The first (and only) time I saw the video for "King of Wishful Thinking" was in 1999 in a movie theater in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. For some reason unknown to me, they played the video before the movie.
Go West's newest album "futurenow," released last year, is really good. No, really! I got it for $7. It was the last thing I bought from Circuit City before the company exploded. Guess it wasn't enough to save them.
eddie_w
· 3 months ago
Appreciate the heads up on "futurenow"...didn't realize GW had a new album. Always liked them, so I may need to try and track that one down myself.
Great job as usual this week Jason. Not sure if "Hammer's ass in a banana hammock" or "warm September rain!" made me laugh out loud more (although hands down Hammer's ass *disturbed* me much more).
And, count me in as one of those white dudes your age who knows every word to "Do Me!" (and "Poison") and is more than happy to demonstrate/embarrass myself whenever it's playing.
dslifton
· 3 months ago
What does it say about Popdose that a Go West single that wasn't King Of Wishful Thinking has been featured twice while King Of Wishful Thinking has only been in one article?
RLB
· 3 months ago
RE: "a game of Different World or the Cosby Show." A Different World was a spin-off of Cosby, wherein Lisa Bonet Goes To HBC, rooms with snob, dates wacky guy with flip-up glasses, clashes with R.A. Sinbad (I think?).
So I'm guessing (without listening) that the lyric is "a game, or Different World, or the Cosby Show."
jasonhare
· 3 months ago
Ohhhh. Okay. I know A Different World, duhhhh. I just wasn't smart enough to come up with idea of a comma.
Finnerty
· 3 months ago
Haven't heard the Expose-ish "If Wishes Came True" in a long, long time. What a flashback. Didn't Harry Chapin have a hit with his sequel to "Taxi" called "Sequel"?
jasonhare
· 3 months ago
That's the one! Way to go!
David_E
· 3 months ago
... “We believe that a tribute band experience should be as authentic as possible which is why we put 150% effort into every show we play.” I think this makes a really grand assumption about Poison in the first place.
(Snicker)
Gigi
· 3 months ago
Omigod. This could get long. No, I'm gonna keep it brief. I have to.
10. I love "We Close Our Eyes" - both the song and the completely amazing video (long live Godley and Creme!). I guess "We are tigers in the dark" was too literary for America, so the band dumbed it down to "I'll get over you, I know I will."
9. God made Billy Idol's accident happen so that James Cameron's horrible casting mistake would be averted.
8. No, Jason. "Have You Seen Her" doesn't suck. In fact it may be the greatest recording of Hammer's entire career. Listen to it again. It's subtle.
7. I know a guy who used to entertain his infant son by singing "Do Me!" Kids love new jack swing. Ah, Jimmy hats: see "Jimmy" by Boogie Down Productions (http://www.lyricstime.com/boogie-down-productio...).
4. The song puts me instantly back in my high school gym, where my friends and I would simultaneously dance and laugh our asses off whenever it was played.
1. Yes, I often think back to the pre-hoochie Mariah, but she always seemed shy and unsure of herself back then. When she got permission to be a skank, she became the Mariah she really wanted to be. And you're not telling me you think her vocal on "We Belong Together" is weak, are you? It's a masterpiece, in the same category as "I Will Always Love You" (yeah, I said it).
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
I... I gotta say this... Sorry, Gigi, but I have to. "We Belong Together" is the best Alicia Keys impression ever put to the recorded medium.
Sorry.
Call me?
Gigi
· 3 months ago
Ugh. Alicia Keys. Amateur. Send her back to school for a few years and maybe she'll come up with something. Absurdly overrated.
jasonhare
· 3 months ago
I don't have any specific problem with "We Belong Together," but I'd be willing to bet that far more studio tricks were used in the production of that song than "Vision of Love." Plus, I think there are many singers who could have sung "We Belong Together," and far less who could have sung "Vision of Love."
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
I liked "Vision Of Love" the first ten times I heard it. It was the subsequent 1000 times (that week) that ruined it for me. Was Tommy Mottola hot for Mariah's stuff or what to have radio crank her out like that?
I suspect "unskinny bop" was something one of the Poison boys said while really, really, REALLY drunk. While that's usually not a good thing, apparently intoxication worked for the band, so three cheers and bottoms up.
