INXS - The Album thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Nov 19, 2020.

  1. statcat

    statcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I'm not a fan of it so much but don't dislike it as much as you it seems like. I really like Dancing on the Jetty, All the Voices (favorite track on the album I think honestly), Johnson's Aeroplane, Face the Change and the other songs are OK but not personal favorites. I've seen some people say it's their favorite INXS album before. I think the production is what hurt this album the most. Also this is the beginning of some really hideous dated mid 80s fashion and hair :D

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD

    Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    So true. In fact, I don't think INXS' fashion sense was well-thought-out at all until LLT forward. Not that it's really important or anything...
     
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  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I actually do understand why the production may bother some folks. I am not sure if it is just that I grew up with it, or if it is just the way I listen, but the production has really never bothered me.
     
  4. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Just before we commit the Original Sin, I want to back track slightly and acknowledge the US festival for a minute. Apologies for messing up the timeline.

    US Festival 1983.

    The US Festival (US pronounced like the pronoun, not as initials) was the name of two early 1980s music and culture festivals in southern California, held sixty miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, near San Bernardino.

    This festival was put together by Steve Wozniak, who was a co-founder of Apple, and his aim was to turn the "me generation" of the seventies, into a more community oriented mindset in the eighties ... a noble thought, but essentially one assumes he was eating too many mushrooms or something to think a music festival would do that ... I guess that was always the idea behind Woodstock, Monterey and the bigger festivals of the sixties.
    1983 was the second US festival and came 9 months after the original one.... and perhaps that was because it was an image of the festival being born....
    Wozniak paid for the earthwork to create the field, and also organised a state of the art stage.... that now resides at Disneyland in Anaheim (since 1985). So at the very least one must top the hat to Wozniak's commitment to the idea.

    Inxs played on the first day, with a pretty decent line up.... i fact here are the line ups for the four days

    Saturday, May 28 (New Wave Day)
    Sunday, May 29 (Heavy Metal Day)
    Monday, May 30 (Rock Day)
    Saturday June 4th (Country Day)
    It is interesting that Country day was four days later.... perhaps the other bands were nervous that if the Country day was right next to them, they would lose their houses, girlfriends and dogs?

    Anyway, it is really interesting to me that the Divinyls opened and Inxs were the second act. I guess nobody had heard of them too much at that stage.
    The Divinyls are a great band, and Boys In Town, Only Lonely, Siren, Temperamental and Back To The Wall are great songs to check out, if your are unfamiliar with them.
    It is rather remarkable to me that Men At Work got second billing, following the Stray Cats and preceding The Clash.... I like Men at Work, but I'm not sure that they ever held the status in Aus that they seemed to get in the US, and from what I understand that was all based on the song Down Under, which is pretty good, but certainly not my favourite Men At Work song .... anyway.

    It is a really interesting line up of bands, and I believe that many people have fond memories of the festival.

    Here are Inxs at the US festival with The One thing and Don't Change.

     
  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    "Original Sin"

    [​IMG]
    Cover art for mainly Australian releases
    Single by INXS
    from the album The Swing
    B-side
    "In Vain" "Just Keep Walking"
    Released December 1983
    Length 5:19 (album version) 3:45 (single edit) 6:35 (12" extended version)
    Label WEA
    Songwriter(s)Michael Hutchence Andrew Farriss
    Producer(s) Nile Rodgers

    "Original Sin" is a song by Australian rock group INXS, released as the first single from the band's fourth album, The Swing. It was written by Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss, and produced by Nile Rodgers.

    It was released as a single in the US in December 1983,[1] where it reached No. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. In Australia, it reached No. 1 in 1984,[2] and became an international hit during that year.

    Daryl Hall sings the chorus with Hutchence. During an interview in Australia, Hall said Nile Rodgers called him and asked him to sing on the song.[3] Rodgers had participated in remixing the single "Adult Education" for Hall & Oates the previous year.

