Defend the Indefensible: Mike and the Mechanics' "The Living Years"

But (trying defend it per the thread title), the guitar part in the verse is kind of nice; that quiet chugging. Mike's aesthetic in songcraft is atrocious, but he's a pretty tasteful guitar player.

The verse has a similar vibe to "Follow You" and "Throwing it All Away." Those two songs were some of the more borderline-acceptable parts of Genesis's ineluctable slide into the tar pit of soft rock.

This is not a defense of it.

I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got

You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts

So Don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be O.K.

Chorus

I wasn't there that morning
When my Father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I called his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

1) The bitterness of the song makes it a little more sophisticated than "Gee dad, I miss you." I actually find the second stanza kind of effective in this way. "I'm a hostage to all his hopes and fears," -- that's kind of a dark, difficult idea for a top-10 pop song, even if it does make the cliched pairing of "hopes and fears"

2) Why do people rag on this song so much more than Time After Time? The Lauper song is equally soft-rock-y, sentimental, and maudlin, and I don't think you can argue that it's lyrically or musically superior.

3) I really did like this song (and Time After Time) when I was a little kid.

This question deserves its own thread.

Comments:
The song "In the Living Years" has always eluded me to this day, and now that I have located the artists and the lyrics, I can understand why. I totally relate to this song and it has made me realize the importance of making sure we always tell our loved ones what and how we feel no matter how hard it is to say. Thanks for allowing me to join in to make comments and check out the things you have in here. Donna
- Donnalynn, Blaine, WA
Paul Young who was the 53 year old lead singer with Mike and the Mechanics (and previously Sad Café) died from a suspected heart attack in July 2000. He collapsed at his home in Altrincham, Cheshire, UK.
- Danial, Dubai, Other
Paul Carrack was also in the bands Ace and Squeeze. This is one of my favorite 80's bands and I think they were very underated. I still have a videotape of the '89 Grammy performance of this song.
- Steve, St. Louis, MO
It's pretty inspirational alright - powerful stuff!!
- Helen, Dublin, Ireland
Love this song, inspires me to live life in the now not in the past or future
- Daniel, Perth, AK

http://www.songfacts.com/additionalSearches.lasso?about=More%20songs%20about%20a%20mother%20or%20father

and

You just can't get agreement
In this present tense

Words can't describe how much I loathe these lines. I penned better lyrics when I was thirteen! So clumsy, so lazy, so urgh...

"Oi!"

Defended!

utterly necessary

handsome devils

http://eil.com/images/main/Mike+%26+The+Mechanics+-+Living+Years+-+PRESS+PACK-453387.jpg

Townsend and the girl on the right side obv the best looking

I always get it mixed up with Back in the High Life Again which is an awesome song

Yes! Those Steve Winwood songs have aged remarkably well. Another good one is "Still In The Game" which MTV used to play at least once an hour in its first year of existence.

The Living Years was like a breath of fresh air after the dystopian nightmare of Silent Running.

this record sells like crazy on discogs. for whatever reason I assume it's to Russians.

I hate this song with the white-hot thermonuclear intensity of 1,000 suns, but maybe (?) it's existence is redeemed by the fact that it s l o w l y creeped into the musical terroir enough to where Mike Rutherford's guitar rhythm in the intro, via a crazy butterfly-effect that in all likelihood never happened (but stay with me), eventually bubbled up at random occurrences (dentist offices, Ralph's aisles, oil-change outlets) just often enough to inspire the intro to a damn good song ("So Special") from one of my favorites of '16 (The Loudspeaker EP) by MUNA.
https://open.spotify.com/album/05QlkSlB3MxfqtjiurXxe0

Or, MUNA may simply be fans of Genesis/Rutherford (I hear an echo of "Throwing it All Away" from "Invisible Touch" in their "Promise")

It's too LATE when we DIEEEE

die listening to this song more like

Have to admit we dont see eye to eye here

I do not like this song, also it's of the same level of quality as Africa by Toto and lots of people seem to like that for some reason.

cmon, Africa is fuckin' When The Levee Breaks compared to The Living Years

That said I recently read Rutherford's memoir of the same name and it was pretty good

well, parents put their kids in British public schools with the expectation that those kids can form paragraphs.

Every generation
Hates this fuckin song

There's no song I hate more in the world. My friend Adam knows this and used to call my answering machine and singing it softly every six months or so. It is so awful.

I was about to fulminate on how Paul Carrack has never sung or played on anything decent whatsoever, then I remembered he sang on Squeeze's "Tempted". Apart from that it's been a 50-year reign of terror. Even his early 70s prog band (Warm Dust) were shit. Checking him on Discogs, it seems he has over 50 releases (albums, singles and DVDs) on his own label since 2000 or thereabouts. 50! Who the fuck needs 50 Paul Carrack records?!

I do not like this song, also it's of the same level of quality as Africa by Toto and lots of people seem to like that for some reason.

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, April 6, 2019 9:34 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm.

I have childhood fondness for both this and Silent Running, but Over My Shoulder was the bane of my ITV Chart Show-watching existence for what seemed like an eternity when I was a teenager.

i kind of like 'how long' tbh xxp

so do grocery stores

i actually like over my shoulder

weird to google and see that over my shoulder didn't even get into the top 10 in the uk because it felt like it was on the radio all the time for a couple years

M&tM are opening for Phil Collins in June? Oh, the unfulfilled expectations of deluded Genesis fans

silent running is miami vice rock, so much better than this

Predicted Brexit.

I was a kid when this song came out, my mom always played the Adult Contemporary stations in the car growing up, IDGAF I love this song, come at me

Only wish ya coulda told us

IT'S TOO LATE WHEN WE DIE

I liked the pre-chorus to this song better when Linkin Park stole it for "Breaking the Habit"

I would shoot this song if I could.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, June 27, 2005 1:04 PM bookmarkflaglink

SHOOT IT LOUD

Remember first knowingly hearing this in the early 00s as I "faced-up" the paint isle in the mount vernon b&q. Dont understand why that's stuck with me so much, maybe because the combination was so dispiriting

Aisle even, cripes.

Honestly dont mind "over my shoulder" mind you

The BBC dubbed Carrack "The Man with the Golden Voice",[3] while Record Collector remarked: "If vocal talent equalled financial success, Paul Carrack would be a bigger name than legends such as Phil Collins or Elton John."[4]

say it louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud