SARA (storms are brewing in your eyes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

pace the easy lover thread ... another 80s, em, "pop gem" that i distinctly remember listening to when i rode my bike home from high school and shit.

back in those innocent mid-80s days when "happy endings" didn't have the sleazy meaning that it has nowadays ...

never heard it

i really hate this cuz I hate Mickey Thomas and Starship but like for whatever reason I've always liked this song.......

I do remember seeing the video and going "there's no WAY that dude is into girls" tho

i always thought that the hatred for this Starship album was a bit, um, excessive. not that it was a GOOD record or anything ... it wasn't ... but for people to say that "we built this city" and "sara" as two of the worst pop songs of all time?!? ermmm, i could easily think of a dozen worse songs than either of those two.

For some reason, I've always thought of Mickey Thomas as the Leisure Suit Larry of rock music.

I think Sara's a good song but the hatred likely comes from how melodramatic it sounds, or the cheesy lyrics:

"we're fire and ice, the dream won't come true"

That said, if cheesy lyrics and overwrought balladry were a crime, you could lock up everybody on the Monster Ballad compilations -- not like it was exclusive to Starship.

I dislike Starship for songs other than Sara

whilst in their Jefferson Starship incarnation, the DID manage to get the Residents into a heavy-rotation MTV video. so i guess that's somewhat redeeming?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxp6h-2pwvQ

actually that "laying it on the line" video deserves a thread of its own now that i think of it ... no wonder Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a landslide.

God I hated that song. Largely because people would serenade me with it in 5th grade.

whilst in their Jefferson Starship incarnation, the DID manage to get the Residents into a heavy-rotation MTV video. so i guess that's somewhat redeeming?!?

Except it wasn't actually the Residents--they sent some office staff down in the eyeball costumes to the shoot.

I love "Sara"! It was featured on this one TV ad in the late '90s for some compilation CD called Smooth Nights or somesuch. My brother and I got totally obsessed with its track list. Every song on that thing was great. Not the only other songs I can remember from it are "Circle in the Sand" and "Breakout." I'll see if I can figure this out.

I won a Boy Scout talent show with a friend of mine by lip-synching to this song. Ergo, it is classic.

i have trouble picturing HI DERE as a boyscout

http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/music_into_the_night.html

Ok, clearly not everything on this was great, but I was so after-school Pvaloved out on this thing.

from that comp I'll vouch for...

Higher Love | Steve Winwood
Shattered Dreams | Johnny Hates Jazz
If You Don't Know Me By Now | Simply Red
No One Is To Blame | Howard Jones
Something About You | Level 42
Sowing The Seeds Of Love | Tears For Fears
Into The Night | Benny Mardones
Broken Wings | Mr. Mister
Sara | Starship
At This Moment | Billy Vera And The Beaters
Oh Girl | Paul Young
Get Here | Oleta Adams
Your Wildest Dreams | The Moody Blues

Except it wasn't actually the Residents--they sent some office staff down in the eyeball costumes to the shoot.

i really did not know that. it IS in keeping with their MO.

The breakdown is pretty painful. And no comments on the utterly inexplicable video? I have a lot of tolerance for this type of stuff (digging that Into The Night track list for the most part) but this isn't a particularly memorable iteration of the formula. FWIW this song hasn't passed from being a hit in its time to being ironically celebrated by future generations. I was born in '83 and had never heard it before despite regular exposure to "We Built This City."

no time is a good time for goodbye

"into the night" is one of my favorite karaoke songs

yea tho it's creepy hearing Mardones, then age 34, singing "sheeeeeeeeee's just 16 years old". it's a great tune tho. one time we broadsided a friend of ours who loved that song by putting his name in to sing it at karaoke, he wanted to change the age of the girl!

"She's just 60 years old"

one time i sang it i dedicated it to r. kelly -- i think it was when his trial started. or was supposed to start. or something.

A good idea

great song that reminds me of my childhood. The story about the tornado in the video touched something deep inside me when I was very young child, and it still gives me chills a bit. I don't really understand how Sara fits into the tornado narrative though.

I like how when the song became a hit all over again in '89 Benny was ready with mullet hair.

obvious, but Fleetwood Mac's "Sara" pwns this "Sara"

Ha, I loved this song when I was like 6 or 7. It sounds pretty different from how I remembered.

That harmonica part at the start - was trying to think what other hits of the era had *that* sound on them. 'There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)' for one. Any obvious others?

"That's What Friends Are For" has *that* harmonica sound too, doesn't it?

Yeah that was that same one guy as the Eurythmics song. Dunno who did 'Sara'. It was pretty common though I think, and then it just went right away again.

I thought it was Stevie Wonder who did the harmonica on "There Must be an Angel"- is that true?

Yeah, that's right.

Also on 'I Feel For You' and 'I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues'

i don't see stevie wonder credited anywhere on "sara" (or anywhere else on this record). i suspect that it was a synthesizer-harmonica.

Karma Chameleon is loaded with harmonicas

what IS mickey thomas up to these days, anyway?!?

even at the peak of Ralph Records' success it's kind of hard to imagine "office staff" who weren't also, like, members of the Residents

yea tho it's creepy hearing Mardones, then age 34, singing "sheeeeeeeeee's just 16 years old". it's a great tune tho. one time we broadsided a friend of ours who loved that song by putting his name in to sing it at karaoke, he wanted to change the age of the girl!

― funky brewster (San Te), Sunday, August 29, 2010 3:23 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"She's just 60 years old"

― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Sunday, August 29, 2010 3:26 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I came here to talk about "Sara", but this is one of the finest ilx jokes ever