    The music video was filmed in Japan and features INXS singing on motorbikes as a fairground is set up and taken down around them.

    7" single Track listing
    1.
    "Original Sin" M. Hutchence, A. Farriss[6] 3:45
    2. "In Vain/Just Keep Walking" G. Beers, M. Hutchence, A. Farris, J. Farris, T. Farris, K. Pingily[7] 7:24

    12"/CD Maxi single Track listing
    1.
    "Original Sin" (Extended remix) M. Hutchence, A. Farriss[6] 6:23
    2. "Jan's Song" (Live) M. Hutchence, A. Farriss[8] 3:06
    3. "To Look at You" (Live) A. Farris[9] 3:39

    Weekly charts

    Year Chart Peak
    position

    1984 Australia (Kent Music Report)[2] 1
    Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[10] 29
    Canada Top Singles (RPM)[11] 20
    France (IFOP)[12] 1
    Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[13] 29
    Netherlands (Single Top 100)[14] 31
    New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[15] 6
    Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[16] 23
    US Billboard Hot 100[17] 58
    US Cash Box[18] 62
    20061 France (SNEP)[19] 55
    2011 US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs[17] 1
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    In Australia there was still a bit of a buzz about Inxs, so the Original Sin single was received with open arms, and took off pretty much immediately.

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    Lets look at the single first

    The single has nearly two minutes sliced off it and, as we see above, it did very well for the relatively unknown band (internationally) all around the world.
    As was pointed out already, Nile Rodgers did a great job of the production here and I assume he was involved in some of the arrangement work, because some of the little musical inserts are really top flight little funk additions that really colour the song in well.

    So here is the single mix (please note that the cover pictured in the youtube clip is from a redone version from 2010, as far as I can tell, but we'll get there later on.

     
  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Original Sin - album version.

    You might know of the original sin
    You might know how to play with fire
    But did you know of the murder committed
    In the name of love you thought what a pity

    Dream on white boy (white boy)
    Dream on black girl (black girl)
    Then wake up to a brand new day
    To find your dreams are washed away

    There was a time when I did not care
    And there was a time when the facts did stand
    There is a dream and held by me
    Well I'm sure you had to see it's up in arms

    Dream on white boy (white boy)
    Dream on black girl (black girl)
    Then wake up to a brand new day
    Dream on white boy (white boy)
    Dream on black girl (black girl)
    Then wake up to a brand new day
    To find your dreams have washed away

    Dream on black boy (black boy)
    Dream on white girl (white girl)
    Then wake up to a brand new day
    To find your dreams have washed away

    Dream on, to play with fire
    White boy, black girl
    Dream on, in the name of love
    Black boy, white girl
    Dream on white boy, black girl
    Black boy, white girl

    Dream on
    The name of love, yeah
    You thought what a pity
    Original sin

    Source: LyricFind
    Songwriters: Andrew Charles Farriss / Michael Hutchence
    Original Sin lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, Downtown Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management

    First we open up with almost the album defining drum sound from the album. Personally I love the aggressive drum sound on the album. It doesn't really have much in the way of the terribly popular/contentious over the top gated reverb that was popular in the eighties, but it does have a variation on it.
    The bass comes in nice and solid, and then we get that Keyboard riff, that seems to be part of the reason that this track jumped into everyone's imagination. In the background we have this excellent fast strummed tacet guitar, that just adds to the rhythmic dimension of the song, and then launches into a beautiful staccato pattern as we lead into the vocals.

    The lyrics are slightly odd for a pop song, as they have a mild significance. There are some interesting lines in the song, and it is well put together, but really the lyrics only kind of hint at having socio-political depth. There are little words and lines that seem to hold some water, but for the most part the lyrics hinge on the chorus in terms of impact, and the verses seem almost disconnected in some ways (not musically, it all fits together perfectly) .... For me at least, pop song lyrics aren't generally something that bother me too much, as there are generally very few pop lyrics that are particularly deep. So on that level Inxs manages to balance a line in terms of the lyrics. Poignant enough to not be vacuous, and vague enough to not upset too many people.

