Date: Dec 10, 1988
Weeks: 2
I sort of liked Chicago in the 80s. I thought their music was emotional and appealing. But now I find their music just kind of emotionally manipulative. It's like it's been carefully calculated to be as heart-wrenching as possible, without necessarily earning it via any genuine sentiment.
I think the lyrics of this song illustrate exactly what I'm talking about. "If you see me walking by, and the tears are in my eyes, look away." It's supposed to be a sad image, of a man crying over lost love. But the lyric itself seems to suggest that he's just going to be walking around bawling, possibly for years afterward. It's kind of paints a funny image.
The verses of this song aren't so bad. It's the story of your ex moving on and how that kind of put a finality to the relationship that you had sort of held out a glimmer of hope for. The lyrics in the verses are at least clear about the story they're telling, and the sentiments expressed feel genuine enough. "I tell you I'm fine, but sometimes I just pretend." It's the chorus where things get absurd and overdramatic. "Don't look at me. I don't want you to see me this way." Here I am, singing a sad song about how I don't want you to see me feeling sad. Aren't guys who don't want attention all cool and sexy? Pay attention to me saying that I don't want you to pay attention to me!
Musically, this is a pretty egregious example of the excesses of the late 80s. There are a lot of synthesizers put to bad use here. Synthesizers are not good at gentle music, 80s. Then on top of that is that blaring guitar that always gets used in Diane Warren songs. Yes, this is another song from Diane Warren. Cheesy schmaltz with blaring guitars. I'm not even sure if the drums here are real or a drum machine.
With all the fake instruments, the emotional heavy lifting has to be done by the guitars, which do an okay job in that 80s power ballad kind of way, and the vocals. This after Peter Cetera left the band, so at least we don't have to confront the question of his quality just now. This lead singer is Bill Champlin. He does an okay job, his voice is pleasant enough. But he does have that kind of trite, gravelly intonation that was so popular in the era. He also kind of overdoes it in the last chorus, reaching back and coming up with some really growly vocals. He also sounds really, overly, kind of cartoonishly sad in the last lyrics "I'm really happy for you." It sounds like he's about to turn away from the microphone and start bawling, and it's kind of unintentionally funny.
My verdict: Don't like it. Even back when I liked Chicago, I didn't care much about this song. These days it seems kind of typical of many fake-emotional songs of the time.
I can't dislike this song. It's just good, fluffy 80s music to me, and brings back a lot of fond memories of me and my friends having fun singing it as if we were awesome rock stars in our early teen years. Good times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't think he's saying he'll be bawling or doing it for years. Tears in his eyes are unshed tears. They're not tears on his face. And he contrasts it with "If we meet on the street one day" which does imply the future, but there, he's not got tears in his eyes. He just doesn't know what to say to an old flame. The song seems more like the shock and pain of the moment immediately after the phone call and, at that time, him not being able to imagine getting over her.