Where are Hammer pants when you need 'em? Please Hammer, don't flash 'em! Stop scaring the Chi-Lites away!!
mjheyliger
· 3 months ago
I take it no one saw the "Pumps and a Bump" video, in which Hammer revisited the banana hammock...only this time it was for most of the video and he was facing the camera. Yikes!!
Joel
· 3 months ago
I can explain why "U Can't Touch This" didn't chart as high as "Have You Seen Her".
The only way you could purchase the "U Can't Touch This" single was if you bought it as a vinyl 12" single. In 1990, most single sales were on cassette single (there were still a few 45 RPM buyers, but...). The song got a lot of "airplay points" on the Billboard chart, but not a lot of "sales points". Because of this, the song didn't place as high on the chart as it should have. To qualify for a place on the Billboard Hot 100 a song had to be available as a single (12", 45, cassette or cassette maxi single). Cassette singles were the most popular format in 1990.
Does that make any sense?
jasonhare
· 3 months ago
Yeah, it makes sense. And it's fascinating. We were just talking about this seemingly impossible situation at dinner, and now I have an answer. Thanks, Joel!
Bob
· 3 months ago
I'm usually with you on the song critiques, Jason, but not on "Vision Of Love". I find the song nearly unlistenable, in part because I blame Carey for opening the floodgates to all the female note-bending, over-souling, and melismatic histrionics that went on in '90s popular music. For many of us old folk, those were dark times.
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
Well, during those first couple weeks of release, "Vision Of Love" wasn't seen as the harbinger it was. We had Whitney grinding notes like sausage, but with Mariah on the scene the melisma-proliferation race was on. So the first few times I heard it, the song was actually kind of impressive.
Y'know, it's kind of like those first few days when you start dropping weight and you think, "Hey look who's getting sexy all of a sudden!" Then the other effects of the Bubonic Plague kick in...
Bob
· 3 months ago
While I agree that Houston's singing could be, ummm, "theatrical," I seem to remember her showing more control and restraint than Carey ever could.
Maybe my memory is just failing me and that wasn't the case at all -- these things can happen when you hit your late 40s!
:::theroux
· 3 months ago
I think we can credit Whit with popularizing the vocal gymnastics. MTV used to air the live clip for "Didn't We Almost Have it All," and damn if she did just mangle a pretty song. Curly-Q's for days. A friend who had actually seen her concert in its entirety, said the whole show is like that. Sweat and improv.
10 years later Christina arrived on the scene and...well, I guess she saw those concerts too. She even does the Whit microphone-tap. They all do.
:::theroux
· 3 months ago
In addition to their lawsuit woes, Snap! had a fatwah put on their heads by the angry gays.
You wont find much on Google about this. In an interview with some magazine, some Snap! member snapped. He said (paraphrasing here), he 'didn't want no fags coming to Snap! shows' (Oh snap!) A minor boycott followed, and gay clubs refused to play Snap!'s brand of cut-n-paste techno tomfoolery. I'm not making this up. I saw a drag queen who looked like Carol Channing snap a Snap! record before a cheering audience. Snap!
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
Nothing says "good marketing" like attacking your primary audience.
kingofgrief
· 3 months ago
The story I heard (back in '90) was that the lead singer started taunting the audience at a club gig after finding out the club catered mostly to gay clientele. The assistant manager at the record store I worked at was a DJ at a few gay clubs and jettisoned the few Snap! records he had from his collection as a result.
At least Janet's cultural relevancy survives in the form of legacy: Ciara, Beyoncé, Justin, Britney, and on and on owe a huge debt to Janet as dancer/singer. Her own catalogue stands the test of time. Surely Mariah will never write something like The Velvet Rope.
kingofgrief
· 3 months ago
My top reason why "Have You Seen Her" sucks is an expansion on your second reason: HE CHANGED THE LYRICS IN THE FIRST PLACE. The original is one of the records I point to when I tell people the early '70s was my favorite era for R&B. You hear it and you don't need a video: you see the protagonist on a park bench, joking with the neighbor kids while silently moping for his girl. It's a frickin' masterpiece. And yet it wasn't too good for Hammer (who I usually defend) to screw with. I can only hope that parents nationwide, upon witnessing their children raving about the Hammer version, went to their old 45 case, dusted off the Chi-Lites original and said, "Come here, fool, and hear how it's done," thereby piquing their curiosity about the other 45s in that box...
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
Actually, the parents should have told their kids, "Wow. Hammertime is so much better than the Chi-Lites original! He's so deafening! He's the bomb-digger, Eeyore! Word is bones!"