    One thing we notice about the track when we listen closely, as was pointed out by someone earlier, there are a lot of excellent little additions that really make the song pop. Little sax lines, little synth sounds, little pieces of bass that are just great. In fact Beers really shines on this track, as he alternates between the solid continuous thump, and some really nice bouncing run ups and downs that give the songs a real feel of motion.
    I think the drums are great and Jon shows his ability to accent sections beautifully and somewhat uniquely.
    We get a nice little faux lead break early on, and it works perfectly, again, to propel the song forward. We have some great sounding little interjections also that really add to the momentum of the song.

    This all builds up to the fade out where we get all the layers coming together to create almost a dreamscape sounding type track, but with enough groove and beat to be a dance track.
    It would be shortsighted to suggest that this opening single didn't have a lot to do with the success of the album.
    And we are off to a very good start.



     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    For the record, we will look at the 12"/extended mix when we do Dekadance
     
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  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Video.

    So we move to the video. the eighties really was the video age of music, and although some videos were quite preposterous, and some videos were just about more over the top than a Hollywood blockbuster, there were also some really good videos that did just what they needed to for the time.

    This video is very well put together and essentially flips between the guys messing around at a fair, and playing and riding motorbikes, and essentially is a pretty well put together video to get airplay on music television shows around the world.

     
  9. Bluepicasso

    Bluepicasso Android Confused

    Location:
    Arlington, Va
    Original Sin - 5/5. Great work by the band, but lyrics did confuse the American audience, which I feel covered the album like a blanket in the USA. The melody of the chorus is wonderful though. Liked the funk/new-wave mash at the time, as it was done right, not like The Reflex done by Duran & Nile. The video reminds of an early version of The Devil Inside.
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    B-sides

    Single - The b-side here is listed as In Vain/Just Keep Walking .... and I cannot find any hybrid version of the tracks from the debut album here, so I assume that it was just the two songs from the debut album as the b-side. Certainly if someone knows of a specific track that is on the b-side, please share it with us.

    12" single - The Twelve inch single (which we will look at on the Dekadance mini album coming up) had a couple of live tracks on the b-side.

    It is really quite interesting and reasonably clever for the band, or management to have two songs from the debut album on one single, and two songs (live) from the last album. I guess instead of using some experimental track as a b-side they decided to use the single as a promo for the other albums, and that would suggest they knew that this was a strong single, and could well get them some exposure.

    The 12" single b-sides
    Jan's Song and To Look At You (live)

     
  11. Al Gator

    Al Gator You can call me Al

    Original Sin is an obvious attempt at a hit single, although it misses the mark a little to my ears. The “Dream on white boy, dream on black girl” chorus seems a little naive today. Nevertheless, the tight rhythm and Michael’s excellent vocal delivery raise this one to a higher level than I'd expect.
     
  12. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    Mark - ALL those Original Sin Bsides were live recordings. In Vain/Just Keep Walking is listed with the slash because it’s just one song going into the next.
     
  13. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Cheers mate. It had me slightly perplexed :)
     
  14. Darren Richardson

    Darren Richardson Forum Resident

    The Swing
    Love this album, it’s my summer soundtrack. Even my teenage kids are big fans of this one (along with half of Listen Like Thieves). Melting In The Sun, Original Sin and Burn For You are all faves. I’m probably in the minority being a big fan of Nick Launay’s production on this and many other (mostly Australian band) classics. The Barry Diament target CD sounds nice on my system.
     
  15. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    US Festival

    They definitely had more than just that one song. For maybe a year and half they were HUGE in the US and the radio played at least 4 of their songs in continuous rotation. The first two albums were in the top 10 simultaneously here due to the first one being slower to arrive.

