The Outfield: Classic or Dud?

Josie's on a vacation far away
Come around and talk it over
So many things that I wanna say
You know I like my girls a little bit older
I just wanna use you love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

I ain't got many friends to talk to
Nowhere to run when I'm in trouble
You know I'd do anything for you
Stay the night but keep it undercover
I just wanna use you love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Try to stop my hands from shaking,
But something in my mind's not making sense
It's been a while since we were all alone,
But I can't hide the way I'm feeling

As you're leaving please would you close the door,
And don't forget what I told ya
Just because you're right that don't make me wrong
Another shoulder to cry upon
I just wanna use you love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight
Use your love
Lose your love
Your love

Exceptions; Rock and Roll part 2, the Chicago Bulls intro music, You'll Never Walk Alone,.

Which is one reason the All Sports Band never did much in the 1980s. I saw them once on TV and they were the jock Village People - one was a "boxer," one was a "karate expert," all teamed up for the worst game ever - the one involving the writing and performing of Loverboy/Journey AOR crud.

I wonder what demented British A&R hack thought up this schtick? Shame the music isn't as interesting as the conceit. And "Your Love" was inescapable if you went to an American high school during the mid-Eighties.

outfield, "your love"

-- Eisbär (llamasfu...), March 3rd, 2004. (later)

HMM.

i wonder -- is josie still on vacation, far away?!?

I still have a soft spot for Play Deep. I think it was my first cassette. That OR Billy Joel's Gr. Hits I&II. And that might have been my first ILM post. memories.

Any song involving a character named "Josie" = automatically dud.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jul-21-Fri-2006/photos/steely.jpg

we'd like to have a word with you, Mr. NYC

Oh my god I am dying over this song. I've played it about 50 times today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgfSzuFD8rw

Goddamn Outfield I say! I have three more songs besides this one from their first album and I love them all. Oh my god. I can't stop with this song. Play that damn thing again. Bad 80's hair be damned!

oh my god does anyone remember how bad Bon Jovi were?

Horror of horrors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ho7JLDS2zY

I'll still vouch for Play Deep in its entirity, and then a few songs on each of the following two records. I never heard anything after that, though.

I have absolutely positively lost my mind over this band.

I know they're cheesy damnit.

I used to have the CD of their first album. I taped 4 songs from it. They were:

Your Love
All The Love
Taking My Chances
I Don't Need Her (last but not least!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgfSzuFD8rw

But in all honesty this is the one that is really
killing me now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8re7PD5tOA&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pEMrrc32vA

All hail the solid state Gallien-Krueger tone on that one

Very enjoyable Brit version of overproduced 80's power pop. Came across the "Your Love" single this weekend and the A side is peerless cheese radio fodder - the flip "61 Seconds" is superb as well. Looking through the stacks I have a few of the prime lps and will spin them unapologetically.

I always thought the singer sounded a lot like Jules Shear, from Jules and the Polar Bears. (Otherwise, I associated them with the Hooters, for probably no sensible reason.)

Sincerely the worst fucking band ever. I'd rather listen to a thousand hours of Beyonce duetting with Scout Niblett than ever subject my screaming ears to the fucking Outfield. They're barely human.

...and Steely Dan can shove it as well.

i just wanna use yer love tonight ...

... cause Josie's on a vacation far away

I had a delightful and enlightening morning on VH1 classic (80s shows are worth your time)....and this video stood out for its awfulness.

"61 Seconds" is their best song - how did it never become a hit??

the lyrics are a hell of a lot smarter too

chris v otm

@juliussharpe 18m
I go to car dealerships for a test drive, blast "Your Love" by The Outfield, cry, and ask the salesman, "You think she'll come back, man??"

rip

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/john-spinks-dead-outfield-guitarist-717602

rip indeed :(

Years later, the Manchester trio reformed under the name The Baseball Boys and were signed to Columbia/CBS Records in 1984, eventually changing their name to The Outfield.

The Baseball Boys!

to whomever recommended "61 seconds" -- i was surprised that it actually is kinda good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyA-kEw_TKM

musically this song sounds like something XTC would have come up with circa black sea. of course, saying that would probably lol make alex in nyc explode in rage.

You're a complete crack addict.

hi, Alex!

how does one use another person's love? from the dramatic context I gather it's a very emotional activity

to make chicken salad

cool, thanks!

Sadly, being a vegetarian I won't be able to use anyone's love...

The outfield were mancunian? Or are we talking about like Manchester Manitoba?

Sad news: Tony Lewis's Facebook page indicates he's passed on:

https://www.facebook.com/tonylewismusic/photos/a.511535455942609/1122725858156896/

Oof, I was in rare form on this thread. Was not a fan of his music (to put it mildly), but 62 is far to young to check out.

TOO young, far TOO young, not to young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N1iwQxiHrs

Just saw this video for the first time in a pizzeria and it kind of blew my mind

Put this lot in the category of people you think are Sting when the song comes on but then you realise it's not.

kinda power pop but not really the best example of the genre? mainstream pop rock that has power-pop affectations? same with the cars, and they constructed the best hyphenated songs ever. doesn't matter, this is primo radio-driving music. if hey jealousy comes on, i'm speeding up. likewise, if say it isn't so comes on i'm speeding up. like david byrne says, it's scientific. it's disposable pop, so you don't have to have a personal connection to it in any way that matters to you vis-a-vis artistic merit or even talk about them to anybody but that's the appeal. you don't ever regard them at all until you're driving through the countryside because you took the long way home after work because inventory is all fucked up and you're supposed to take care of that but you still have all the other shit you have to get done on a daily basis and the plant manager doesn't understand all that stuff takes time and say it isn't so comes on if you're lucky and you feel the harmonies and open air and bucolic ohio farmland and all of a sudden there's a lot of pretty girls walking by and you're walking in the midnight sun again. maybe that's just specific to me, but you get the idea.

as the kids say, this is a bop. they're all the same song, but they're all bops.

if the perfect is the enemy of the good, then the good is the enemy of the perfect. the outfield might not be good, but the songs are perfect.

also feel the same about jami jamison-era of survivor but that'd a whole different kettle of whatnot. not good but perfect.