Those rebellious kids would have dropped Hammer in a heartbeat's fit of reverse psychology.
kingofgrief
· 3 months ago
Yeeaaahhhh, Boy-ar-deeee!!!!!
DwDunphy
· 3 months ago
Worms to your mommy.
Sharon
· 3 months ago
Bwahahaha, I just read these last comments..."He's so deafening! He's the bomb-digger, Eeyore! Word is bones!", "Yeeaaahhhh, Boy-ar-deeee!!!!!" and "Worms to your mommy." I just about fell on the floor...I may have to work them into conversations.
Treavy
· 2 months ago
Mariah was so nervous. Check out her "If It's Over" performance at the Grammy's the next year. Total turnaround.
All Comments
Go West's newest album "futurenow," released last year, is really good. No, really! I got it for $7. It was the last thing I bought from Circuit City before the company exploded. Guess it wasn't enough to save them.
Great job as usual this week Jason. Not sure if "Hammer's ass in a banana hammock" or "warm September rain!" made me laugh out loud more (although hands down Hammer's ass *disturbed* me much more).
And, count me in as one of those white dudes your age who knows every word to "Do Me!" (and "Poison") and is more than happy to demonstrate/embarrass myself whenever it's playing.
So I'm guessing (without listening) that the lyric is "a game, or Different World, or the Cosby Show."
Didn't Harry Chapin have a hit with his sequel to "Taxi" called "Sequel"?
(Snicker)
10. I love "We Close Our Eyes" - both the song and the completely amazing video (long live Godley and Creme!). I guess "We are tigers in the dark" was too literary for America, so the band dumbed it down to "I'll get over you, I know I will."
9. God made Billy Idol's accident happen so that James Cameron's horrible casting mistake would be averted.
8. No, Jason. "Have You Seen Her" doesn't suck. In fact it may be the greatest recording of Hammer's entire career. Listen to it again. It's subtle.
7. I know a guy who used to entertain his infant son by singing "Do Me!" Kids love new jack swing. Ah, Jimmy hats: see "Jimmy" by Boogie Down Productions (http://www.lyricstime.com/boogie-down-productio...).
4. The song puts me instantly back in my high school gym, where my friends and I would simultaneously dance and laugh our asses off whenever it was played.
1. Yes, I often think back to the pre-hoochie Mariah, but she always seemed shy and unsure of herself back then. When she got permission to be a skank, she became the Mariah she really wanted to be. And you're not telling me you think her vocal on "We Belong Together" is weak, are you? It's a masterpiece, in the same category as "I Will Always Love You" (yeah, I said it).
Sorry.
Call me?
I suspect "unskinny bop" was something one of the Poison boys said while really, really, REALLY drunk. While that's usually not a good thing, apparently intoxication worked for the band, so three cheers and bottoms up.
Where are Hammer pants when you need 'em? Please Hammer, don't flash 'em! Stop scaring the Chi-Lites away!!
The only way you could purchase the "U Can't Touch This" single was if you bought it as a vinyl 12" single. In 1990, most single sales were on cassette single (there were still a few 45 RPM buyers, but...). The song got a lot of "airplay points" on the Billboard chart, but not a lot of "sales points". Because of this, the song didn't place as high on the chart as it should have.
To qualify for a place on the Billboard Hot 100 a song had to be available as a single (12", 45, cassette or cassette maxi single). Cassette singles were the most popular format in 1990.
Does that make any sense?
Y'know, it's kind of like those first few days when you start dropping weight and you think, "Hey look who's getting sexy all of a sudden!" Then the other effects of the Bubonic Plague kick in...
Maybe my memory is just failing me and that wasn't the case at all -- these things can happen when you hit your late 40s!
10 years later Christina arrived on the scene and...well, I guess she saw those concerts too. She even does the Whit microphone-tap. They all do.
You wont find much on Google about this. In an interview with some magazine, some Snap! member snapped. He said (paraphrasing here), he 'didn't want no fags coming to Snap! shows' (Oh snap!)
A minor boycott followed, and gay clubs refused to play Snap!'s brand of cut-n-paste techno tomfoolery.
I'm not making this up. I saw a drag queen who looked like Carol Channing snap a Snap! record before a cheering audience. Snap!
Those rebellious kids would have dropped Hammer in a heartbeat's fit of reverse psychology.