    I’m actually more surprised INXS rated enough to get asked to play at the festival at all.

    p.s. The first three LPs I bought, ever, were The Wall, Business As Usual, and Cargo.
     
  16. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    Original Sin

    Peaked at #58 in the US. Should have been huge. I remember at the time hearing that the black boy/white girl and white girl/black boy angle of the lyrics was causing some resistance to picking up airplay in radio. Remember, it wasn’t too long prior to this that MTV had to be pressured into playing Michale Jackson. Seems absurd almost 40 years later, but it’s true.

    The song itself is an instant classic. Once you hear it you can never forget it. It sounds exotic, mysterious, even dangerous - and the production is impeccable. But it takes more than good music to have a hit song. Lots of pieces have to fall together in the right places at the right time.

    I think it’s telling that a lot of the 12” mixes from The Swing singles were used as US Bsides on the later Listen Like Thieves album singles. The US almost entirely missed out on this classic album. I’m glad they eventually caught up again with INXS though. Better late than never.
     
  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Both good albums. I didn't realise that they had struck such a chord over there.
    They did well over here, just not really a headliner type band.

    Hmmm four songs...
    Down under
    Be good johnny - ?
    Overkill
    Who can it be now - ?
     
  18. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    It’s a mistake

    Be Good Johnny and Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Jive got airplay too, but those other 4 were the heavy hitters
     
  19. Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD

    Moggio_4K_Ultra_HD Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    Another quintessential INXS song. Absolute perfection. It has almost every ingredient you'd want in an INXS song. Great funk guitar riffs, sax parts that don't over-stay their welcome, a rhythm section to die for, etc. In particular, I love Jon's playing on this, especially his last drum fill as the track is fading out! And lyrically, it has just the right amount of ambiguity to stimulate thought. The reason why it wasn't a bigger hit in the US, was that many mid-western/southern radio stations refused to play it because of the obvious controversial nature of the lyrical content. And despite OS partially hindering The Swing's initial US chart run (though, by my estimations, both SS & TS sold roughly 400,000 copies at this point), over the years, TS took the lead and has now outsold SS, and by quite a large margin in Australia...
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
  20. dirkster

    dirkster Senior Member

    Location:
    McKinney, TX, USA
    Interesting. I did some reading about the making of “Original Sin” and apparently producer Nile Rodgers is the one who came up with the white/black suggestion for the lyrics. The song was originally called “Brand New Day” when they phoned him up to record it.

    Single Stories: INXS, “Original Sin” | Rhino


    In a 2012 interview with Adelaide Now, Rodgers discussed the song and how it went through some lyrical changes before they laid it down in the studio…changes which, he suspects, could have cost it some chart success.

    “The original lyrics were, 'Dream on white boy / Dream on white girl,’” said Rodgers. “I said, 'Why not make it 'black boy / white girl?' I come from an interracial couple. Psychologically that makes it a bigger statement. Even when I rang up Daryl Hall to sing on it his manager thought it was too controversial. But I think the record would have been bigger had I not talked them into changing the lyrics."

    I think it is interesting the Rodgers worked with Duran Duran a year later on the single “Wild Boys”, which also features some very loud drums. I was making a mental connection with that song earlier and meant to comment on it, here earlier.

    Nice source here too:
    Original Sin by INXS - Songfacts

    Regarding the lyric, Andrew Farriss told Songfacts: "Michael realized how important it was that we had the right kind of lyrics for that song, and he came up with the idea when we were sitting on the tour bus and we were looking at kids playing in a schoolyard from different cultural backgrounds and maybe different nationalities. He was looking at them all and he said, 'We should all just be like kids.'

    This song opens with the lyrics, "You might know of the original sin." The biblical concept of original sin goes back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In chapter 3, Adam and Eve were sinless in the Garden of Eden until they succumbed to temptation and ate from the forbidden tree to attain God's knowledge.......(snip)
    .......In the context of the song, original sin is about how beliefs are passed down to children by their parents. The first step to breaking free from the chains of those ideas is daring to question them.
     
