Sentences like "So we’re just listening to this guy’s exploding-vein roar over hold-music nothingness" are why Tom is the best music writer working today.
I guess I'm the odd man out, as I've always liked this song quite a bit (I'm only a couple years younger than Tom). I actually didn't even know this song was so reviled until I started seeing it in TNOCS. I get it though. I also like Billy Joel more than most of you I think. I can seriously destroy this at karaoke though.
There's a million other songs that use the same chord sequence. "Hey Jude" and "Sympathy for the Devil" come to mind. Primal Scream was absolutely not the first, and it's a little dumb that "blessings" had to be given over this.
I'll be honest, I've been dreading this one. I was born in 1982, and my mom loved Huey Lewis, so I literally grew up with this band. I love this song, and I love Huey Lewis, but I was afraid that Tom would hate it. 8/10 is right on the money though. This is a huge relief. Thank you Tom!
I got REALLY into Men At Work in high school....in the late 90s. Which was absolutely the worst time to be a MAW fan, and my friends thought I was insane. I remember telling one friend that even though Jimi Hendrix may be objectively "better," I'd rather listen to Men At Work. I still get shit about that to this day.
WHOA WHOA WHOA. This might be the first TNO post that has truly offended me. 1/10??? Come on, this song slaps! It's cheesy, but GOOD cheesy, like Huey Lewis (and if his upcoming #1 also gets panned, we've really got to talk)! From the looks of it, it seems most of agree with Tom too. This is actually probably the only Steve Miller song I actually like. I could never hear any of his 70s hits ever again and be totally ok with that. But "Abracadabra" is sooo much better than The Jo-goddamn-ker.
Not cool guys. Seriously not cool.
I've been waiting for this one, as it's my birth #1! I've never been a huge fan of this song, but I dodged a bullet because if I was born a couple weeks earlier, it would have been "Ebony and Ivory" (yuuuck). My oldest friend was born a couple weeks before me, and I like to give him shit about his birth #1.
But yeah, I might just be a bit burned out on "Don't You Want Me." It's not terrible, but I do prefer their more experimental early stuff. I did not anticipate this one being a 10/10, but I'll accept it for my birth #1.
The new Viagra Boys EP is fantastic. I especially love "Lick the Bag" (partly because I have a weird cat that loves to lick plastic bags, and I like to imagine it's his new theme song).
Man, I absolutely love this column, but the 70s were a SLOG. Especially the mid-70s. However, Tom's best-written TNO column was in the middle of it all, with "Dancing Queen." In fact, the writing was fantastic throughout, especially once he started doing it three days a week instead of five (a move that initially bummed me out a bit, but turned out to be better for everyone I think).
I'm excited to get to the 80s, because as an 80s kid ("Don't You Want Me" is my birth #1), we'll be getting into some songs I grew up with. At least half of the 70s #1s were songs I'd never even heard of before, which would be cool if I was discovering forgotten classics, but I quickly realized they were forgotten for good reason (like that goddamn ribbon on the tree song, ugh).
Anyway, bring on the day-glo spandex and puffy hair!!
'Tis bullshit. The chord progression is the same, but you can find a million rock songs with that same exact I-IV-V-v chord sequence. The vocal melody is nothing like "Creep." I'm sad that Radiohead is pushing this.
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