Considering that I have another one of these posts due tomorrow, just a wee bit late for last week....
Once in a while a band comes along with a song that I really like...and never has another one (Bananarama, who I wrote about in post CCXLIX comes immediately to mind)--which is my set-up for this week's tune. I can't say that I really disliked this week's featured band--it's just that nothing much of what they did caused me to pause and listen or even sing a long. As I noted for Bananarama, it's no matter--still makes for a hell of a song....
INXS got its start in the land down under in 1971 when a couple of eventual members started a band in high school. By 1977, they had more or less formed the lineup that would lead them to stardom, but under the name "The Farriss Brothers" (three of the band's six members were the brothers Farriss). After building a name for themselves in Australia, they began to be an opening act for Midnight Oil, one of whom's members suggested they change their name to INXS--and the rest, as they say, is history. INXS would release its first single and debut album in 1980, and over the course of these past forty-three years have sold over ninety-five million LPs around the world. They won six ARIA Music Awards (Australia's Grammys), were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame (Australia's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), as well as being nominated for three Grammys here in America. For their career, the band released twelve studio albums (with four #1's in their native land, two of which landed in the top five in the U.S.), and seventy-one singles (with a #1 in both Australia and America). Sadly, lead singer Michael Hutchence died of a suicide by hanging in 1997. The band continued on, including a reality show in 2005 in which viewers decided their new lead singer, until 2012 when they called it quits.
Fun Fact: The manager of Midnight Oil at one time proposed that the band become a Christian band, which the group briefly considered before opting to stay a rock and roll outfit. Good call....
"This Time" was the second single in Australia and first single around the world from their stealthily named fifth album, Listen Like Thieves. The single hit #19 down under, but only #81 (with a sort of bullet!) here in the states. The album fared much better, hitting #1 in Australia and #11 in America, and is usually considered the album that turned them into worldwide superstars.
Jangly guitars! Inspired vocals! A catchy as all hell chorus! A song about a volatile relationship! That pretty much sums it up, other than to ask my loyal readers (all three of you) to carefully consider the video I'm featuring below. While I never became much of an INXS fan, it's not hard to see why they became as successful as they did when you watch Michael Hutchence perform. He literally owned the stage, oozed charisma from every pore, and at the time of the video was only seven years into fronting a band. For all his demons (and he had a few), he was truly a presence--with no disrespect to the rest of the band who provided him with excellent musicianship and the songs which he performed--and added the nuance and bravado that makes this week's tune another in a long line of very fine pop performances.
Lyric Sheet: "We are always wanting/The things we cannot find/You know that we are/Always wasting time..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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