  21. Al Gator

    Al Gator You can call me Al

    They (Men at Work) were huge, but very briefly. It's a shame they couldn't keep their momentum going because I think they were pretty good. I have all their studio albums on CD, plus the live album Brazil and even a couple of unreleased live shows!
     
  22. statcat

    statcat Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    INXS actually opened for Men at Work too in summer 83. They were a bigger band than them at that time.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
  23. Rockford & Roll

    Rockford & Roll Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midway, KY
    About the time I got into Men At Work I also picked up Mental As Anything. I have a couple of their records and then lost track of them. Creatures Of Leisure is the LP I remember best and it's a fun listen. Kind of Australian pub-rock.
     
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  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Mental As Anything are an interesting band.
    Get Wet, Espresso Bongo, Cats and Dogs and Creatures Of Leisure are all interesting albums. Fundamental was the big album in OZ, and it is pretty good, but it is the most eighties and pop sounding album they made, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I think to some degree is spoiled their quirky, unusual feel.

    This is probably the most enduring Mentals track
    The Nips Are Getting Bigger
    For the record, in Australia a nip, is a measure, or shot of alcohol.

     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Melting In The Sun.

    I'm melting in the sun
    And this is what they call the life
    I suppose too much sun
    Makes a desert Arab say

    And I really love this country
    There's a lot I wanna see

    Great expectations
    Of all we seem to be

    And the winner
    And the winner, the winner

    Do you wanna make a story up
    There's enough it always seems
    If it happened in this morning
    Tonight we'll see it on T.V

    Great expectations
    Of all we seem to be

    Great expectations (take a look around you)
    Of all we seem to be

    And the winner
    And the winner, the winner

    She was twelve and knew the world
    Her boyfriend knew a dance to this
    Everybody's got advice
    Take a snake, take a ladder

    And this is what they call the life
    I'm melting in the sun

    Great expectations
    Of all we seem to be

    Great expectations (take a look around you)
    Of all we seem to be

    And the winner
    And the winner, the winner

    Songwriters: Michael Hutchence / Jon Farriss / Timothy William Farriss
    Melting In The Sun lyrics © Music Corp. Of America Inc.

    Not sure exactly what we are looking at with the lyrics here particularly. It seems a little more back to the cryptic style we had earlier on. It seems obvious that the Melting In The Sun tag is a direct reference to summer in Australia, and for many it is just too much, and yes I believe you can fry and egg on the hood/bonnet of a car.

    For me this track is all about the musical arrangement. The music and words fit together really well.... and looking at the lyrics for the first time, I had a chuckle when I read "And The Winner, the winner" because I always thought he was singing "and when I, and when I"

    We get straight into it here. That nice descending guitar riff, and a bit of feedback noise. Some reverse reverb effects, and a solid beat.
    The use of dynamics here is really good too.
    Interestingly enough.... I think @dirkster was saying this album has a lot less bass/bottom end than Shabooh. In the early 2000's I had to sell off my collection, and in the last fifteen or so years I have slowly rebuilt it, so my original cd from about 1985 is long gone, and I had forgotten about that. Yesterday when I was listening to the album again, I thought to myself about how solid the bass/bottom end sounded. So I checked my copy of the disc, and it is the 2011 version .... so perhaps the eq was adjusted or something... I'm not sure. I guess being 2011 it is compressed and perhaps the compression just brought the bottom end up. I generally listen to cd's in the car, so the compression isn't really a factor for me.
    Anyway, just some thoughts that crossed my mind.

    Also interestingly, to me at least, is this song seems to have a little Talking Heads influence, particularly in the arrangement of the backing vocals.

    I really enjoy this track and I think it stands up well. It may have dated sounds in some regards, but I think it works well in the context of the album and the song.

    Oddly enough, I thought this had been a single.


     

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