The Five Songs You Never-Ever Wanna Hear Again

Thank you, got to page 7 of 8 and still hadn’t seen this. The worst of all worsts.

 

Sounds like Q107 in Toronto!

And despite all the great Hip songs it’s always New Orleans is Sinking, Courage, 50 Mission Cap, something like that, nothing like Last American Exit or Fiddler’s Green.

 

Everybody's Jerking Off This Weekend
Everybody Needs to Chsnge Their Pants

 

My husband played in a bar cover band and they ended every night with a slow version of the Hogan’s Heroes theme song, getting progressively louder and faster while spewing the “Don’t forget to tip your bartenders and waitresses. The name of this band is....”. The crowd always loved it, knew the night was ending, and take your fun elsewhere.

 

I had a Cultural Geography class in college, and the professor had us listen to the song and had a class discussion on it. And the college house parties and bars would play it late when we all were drunk. So it’s a good memory for me, too.

 

To the surprise of no one here (but especially @Junkie & @Huggy) , I saw Loverboy on the state fair circuit 10 or so years ago. Despite Mike Reno pushing four bills, they were solid enough to a sparse-ish crowd that was making its way to and fro the fried dough stands, the midway games rigged so that you never win and everything in between. But I swear on all things holy, when drummer Matt Frenette banged the cowbell for Workin' For The Weekend, a thousand or so people sounded like 10,000 people. That's pretty cool, to be able to create a song that makes people spontaneously happy 30+ years (now 40+ years) and infinite listens later. They've made a solid living playing the hits as a lower-end act on packages at sheds and fairs well into their 60s (and 70s, in Paul Dean's case) and they'd still be the original quintet if not for the tragic drowning death of bassist Scott Smith in 2000. Yes, they have a limited skill set, but there are much worse career arcs.

 

Loverboy was no Aldo Nova! Check them out rocking open this already open door! ROCK OUT!

Edit: Reading the Wikipedia entry on "Fantasy", it says the following.

"It is his most popular work to date."

Yes. Because I was waiting for that Aldo Nova chart revival that would top it.

I love it when entries like that or radio retro/countdown shows qualify with "highest to date" with artists eons beyond their sell dates.

 

For as much as I dog on Loverboy, msybr five years ago I saw a YouTube video which I thought confirmed everything terrible I ever thought about them, they were lip syncing very badly (out of time, not even faking playing) to one of their songs I particularly revile, Reno looked like a pig, etc etc, his lip syncing was way off, whatever verses he was singing he sounded like a dying pig being dragged into the slaughterhouse. I couldn't imagine anybody in the world, even their fans, paying five cents to see that ever.
Well, several months ago, I saw another video.apparently much more recent (they looked older) and guess what-- they were actually playing, and reasonably decently. They weren't hitting every note, but they were off in a kind of comfortable bar band fashion. Reno hasn't exactly gotten svelte, but he seems to have trimmed down a bit and made his way through the songs without gasping for breath so he's in somewhat better shape.
So I said, "well god damn, who'd a thought the old boys had it in 'em?"

i did a little internet digging and apparently a few years ago Loverboy wss getting a ton of shit from their fan base at their gigs, essentially to the effect,"if you're not going to do any better than that, why don't you just fuckin' give it up?" To their credit, apparently they buckled down and got their shit together.

 

Riffing off of your point ... fans who stick with bands until the very bitterest end. I have respect for it. I really do.

I can't imagine seeing any band, whether I adored them when I was 19 or not, at a county fair and expect any standard at all. The prevailing thought in my mind being that they're past their prime and hanging on.

I've thought this as I've "seen" (walked past) Blue Oyster Cult, .38 Special, "Lynyrd Skynyrd", Fakeigner, among others, at various Tastes Of's, as warm-up act for an auto race or as halftime entertainment at a football game.

I can't imagine holding on to the point where I'm offering feedback to said past-their-sell-date band to let them know they sucked ... at a county fair and 30 years past their relevance. I would surely expect them to suck.

The only time I've been in that frame of mind was when my brother and I specifically saw Alex Chilton and the Box Tops at a Taste Of a long time ago. We were joined by several cultish Big Star fans who wanted to say we saw the great man in some context. Chilton has since died, but I took the venue, age and performance seriousness into account and I was definitely not grading him on how he carried off "Soul Deep". (Great Box Tops song, by the way, not written by Chilton.) It was just cool to see him.

I don't think I'm alone, also, noting that there are bands I like that are straight up elderly that I have no desire to see in their current state. I'm looking at you, Rolling Stones. Put me in a time machine and take me back to their 1969 or 1972 shows, but 2023? Nope. I don't know if that says something about me, them or both.

Though I did see George Clinton last year because I wanted to say I did (and to experience it).

 

I wonder if that clip is from this year, b/c I saw Loverboy AGAIN last summer and granted I was in the last row of a three-deck amphitheatre (Groupon for the win motherfuckers) and even from three decks up Reno looked and sounded AWFUL. Like, gasping for air bad. Everyone else looked their age (except the 20-something guitarist filling in for Dean, who I assume was sick since he's a f/t touring member) but got around OK and sounded good. Hopefully Reno is in better shape b/c he looked bad for just some dude sitting around the house, never bother trying to sing for 45-60 mins a night.

 

There's an "Almost (To) Paradise" joke in here somewhere, but I'll let it lie. Or, um, I guess not.

 

I saw Chuck Berry at the Missouri State Fair in 1988. He looked old, likely was drunk, could barely play and interrupted three different songs to yell at the drummer. “Whose show is this? You think this is your show? It’s my fucking show.”