead Me On if I see them cheap, but maybe avoid her earlier, less popwise (and less huskily sung, as John says) stuff.

I never realized Unguarded was released with 4 covers. Take that, Arcade Fire!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/W_cover_Unguarded.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/O_cover_Unguarded.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/R_cover_Unguarded.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/D_cover_Unguarded.jpg

But Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door did it first, right?

Anyway, I guess Unguarded is the album I meant above when I mistakingly said Lead Me On was in that store with two different covered cassettes.

There's a song from her very first album called "Old Man's Rubble" that, for whatever reason, wasn't featured on The Collection. You should obtain it one way or another, even if the rest of the debut is kind of blah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPgkkAL_TA

This really should be posted, despite the brief mentions years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbVtwRrX1hE

she was the all-time favorite of my freshman-year roommate. he was a 2nd-gen korean-american lacrosse player, super christian. his family would come visit on weekends and i'd wake up hungover in my underwear to a room full of immaculately dressed, extremely polite koreans getting ready for church. yoo-sang brought like 10 cassettes to college with him, and half of them were amy grant. i guess they were ok, i don't know. i only let him use my stereo when i wasn't there.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 6:08 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the Gary Lutz story of my dreams

― J0hn D., Tuesday, July 22, 2008 6:11 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have to say, I peaked here

man though I'm listening to "Baby Baby" right now - who knows whether this is a single performance or a lot of punch-in & tape edits but wow, what a performance it is in the final mix - she occasionally does a sort of too-lost-in-the-song-to-enunciate-fully move (esp. @ "baby baby in any kind of weather" et seq.) which is pretty uncharacteristic of both her genre & her usual style, and consequently when she does put it into play it's incredibly effective; she communicates ecstasy, abandon, the conflation of the spiritual and the physical. I still prefer "Every Heartbeat" as a song, but "Baby Baby" is something of a master class in pop single-making.

ok yup it's AG listening party in the hotel now

SING YOUR PRAISE TO THE LORD COME ON EVERYBODY STAND UP AND SING ONE MORE HALLELUJAH

oh am I gonna go with "Doubly Good to You" next? you had better believe it

remembering you tonight Rich Mullins, one of the best who ever lived

ok this is my last post on the amy grant thread til dinner all right

there's a video for "better than a hallelujah" now and here it is. it's great but 1) why do country videos gotta always be making the old people in 'em suffer? like, really suffer? weird emotional porn impulse 2) if any track on that song ever existed on actual tape, as the video suggest, I would be extremely surprised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm5kx3xqmg0

I still prefer "Every Heartbeat" as a song, but "Baby Baby" is something of a master class in pop single-making.

Yeah, there's every reason for me to hate its emphatic synth hook but her performance and lyric are charming instead of gormless.

Besides the fat synth bass (which was wiped from the single remix), "Every Heartbeat" boasts the great couplet, "No exception to the rule/I'm simple but I'm no fool."

THYYYY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET AND A LIIIIIGHT UNTO MY PATH

You know she's doing a bunch of dates this year w/Michael W. Smith, right?

yeah I do!

i've listened to "1974" about ten times today

i've listened to "baby baby" about ten times today

i love this thread

Every Heartbeat is a jam

that album, man

I love Amy Grant. I went to a Christmas concert by her and Vince Gill last year that was pretty awesome.

really, really enjoying the new album how mercy looks from here

OK I demand an edit/remix/cover/whatever of "Angels" by, like, Diskjokke. Think he's our man for the job.

If he's ever googling "Diskjokke AND Amy Grant" he'll find this and do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PddJStucKQ

Heard this in the thrift store today! So good! Would be a great 90s dancefloor filler for anyone who DJs that stuff!

I love this woman so much

The singles run off Heart in Motion is up there with anyone ever

Her vocal phrasing on Good for Me is reducing me to a quivering wreck

I defy anyone to listen to that song and not love it.

YOU LIKE TO DRIVE LIKE MARIO ANDRETTI

"good for me" is the best song ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXuuYnoRdI

This is up there too. I loved these songs when I was a kid, had no idea they were Amy Grant.

I Will Remember You ftw

"Every Heartbeat."

Well yeah obviously

Pathetic turnout: Amy Grant - Greatest Hits

you linked to this thread

The circle won't be broken

Sure he didn't link to another AG thread?

I'm not 100% sure what I'm talking about but Good to Me almost feels like freestyle's last gasp on the chart. Obv I dont think AG was from Miami but just in production choices...Alfred, you seem like a freestyle enthusiast? Do you get the same impression?

YOU GET BRAVE WHEN I GET SHY
JUST ANOTHER REASON WHY

I also feel the need to mention her vocal performance on That's What Love Is For

"I Will Remember You", even though its central message is fairly optimistic, used to really depress me as a teen, as I had bad separation anxiety issues so losing touch w/ people was a shattering concept. great tune.