Taking Sides: "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs vs. "Hold Me Now" by the Thompson Twins

Tough one.

Now that I think of the video, Ian, you're absolutely right. The same as played by these ass-whuppin' fellows:

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/B/Baja/baja_bajaf.jpg

I have a picture,
pinned to my wall.
An image of you and of me and we're laughing and loving it all.
Look at our life now, tattered and torn.
We fuss and we fight and delight in the tears that we cry until dawn

Hold me now, warm my heart
stay with me, let loving start, let loving start

You say I'm a dreamer, we're two of a kind
Both of us searching for some perfect world we know we'll never find
So perhaps I should leave here, yeah yeah go far away
But you know that there's nowhere that I'd rather be than with you here
today

[Chorus]

You ask if I love you, well what can I say?
You know that I do and if this is just one of those games that we play
So I'll sing you a new song, please don't cry anymore
and then I'll ask your forgiveness, though I don't know just what I'm
asking it for

[Chorus]

Inescapable? yes. Ballad? Yes. Power? No.

"Power Ballad" is a metal term, Ned.

Hmmmmmm.....explain, please. I seem to be missing the subtext of which you allude.

I stand by my assertion. (Power is relativistic, not intrinsic -- I'm thinking of the way that the chorus is so obsessive and loud.)

I seem to be missing the subtext of which you allude.

Sting talking point number 3151454 (if, in fact, you are Sting): "I wrote that song about the phenomenon of somebody STALKING somebody they thought they loved, and it got mistaken for a love song! I then put on a leather jockstrap and starred in Dune."

Furs vs. Twins: Well I have a hunch that if someone were to force me to listen to HMN at this moment, then I would probably trip over my words as I try to defend my choice of the Furs in this particular TS instance.

These two songs are worthy opponents, to be sure. But whereas HMN is basically a powerful emotional wallop, "Love My Way" just sounded...transcendent at the time. But again, I say this without HMN playing in the background, so who am I to talk?

Also...I always associate HMN with the first concert I ever went to. My dad drove me, the concert was Duran Duran, and as we reached the city and he was driving around trying to park or find the place or whatever, the radio played HMN and that stupid Paul Young song I can't recall the name of.

I also used to work with someone who played HMN far more times in a row than I ever would have chosen to hear it, so I have a slight, ever so slight bias against it on that basis as well.

And I should mention that I've never been a huge fan of the Furs. Not that I don't have choice songs I like by them, but I've never really fallen head first for them as a band. And in some strange way I realize now I've always been embarassed by that. I guess I always thought it would happen for me someday. I think "Heaven" is as good or better than "Love My Way" actually.

I was reading recently about an early Thompson Twins album I meant to check out though. I think it was even before the first single I bought of them called "Lies" - I think it was even before whatever album had that song on it. So it's good this thread has reminded me.

On the other hand, I was about 34 when I heard LMW in a supermarket. I had not heard the song for years. I remember the lines, 'swallow all your tears my love/ And put on your new face/ You can never win or lose/ If you don't run the race', and at that point I realised in a flash that I would never be at a loss to console a woman again.

But, I agree that "Love My Way", by comparison, is transcendent. "Hold Me Now" is positivley banal in comparison (though its banality -- its encapsulation of an all too common situation -- is part of its brilliance).

I actually quite liked the Thompson Twins' earlier, dancier stuff. "Lies" is great (amazing video as well, however dated-looking today), and "Love On Your Side". Was never wild about "We Are Detective", though.

But "Love My Way" is a good song too.

People will come along and say "you're just trying to derail the thread, Bimble" and I will say "hmmm, well...I guess I am, what are you going to do about it?"

Respect, Alex, but yo, besides the film soundtrack singles, "Heartbreak Beat" was as good as they got. The implications of the nuances of it feeling like love, rather than being the real deal, set against that late night work week synth arrangement, kill.

How 'bout this question: does anyone have any love for "Mirror Moves," especially the first side?? "The Ghost in You" and "Heaven" (love the video) are like late period Roxy Music: a softening but not slackening of the scowls and muscles. And I love the sax on "Heartbeat"

Oh wrongy wrong wrong! For a start, the "soundtrack single" (we're talking about "Pretty in Pink," I assume) was UTTER SHIT compared to the original rendition on Talk Talk Talk, and "Heartbbreak Beat" was a sickly dollop of overproduced gloop, as was everything on the album that spawned it, Midnight to Midnight. The cover alone was such a crappy sellout as well....the `Furs sporting ridiculous big hair and what looked like Judas Priest's leather hand-me-downs in order to compete with Billy Idol, I suppose. Awful.

Alex in NYC OTM. "Hold Me Now" always struck me as overly whiny and lame, sorry Thompson Twins fans...

Love My Way by a narrow margin. If Hold Me Now hadn't had those awful falsetto backing vocals, it might have fared better with me..

I have distilled the Furs down into a handful of essential tracks, and fuck the rest:
-India
-Into You Like a Train
-Pretty in Pink (orig)
-The Ghost in You
-Alice's House

ha ha...yes that is the way it seems to me now in retrospect. Midnight To Midnight was actually the only Furs album I ever bought. I got it when it came out, remember liking it for a time, then deciding it wasn't that great, and selling it within a year. I seem to recall another later Furs album I got into for awhile, though, now that I think about it - let me look it up - "World Outside". Obviously it made a deep, lasting impression since I would have completely forgotten about it had it not been for this thread.

Can't say the idea of anything sounding like late period Roxy is particularly attractive, but "Mirror Moves" is an album I always meant to purchase and never did. "The Ghost In You" is fabulous, although I've come to associate it with Robyn Hitchcock's cover, now. The original is better, though.

xpost - Keep rollin' Dan - these are great songs you're naming and I don't want to get in your way!

Can't say the idea of anything sounding like late period Roxy is particularly attractive

Hey, any band that gets the sound of something like "Manifesto" or the original "Angel Eyes" or "Same Old Scene" right is all right by me.

Well I was trying to listen to Manifesto recently. Not so bad, I suppose. Certainly not as bad as it's made out to be. But with my hand on my heart I shall declare the first Roxy Music album is unbeatable, even by their standards. And I've finally heard enough of their career now to feel comfortable making that statement.

As for the current debate, my vote is for both. "HMN" might be the more subversive song: the resignation in the lyrics and Tom Bailey's vocals undercuts the gauzy romanticism of the synths and drum programming. "LMW"'s sneer is more obvious, by comparison.

It was probably the end of the line for this kind of Furs song. "Mirror Moves" is to "Manifesto" what "Talk Talk Talk" is to "Roxy Music" (allowances are made for the wonderful "Here Come Cowboys").

I can't see why "Loaded" & "VU & Nico" can't be compared either. I'm sure there's a thread here somewhere where people have done just that.