Mar 072012
Fellow Townspeople, I come before you again with an aching pain deep in my soul, and I fear I am in desperate need of rock counseling. My problem is a simple one: for the last 24 hours, I have not been able to get Boston‘s “Don’t Look Back” out of my head. My question is why?
I have no serious regrets about lost youthful opportunities, I don’t “see myself in a brand new way” except in a normal, healthy, grown-up fashion. I don’t envy Sib Hashian his astonishing, rock hair category-winning giant Afro. So why? Why is this song stuck in my head?
Clearly, I need your help, people. And so I say, with more earnest longing than I might otherwise mean:
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
It’s an “earworm” and it happens to me all the time. I frequently find myself with something inane and idiotic playing in an endless loop in my head. The cure, of course, is to find another inane and idiotic tune to displace it. Here. Take two of these, call me in the morning, and send me 50 dollars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMsZGwf6o_w
I think it was Satchel Paige who said, “Don’t look back, a crappy, old Boston song may get stuck in your head.”
Aren’t “crappy” and “Boston” redundant adjectives for a song?
‘Cause it f-ing rocks, man! And Sib Hashian doesn’t have an Afro. He has an Armofro. Glad to be able to help.
I like it. Is Hashian the greatest Armenian in rock? Who’s his competition, Cher and the singer from one of those popular ’90s metal-rap bands?
Barry Tashian (The Remains) takes the cup. Cher (1/2 Armenian–as is well known, she’s a “half breed”) and Serj Tankian (System of a Down) are obviously in the conversation. I have precisely no use for System, but Tankian is by far the most vocal on Armenian issues. But, hey, let’s not forget uber-producer Michael Omartian! Or, hey, let’s! (But, oh, the pride when he collected a shelf of Grammys for that first Christopher Cross album!) Or, better yet, new wave mover and shaker Roger Bechirian. Don’t get me going here.
Bechirian, of course!
You know, I finally got over my hangup with purposely hearing any Boston song, and I was reminded of how brilliant they were despite not coming up with more than a couple of measures of music in any song that I ever like. For me, Boston and Van Halen (early stuff) are the greatest bands I will never be able to actually like. Their hooks are really strong in a comic book way that’s actually harder to achieve than a snob like myself would like to admit.
Queen and AC/DC just miss out on making this cut because they each have a couple of songs I can fully enjoy. They too, however, work over to impress me to the slight degree that they do.