So come on Pinefox, what *do* you see in Go West?

At the time Deacon Blue were still calling themselves Chewy Raccoon and Ricky Ross was insisting that he was a punk at heart.

Marcello is right on the money here.

Homoeroticism? Sorry, can't see it.

I have 'From Baltimore To Paris' in my head right now. It's marvellous. Those looming strings late on.

JtN reviews ABC very nicely in UNCUT, you should look. I agree with JtN about ABC, I think; I also like JtN's covers of ABC, a lot.

The difference between GW and ABC: that's an interesting one, I'll think on and get back to you.

-- the bellefox (pinefo...), November 11th, 2004.

Dude can't actually pronounce "we close our eyes", can he? For all its chest-beating "we can walk on wahahahaw-duh" talk, its central message contains a TOUCHING VULNERABILITY

The Pinefox has had four years, now

I do love "King of Wishful Thinking."

if "We Close Our Eyes" was the only thing I'd heard from Go West, I would respect them a good deal more. It's a great song. One thing I will say about it is that I find it impossible to divorce the song in my mind from its video; it's like "Sledgehammer" in that respect, although the video lacks the artistry shown by Aardman in "Sledgehammer", it is certainly striking.

As indeed are the lyrics:

Inside everyone hides one desire
-- what an opening line!

Outside no one would know

Danger, close as the edge of the knife
-- I particularly like the way Cox sings "danger" here

Safer not to let go
And whil we miss chances
You can almost hear time slipping away
-- actually "way-away-away-away"

We close our eyes we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes to time slipping away

No show... Wednesday girl waits with the wine
She knows just what to say
While no one listens
You can almost hear time slipping away

We close our eyes we never lose a game
Imagination never lets us take the blame
We close our eyes to see the final frame
We close our eyes to time slipping away

We can talk to strangers
We are burning with the spark
And we can walk on water
We are tigers in the dark
We are burning!
-- how many other 80s hits reference Blake????

We close our eyes

Heroes never give in to the night
He knows how far he can run
And as he surrenders
You can almost hear time slipping away

It was downhill fast from there. King of Wishing Thinking is particularly bad coz it has that dreadful VRERRRR! sound that links verse to chorus - Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody has it too. Actually lots of eighties songs do - why?????

because it's great

We close our eyes to see the final frame

It's about snooker. Good.

I do love "King of Wishful Thinking."

only found out this was a GW song about two weeks ago, having had it intermittently stuck in my head for about 17 years, even though the last and only time I heard it before that was on a tannoy in Toys R' Us the year it came out. The second listen was kind of disappointing

Wi Close Ah Wyes is a fuckin banger though

Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody has it too. Actually lots of eighties songs do - why?????

Jam and Lewis perfected it. Listen to almost Janet Jackson single and Human League's "Human."

perhaps the pinefox's refusal to be goaded (Carmoded?) by the slightly confrontational thread title is commendable

"We Close Our Eyes" is great. Dunno about the rest although I was kind of surprised by "Faithful" being quite good several years later.

Thank you, MP4xA. Maybe it doesn't need answering? I like them! Love some of their records.

Grandpoint Genie, good stuff - but I don't especially agree about the falling-off. I think I like 'Call Me' more ... maybe even 'Don't Look Down' too? And there are many other fine Go West tracks. Most of them, on the first two LPs ... it's only with the third, Indian Summer, that things went in the wrong direction.

Random play of '90s hit box set gave me their cover version of "Tracks of My Tears" (UK #16, 1993) last week; it made me giggle how he sang "People say I'm the life of the party / Because I tell a joke or two" sounding like the boringest dullest dude ever.

Didn't they turn up on v silly quasibetshow "Banzai" in some egg-to-forehead-based shenanigans about a decade ago btw?

https://youtu.be/af6L1jBZGYA