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

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

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...

― Ian Riese-Moraine eats nation-states for breakfast! (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 27 June 2005 15:23 (eighteen years ago) link

I'd be very hard-pressed to name a song worse than this one.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 27 June 2005 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

This song and Billy Vera and The Beaters "At This Moment" were 80s songs that got in my head inexplicably and I can still remember the lyrics to on command. So frightening.

― Candicissima (candicissima), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I would shoot this song if I could.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Ned, quit mongering hate!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Matt, I am a holy mission.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Rather, I am on a holy mission. But I could be a holy mission too.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

I absolutely love... "At This Moment". Dude can SING that song.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Believe and you can achieve!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.books.i12.com/mission/mission/mission_2.jpg

"Oi!"

― Wayne (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Seriously though...Silent Running is an awesome little wierd song....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

also, as bad as this song is, the video is like five times worse.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I absolutely love... "At This Moment". Dude can SING that song.
Yeah, you're right about that!

― Candicissima (candicissima), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Billy Vera I have time for -- good liner note writer for a lot of Rhino comps, had a great three-line role in Buckaroo Banzai. Trouper. Mike and the Mechanics I mock.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

Defend the Indefensible: Mike and the Mechanics' "The Living Years"
Um...okay...uh...
It's...OH! I got it...It's not as cloyingly sappy as "Cats in the Cradle"
Hows that.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Okay, have we maybe found the one song that everybody hates?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:21 (eighteen years ago) link

It's too LAAAAAAAAATE
When we DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
To admit we don't see
EYE TO EYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Hang on a minute. Was someone slagging off Time After Time?

― Buffalo Stan (Buffalo Stan), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Miles Davis didn't do a version of "The Living Years," that's for fucking sure

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Monday, 27 June 2005 17:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't hate "The Living Years," but nor can I muster a defense of it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Is Paul Carrack the only guy to have a hit with three different bands?

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link

Squeeze, these assholes and.....who is the third? Didn't he have a solo hit?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Ace, "How Long." He did however have solo hits too -- "Don't Shed a Tear" in particular I think.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Someone should lock him in the trunk of a car and drive it off a cliff into a perilous chasm filled with agitated snakes and quiksand.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I believe he's dead. And I think you're the chief suspect.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:45 (eighteen years ago) link

http://home.att.net/~leahland/nestles.jpg

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:50 (eighteen years ago) link

I think we're forgetting the key soulful bit:

Say it looooooouud
(say it loud!)
Say is cleeeeear
(oh say it cle-ear!)

This song is NOT better than "Cat's In the Cradle" and while it doesn't save that song, it makes "Leader of the Band" look like a Dylan tune.

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Nope, alive and touring, Ned....you big tease.

http://www.carrack-uk.com/Paul-Carrack---intro-Sam-Mo.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

"Look! It's my dignity cowering in the corner!"

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Tom Sizemore?

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Name people whose career arcs resemble that of Paul Carrack

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link

"Don't Shed A Tear" is nice.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:10 (eighteen years ago) link

There's no way in hell that "Time After Time" is worse than "Living Years", unless your ears are made of cheese.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:19 (eighteen years ago) link

It's...OH! I got it...It's not as cloyingly sappy as "Cats in the Cradle"

You can at least tap your toe to "Cradle" though now I do wonder what it would've sounded like had Ugly Kid Joe coverd "Living Years" instead.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, and Paul Young is the Mechanic who is no longer in the Living Years.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

There's no way in hell that "Time After Time" is worse than "Living Years", unless your ears are made of cheese.

So awesome-o.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh, and Paul Young is the Mechanic who is no longer in the Living Years.

Not to be confused with that other Paul Young who took a putrid, runny dump all over "Love Will Tear Us Apart".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link

ten bucks says "The living Years" gets remade as a #1 smash by some Groban type in the next five years.

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link

... the same Paul Young who proposed a whole new system of home-ownership based the laying down of hats.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:56 (eighteen years ago) link

AARGH. based "on" the laying down of hats.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Although if the Good Paul Young were in Mike & The Mechanics we'd have the singer with the soul pretensions to give their corporate pop a hint of depth.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:00 (eighteen years ago) link

OW. OW. OW. I think I just had an embolism...

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I have heard of this 'depth'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Interesting. What is this 'depth' of which you speak?

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:09 (eighteen years ago) link

The Bad Paul Young was incapable of a "Come Back & Stay" or "Everytime You Go Away".

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 27 June 2005 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link

And for that we are all thankful. But all this talk of cross-breeding Paul Youngs, good AND bad, with Mike & The Mechanics is doing nothing for my embolism.

Is it just me or is the badness of "Living Years" encapsulated by the line 'You can listen as well as you hear'...

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 21:51 (eighteen years ago) link

That's actually a clever line.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 27 June 2005 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Because...?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Cuz listening's different from hearing. Ned, all you need is a miracle.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 27 June 2005 23:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Error. Does not compute.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 27 June 2005 23:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 28 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Only wish ya coulda told us

― Jordan Pickford LOLverdrive (Neanderthal), Friday, 15 November 2019 04:41 (four years ago) link

nine months pass...

IT'S TOO LATE WHEN WE DIE

― muntjac wagner (Neanderthal), Monday, 17 August 2020 23:39 (three years ago) link

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

― muntjac wagner (Neanderthal), Monday, 17 August 2020 23:39 (three years ago) link

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

SHOOT IT LOUD

― muntjac wagner (Neanderthal), Monday, 17 August 2020 23:44 (three years ago) link

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

― Temporary Erogenous Zone (jim in vancouver), Monday, 17 August 2020 23:55 (three years ago) link

Aisle even, cripes.

Honestly dont mind "over my shoulder" mind you

― Temporary Erogenous Zone (jim in vancouver), Monday, 17 August 2020 23:58 (three years ago) link

two years pass...

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]

― linoleum gallagher (Neanderthal), Thursday, 20 July 2023 19:00 (eight months ago) link

seven months pass...

say it louuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud

― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Thursday, 29 February 2024 17:36 (one month ago) link

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