― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 11 June 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― Brenda Plarr, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 23:15 (eighteen years ago) link
But "Midnight Blue" vs Steve Perry's best solo single "Foolish Heart" would be a lot closer.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 23:20 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.foreignerfiles.com/lougrammsolo/articles/art2.htm
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 2 May 2006 23:21 (eighteen years ago) link
Does anybody here actually have the REM cover of it?
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 00:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 01:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 01:05 (eighteen years ago) link
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,
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 3 May 2006 01:07 (eighteen years ago) link
― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Wednesday, 3 May 2006 01:22 (eighteen years ago) link
TS: "Foolish Heart" vs "Just Between You and Me"
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Adam Beales (Pye Poudre), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link
April Wine, every time.
― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― hearditonthexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:47 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link
"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.
― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 19:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Inskeep (submeat), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 19:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― bobby bedelia (van dover), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 17 January 2007 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link
The R.E.M. cover of "Midnight Blue"...wow.
― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 December 2008 09:16 (fifteen years ago) link
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...
― Bored American Aerospace Defense Command (BORAD) (contenderizer), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link
Misspelled "Sherrie" throughout. Fucking fuck...
― Bored American Aerospace Defense Command (BORAD) (contenderizer), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 18:12 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― butt-rock miyagi (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 24 December 2008 19:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I like lots of Foreigner, but Lou Gramm never affected this "Street Life"-era Bryan Ferry vocal before, so "Midnight Blue" wins.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 24 December 2008 21:58 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 18 August 2013 22:34 (ten years ago) link
sorry -- love them both. Perry does restrain himself in verses in which the synths do the talking.
― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 18 August 2013 22:37 (ten years ago) link
traitor
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 18 August 2013 22:40 (ten years ago) link
God, I love "Midnight Blue" so hard.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 18 August 2013 22:57 (ten years ago) link
― 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."
― Shart Week (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 18 August 2013 23:21 (ten years ago) link
We liked it. Odd juxtaposition, for sure, but a great song. https://t.co/6AXQ4uDQXs— Mike Mills (@m_millsey) November 3, 2017
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Saturday, 4 November 2017 03:54 (six years ago) link
<3
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 November 2017 05:07 (six years ago) link
mike mills OTM
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 8 November 2017 20:16 (six years ago) link
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.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 8 November 2017 20:48 (six years ago) link
new Steve Perry, I like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oawl9e-tFVM
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 16 August 2018 19:42 (five years ago) link
i do too!
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 17 August 2018 16:51 (five years ago) link
i had a huge grin on my face from the opening chords on
― princess of hell (BradNelson), Friday, 17 August 2018 16:52 (five years ago) link
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
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 August 2018 17:09 (five years ago) link
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
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 17 August 2018 19:36 (five years ago) link
*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
― Οὖτις, Friday, 17 August 2018 19:40 (five years ago) link
pretty muchi think the love is more a delighted “oh hey it doesn’t suck”
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 17 August 2018 19:41 (five years ago) link