TS: Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" vs. Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie"

Gramm's modesty > Perry's ego

http://www.foreignerfiles.com/lougrammsolo/articles/art2.htm

These songs aren't in the same league.

i remember totally ignoring "midnight blue" when it was first released. then i remember reading in a spin or rolling stone profile of r.e.m. that they covered it live and i gave it a chance. loved it. i also remember it being one of my favorite songs to hear while training for the marathan in 2002.

But "Midnight Blue" vs Steve Perry's best solo single "Foolish Heart" would be a lot closer.

http://www.foreignerfiles.com/lougrammsolo/articles/art2.htm

Does anybody here actually have the REM cover of it?

though i have definitely changed since 1987: "if your idea of hard rock is Double Vision or Head Games, you'll probably eat it up. (My idea of hard rock is the Stooges or Slayer, so I can hardly stomach any of it.."

I have insulted Slayer on this board somewhere between 500 and 1000 times, I believe,

TS: "Foolish Heart" vs "Just Between You and Me"

April Wine, every time.

"Midnight Blue" is a crap song no matter who's singing it, and Lou Gramm's golden tones - more like aluminum - do it no favors.

For the record, Foreigner have one classic in their catalog ("Waiting for a Girl Like You") and another I like for personal reasons ("I Don't Wanna Live Without You," can't defend it, don't ask). That's it, and that's two more than Lou Gramm's got, in my book.

However, I just bought the remaster of Street Talk this weekend, and it's a surprise: not only does "Oh Sherrie" still sound great, so does "Foolish Heart," so does (especially) "She's Mine," a superb little slab of mid-'80s paranoia pop-rock, hell, so does even "Strung Out" (the fourth and final single). Not just those, but the album as a whole is much more solid than it's got any right to be.

I should be thoroughly ashamed to say this, but fuck it, I'm 36 and it's right: Steve Perry may be one of my favorite singers ever.

The R.E.M. cover of "Midnight Blue"...wow.

Thing about Midnight Blue vs Oh Sherri is that they're such totally different kinds of songs. Choosing between them feels like taking sides in yesterday's style wars. Oh Sherri is consistent with Journey's material and with late-70s & 80s arena rock aesthetics: I'm thinking Boston, Journey, Foreigner, Queen, Supertramp, etc. It's big, dramatic, soaring and anthemic. The arrangement is textural and complex, celebrating its own craftsmanship and making no attempt to seem like a captured performance-moment. It's like an Andrew Lloyd Webber showtune: emotionally grandiose to the point of absurdity, poofed and powdered and glossed to within an inch of its life. There isn't anything reserved or subtle about it, any trace of an attempt to appear "legitimate" or "authentic". That makes it easy to dismiss as bullshit, easy to cringe from, easy to hate.

Midnight Blue is almost its polar opposite. It slots in not with the ambitious pretension of post-prog mullet rockers, but with emerging retro-authenticity types like Bryan Adams and The Smithereens, even The Replacements. Big vocals and gated boom notwithstanding, it splits the difference between gloss and gravel and takes a step back from Oh Sherri's gushing, shameless emotional floridity. It seasons optimism with a hint of wisdom and simmers as much as it soars. I guess I guess I mean that's it's classicist and deliberately cool, referencing raw bar-band rock, country, soul and gospel for authenticity points.

You see this in the videos. While Steve rejects a corny medieval fantasy scenario in favor of something more "real", Oh Sherri ends up resembling a jokey, budget version of Madonna's Like a Virgin, with the singer posing romantically while serenading his beloved. Lou, on the other hand, rocks a black leather jacket while jamming with his buds in a dusty old barn. The "for the girls" vs. "for the guys" lines couldn't be drawn any more clearly. "This is pop" vs. "this is rock" spelled out in big neon capitals.

Me, I like Midnight Blue better. But then again, I like rock more than pop and guy stuff more than girl stuff, so no surprise. But in a way, I respect Oh Sherri's tasteless, flagrant ambition more. Lou's kinda playing it safe, turning in an excellent version of what time has worn comfortable and what critics have deemed "true". Steve, meanwhile, is just letting it all hang out, risking looking like a total fool, and making music that belongs only to its moment. Oh Sherri seems more inventive, like music that's building its own rules and genre, rather than simply observing familiar formal conventions. This impresses me somehow, it seems braver and more guileless (though foolish). Still like Midnight Blue better...

Misspelled "Sherrie" throughout. Fucking fuck...

sorry but no - steve perry was never anything BUT a simpering clown with insane vocal chops, so there's no "risk" for him in looking like a total fool. Total Fool is his gimmick!

I think you're pretty much OTM wrt Midnight Blue, though it's funny to think of it as a roots manuva given that it sounds so overpolished now. But it was a step away from the gospel-choir stuff that made Foreigner a zillion-selling hit with the ladeez back toward their earlier rock stuff.

It's also nice and propulsive and fun to play on guitar.

I like lots of Foreigner, but Lou Gramm never affected this "Street Life"-era Bryan Ferry vocal before, so "Midnight Blue" wins.

I love Midnight Blue SOOO much. SO MUCH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRdgIZgobs

Steve Perry comes right in with those big pipes all desperate to win everyone from the first line like HAY THIS IS MY SOLO SONG PLEASE LIKE ME YOU REMEMBER ALL MY JOURNEY AWESOMENESS THIS IS SERIOUSLY WAY BETTER and it's good but it's more the beat that is catchy because the words are kinda bollocks

Lou plays it way cooler, goes bigger, doesn't even care if you know it's him right away...but by the end he's losing his mind over this car/chick/dad whatever. I love the build to the end!

'When I win your heart, I'm gonna paint it cherry red' Hands down. Win.

sorry -- love them both. Perry does restrain himself in verses in which the synths do the talking.

traitor

God, I love "Midnight Blue" so hard.

The R.E.M. cover of "Midnight Blue"...wow.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, December 22, 2008 4:16 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Haha, I was at the next night's show (same venue). Friends at school told me they'd covered "Midnight Blue," but I didn't believe them. All we got was the Velvets' "After Hours."

We liked it. Odd juxtaposition, for sure, but a great song. https://t.co/6AXQ4uDQXs

— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) November 3, 2017

<3

mike mills OTM

Ha! I saw them do that on the Document tour. Radio City Music Hall. They also sprinkled in a bit of Heartbreak Beat by Psychedelic Furs which was big back then.

new Steve Perry, I like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oawl9e-tFVM

i do too!

i had a huge grin on my face from the opening chords on

I guess I never thought of him as having very distinctive vocal phrasing but the whole time I was realizing that he really does

you can tell he doesn't have quite the oomph or range but he seems to be able to work around it pretty well

it’s decent but i dunno if i’d listen to it more than once. husky steve is fine :)

it’s not really a hot take but young belting steve is still the best steve

I guess I never thought of him as having very distinctive vocal phrasing but the whole time I was realizing that he really does

*cough cough* Sam Cooke *cough*

the titular refrain is terrible, but otherwise this is about what I would expect a latter day Steve Perry song to sound like

pretty much

i think the love is more a delighted “oh hey it doesn’t suck”