In a recent thread, Townsman misterioso posted a link in his Comment to the above Loggins and Messina video, with the following challenge:
If you can get through this clip, in which Loggins and Messina approach Mike Love levels of pseudo-playful loathsomeness, without wanting to punch someone, then mister you’re a better man than I.
A few Townspeople have already watched this thing and have confirmed misterioso’s apt description! I finally got time to view it, but not even I could make it all the way through. I had to bail around the 2:05 mark, when the camera catches Messina’s butt at an unnaturally protruded, Carl Wilson angle. I’m not a better man than misterioso. Are you?
Can you handle a competing version of this horrible song…after the jump?
I had to sit on my hands, but I watched the whole thing. Man, it sucked. It kept sucking more and more. I thought it might create its very own black hole and suck the whole world in.
I dunno, I have about an equal number of “issues” (though they’re different) with this version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuuxGvRTvSw
Can we have a Hobson’s Fork survey here? Which is less painful. You must choose!
I couldn’t do it.
But I once saw Kenny Loggins in concert (I was bar tending at the Warfield Theater in SF when he played there), and I don’t think his stage demeanor is an affectation. He acted like that throughout the show and at one point, sat down on the edge of the stage to take questions from the audience and regale us with the story of the birth of his first child.
Yes, I am made of sterner stuff. But I thought Messina was the guitar player, so what’s Loggins doing playing the solo (badly)? Or does Messina’s enormous butt force him to take a backseat?
The call & response vocals at the beginning are horrific. And what’s the deal with the weird shoulder spasm the sax player does during his solo, starting at around 1:09?
You know if I were as footloose as Loggins I don’t think I’d be singing a song criticizing someone else’s dancing ability.
I’m truly horrified that my childhood memory of hating this song has led to this. In penance, I won’t say anything bad about the Rolling Stones for a week.
It’s just all wrong, every last second of it. This is why punk rock had to happen.
This reminds me of the quote on bottles of Molson; “An honest brew makes it’s own friends”. A shitty tune attracts it’s proper audience.
If anything, the Poison version is worse. That freeze-frame, neon effect is nauseating. Poison clearly knew their audience and pandered right to them.
Somehow I don’t think I’ll get any credit for being a better man, but I’ve never disliked this song. I like that guitar riff, and I think the guitar solo is actually decent. There’s nothing appealing about the video, but I usually don’t change the oldies station when this song comes on. I accept if there is penance expected for this transgression. I understand all the reasons I should dislike this song.
I just watched the Poison version, and I think I saw Poison’s drummer wearing a Poison t-shirt. Is there any rock crime bigger than wearing a t-shirt for your own band?
You know, I almost didn’t want to log in just because it reminds me of Loggins.
But if there is a rock crime bigger than wearing a t-shirt for your own band, it is being in the band Poison, period.
I cannot disagree with those who find the Poison version even worse. They suck in ways that make Loggins and Messina look like rank amateurs. And who are the bigger a-holes: the perpetrators of Your Mama Don’t Dance or the bleep-heads who think it would be cute to cover it? Flip a coin.
Messina don’t dance, Kenny Loggins don’t rock and roll.
Try NOT singing that the next time you hear this turd.
holy crap!
Bill Clinton’s a much better sax player than I thought!
Eveyone in the audience for L&M looks like my Aunt. Everyone in the audience for Poison looks like my Jersey Girl cousin.
This was a huge hit for Poison (I think from a fake-live record- ala Kiss Alive where the studio recording has screaming girls dubbed over)
There was a while in the mid-late 80’s when the key to having a hit song on the ROCK radio station was to cover a “classic” song (Smokin In The Boys Room, Once Bitten Twice Shy, Tobacco Road, O Pretty Woman, Radar Love, Dont Be Cruel) to prove you were not just an MTV haircut and leather pants, but a real Rock Music guy.
I forgot to mention the most horrific thing about this video: Not only is the crowd clapping on the 1 and 3, but the band is ENCOURAGING THEM TO.