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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Infatueighties

  • Infatueighties: #84: “Emotional Rescue”

    The cover of The Rolling Stones' "Emotional Rescue" 45.
    The cover of The Rolling Stones

    “Tonight and every night…I will be your knight in shining armor…coming to your emotional rescue…”

    The fact that Mick Jagger intoned these words in a drawl that made him sound like Lurch from “The Addams Family” notwithstanding, “Emotional Rescue” is a slinky, sexy, funky jam that, to me anyway, was one of the Rolling Stones’ last excellent musical moments. Only “Start Me Up”, “Waiting on a Friend” and the majestic “Out of Tears” have come close since.

    Yeah, the song is more or less a shameless ripoff of 1978’s “Miss You”, but a) it’s not like the Stones haven’t been ripping their catalog off for the past 30 years anyway and b) if they’re gonna rip a song off, at least it’s one of their five best all time songs. Jagger’s falsetto here is killer.

    In a Falsettometer column, I showed the Thermo-Vision version (say that 5 times fast) of the video. Here is the “normal” (or at least the less Thermo-visioned) version. It’s much easier on the eyes. It’s also a HELL of a lot shorter. They cut out an entire verse. Oh well. Enjoy.

  • Infatueighties: #85: “Paradise City”

    The cover of Guns 'n Roses' "Paradise City" single
    The cover of Guns

    It’s hard to believe that anyone listened to “Appetite for Destruction” without coming away with the thought that Axl Rose was riding the crazy train jusssst a little bit. Hell, check out “Paradise City”, released as the album’s third single and hitting the Top Ten nearly two years after the album’s release. It starts off with chiming guitars and an almost country feel, with the memorable and easygoing chorus and the deep-voiced “oh, won’t you please take me home”s before the music revs up, Axl sets the vocals on to screech and starts singing at about 5 times the speed. It’s a little disturbing, but it’s a lot of fun, and it helps make “Paradise City” one of the most singable hard rock songs of the entire decade, with only “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” registering in my head as more singable.

    I’m not gonna go through the history of G’N R here-I’m sure the majority of you reading (all ten of you) are well aware of Guns ‘n Roses. Hell, most of you are going to piss and/or jizz on yourselves when “Chinese Democracy” finally comes out. So I leave you with this scene from one of my all time favorite movies:

  • Infatueighties: #87/#86: “Yah Mo B There”/”Still a Thrill”

    The cover of Jody Watley's 1987 single "Still a Thrill"

    Remember on “American Top 40” when Casey Kasem would skip over songs that had been on the charts forever and a day? Well, since I already discussed “Yah Mo B There” here, there’s no point in rehashing. It pops up at #87 on my list.

    Now, song #86 is probably one of, if not the least-known song on this whole countdown. Most of you know Jody Watley as 1/3 of bubbly pop/disco group Shalamar or as the fashion plate who delivered post-Janet hits like “Looking for a New Love” and “Real Love”, but this song, while not a huge hit, served as her finest moment.

    Not only is Jody almost unrecognizable vocally-rocking a tone so deep you wouldn’t be out of line if you thought a man was singing, but this song has a nasty funk groove. The chicken scratch guitars and popping bass were provided by a guy named Andre Cymone. Prince fans may know Cymone as the Minneapolis Wonder’s original bass player (he left right before “1999”) and his de facto brother-Andre’s mother took Prince in as a teenager and the two boys grew up together. Andre had a fairly forgettable solo career, but scored a handful of hits as a producer, working with everyone from Jermaine Stewart to Adam Ant to Jody, who at the time of this song was his girlfriend and later became his wife. The two divorced at some point in the mid-Nineties, reportedly under a fair bit of acrimony, and Andre has become something of a recluse. Jody, however, still regularly scores hits on the dance charts and tours the country. Her most recent album, “The Makeover”, was released last year and scored a minor hit with a cover of Madonna’s “Borderline”.

    Oh, you’ll also find Andre fairly prominently featured as the love interest in this video.