fange
god
Listening to long jazz tracks
Posts: 4,554 
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Post by fange on Feb 23, 2024 3:05:32 GMT
Todd's 1972 single, released as the opening track on the Something/Anything? album, and featured more recently in about a gazillion TV shows/specials/movies.
What do you think - hit, shit, or somewhere in between?
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Post by Charlie O. on Feb 23, 2024 4:02:48 GMT
However "formulaic" and insincere (in Todd's own estimation) it may have been when he wrote it, what comes through the speakers is nothing less and something more than a mighty fine love song. It's far from his whole story, but even if it were his whole story, it would be worth telling and re-telling for at least half a century. HIT.
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,788
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Post by loveless on Feb 23, 2024 4:34:30 GMT
I don't ever ever need to hear it again. But those first thousand listens or so were absolutely magical.
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Post by davey on Feb 23, 2024 6:36:57 GMT
The best two minutes and fifty-nine seconds of his entire career.
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 23, 2024 7:16:42 GMT
Never been a song that I'm mad about, but like most everyone else I can enjoy it on some level, so certainly a hit from me.
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Post by DarknessFish on Feb 23, 2024 11:59:32 GMT
I don't think I've ever heard it before. It certainly sounds like a competent pop rock song from the early 70s. Without meaning to be dismissive or sarcastic, it sounds ok, but not something I could ever imagine going wild over.
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,788
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Post by loveless on Feb 23, 2024 12:46:39 GMT
I will also say that the first few dozen or so ambient childhood listens, I absolutely registered it as Carole King.
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Post by fearlessfreap on Feb 23, 2024 13:08:22 GMT
A well crafted piano light rocker with production squiggles and a funny guitar tone that could only have come out in 1972. I like it, but yes, I'm tired of it and it may have been a bit too smooth. I'm a fan, but this isn't one of my favorites, mostly due to overfamiliarity. It's well written, he was still pretty young when it came out - it's a hit. It peaked on the charts when Sammy Davis Jr's Candyman was number one. Certainly brings back memories.
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rayge
Administrator
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Post by rayge on Feb 23, 2024 13:15:22 GMT
I don't think I ever heard this before, and I certainly don't need ever to hear it again.
First off, apologies to all of you who have voted Hit and swooned over it. I've no interest in disparaging your taste, because we are all fundamentally different, and beautiful in our own way.
To me, it sounds like an accomplished technician deciding to put together a perfect pop song and failing utterly and dismally, largely because he has no soul. I've never like his voice and the cluttered production and Frankensteinian stitching together of elements of pastiche are a turn-off. He's an ugly cunt, too.
Dogshit.
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loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,788
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Post by loveless on Feb 23, 2024 13:17:15 GMT
I'm most certainly a Rundgren fan - AND I gave your contribution a like, rayge, just cause the writing was so inspired.
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fange
god
Listening to long jazz tracks
Posts: 4,554
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Post by fange on Feb 23, 2024 13:25:30 GMT
I will also say that the first few dozen or so ambient childhood listens, I absolutely registered it as Carole King. I am glad someone else thinks this way, because i absolutely do. |
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Post by Stacy Heydon on Feb 23, 2024 13:37:52 GMT
I will also say that the first few dozen or so ambient childhood listens, I absolutely registered it as Carole King. I am glad someone else thinks this way, because i absolutely do. In my mind I always pair it with 'Show Me the Way'. Not sure why, there's some melodic similarity I guess. |
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Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Feb 23, 2024 14:00:50 GMT
I will also say that the first few dozen or so ambient childhood listens, I absolutely registered it as Carole King. I am glad someone else thinks this way, because i absolutely do. I always have, too. It's a hit for me, but like some I no longer feel the need to hear it. |
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Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,535
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Post by Sneelock on Feb 23, 2024 16:31:56 GMT
I enjoy hearing it now more than I did at the time. You ever hear how dementia patients perk up when they hear songs they know? I seriously think something like that is happening to me. I remember "I Saw the Light"!!! what's your name again?
Carol King is a good call. Todd's influences are usually pretty easy to spot since he's pretty open about them. the Goffin/King influence hadn't really occurred to me before but it's pretty hard to miss once it's pointed out.I think he made songs good to be played on the radio because he liked songs that were played on the radio. yeah, there's more than a whiff of the mercenary in this but that's Show Biz!in 1972 I think I saw more copies of Something/Anything in people's stacks than "Exile..." As double albums go = I like it but I was always surprised it did as well as it did. I mean, the hits fit in with the whole "soft rock" of the era but there's a lot going on over it's four sides that seems very hard to digest compared to the songs that got played on the radio. oh well, there are people who are still Todd fans that think he never topped it. Maybe the fact that it's such an odd duck has something to do with how much people love it. I liked him better when he got weird but the "radio songs" that hit me always hit a bulls eye.
I'll admit a year or so back I heard the song and it made me cry for some reason. male menopause no doubt. |
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Post by fearlessfreap on Feb 23, 2024 16:42:57 GMT
As I check the charts it looks like Carol Kings's Sweet Seasons was there at the same time, and they do sound quite similar.
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