I get why “Baby Don’t Cry” is polarizing, but I like it. Personally, I allow myself to get lost in the bombast of the song so the repetitiveness doesn’t bother me at all. I will admit, however, I was surprised many years ago when I learned it was a single outside of America – it doesn’t feel like a radio song to me at all (maybe that’s just me?). Anyway, it adds to the variety and “color” of Welcome to Wherever You Are, so I’m a fan.
Baby Don't Cry: ...and on to side two... Right from the start, that opening orchestra hit is grabbing my attention. With that, the rest song is pretty good to me. I do like the Beatles influence and Micheal's vocals as he raps the verses, especially at the end. As for the repetitiveness of the chorus, it really doesn't bother me. I really don't pay any real attention to it anyway. As I said, I like it. It's catchy and I even put it on mixtape back in the day. So there! As for the legacy of the track, I do hear it on the radio station that I currently listen to. It usually kicks off their 90s block of songs for the hour. With that, it's decent tune to kick off the second half of the album.
Oh man, I totally lost track of this thread, like right away! I haven’t had any alerts until somebody liked one of my posts... I have some catching up to do.
I find the song could of worked much better as a more stripped down production. There's something there, but the added gloss is a bit much.
I can see that.... I fear that stripped back it wouldn't have enough lyrical diversity to be very interesting... possibly, stripped back and cut to 2:30-3:00 mins?
Hmmm, maybe. I always enjoy hearing alternate arrangements, so I definitely would have been game to hear a version with stripped back production. That said, the orchestral version on the single b-side looses something for me, so maybe not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Besides, you get a much more reserved production on the next awesome track!
Baby Don't Cry is spectacular. Yes, the chorus lyrics are repetitive. Yes, the general arrangement is maybe too simplistic. So what? This is classic INXS. Surprisingly, the bouncing bass lines hold the song together more than I would've ever imagined, especially in the verses. The contrasting nature of the clear / distorted tone guitar parts / riffs in the verses and choruses, coupled with Michael's semi-rap during the last minute or so & the fabulously-arranged orchestral parts, elevate the song ten fold. In fact, BDC places even more emphasis on how well these signature songwriting techniques are utilized and presented, and partly exemplify what INXS does best. And consequently, this track probably could've been twice as long. Ptar Speaks is a very cool experimental track. It's more than likely the best B-side from WTWYA's singles. Melodically, I hear parts that are so well-constructed, that they could've easily been included on the album in some form or another. BDC's vocal and orchestral mix fleshes out much of the dynamics and particulars that were perhaps partly lost in the original mix. I wish this version was longer too. Absolutely wonderful.
I’m with you on that. But then it saves itself with that positive rap thing Hutchence is doing. I initially don’t think I like this song, but then it gets better and I rate it as “good”. Having said that, I was surprised years later to learn this was a single. I saw it more as a “mood and variety track” on the album than hit single material. I don’t know what else on air at the time even sounded like this.
Ha! I’ll be damned if I didn’t just write almost exactly the same thing you just did! I promise you I hadn’t even seen your post.
That was probably the point. What else on air at the time sounded like this? Like I said upthread, each single from the album was stylistically different from each other along with mostly every song on the album in general. When songs from this record played on the radio and/or MTV, they stuck out.
I'm in the pro-Baby Don't Cry camp. Majestic, celebratory, triumphant, glorious, soaring, joyous, affirming. Those looking to cut some minutes off it; send those minutes my way! As I think I mentioned on the initial album posts, this is the song that, overheard, without knowing it was INXS, had my attention. Once I found out it was them it reignited my interest in the group.
For the record I like the song. I only meant that if all the orchestration was taken out, it may need shortening ... For me the orchestration and arrangement make the song.
"Beautiful Girl" Single by INXS from the album Welcome to Wherever You Are Released 13 February 1993 Recorded 1992 Genre Alternative rock, pop rock Length 3:31 Label Mercury Records UK/Europe, Atlantic Records USA, EastWest Australia Songwriter(s) Andrew Farriss Producer(s) Mark Opitz and INXS "Beautiful Girl" was the fifth internationally released single from the 1992 album Welcome to Wherever You Are, by Australian rock band INXS. The song was written by Andrew Farriss, who was inspired to write it by the birth of his baby daughter. In an interview by Debbie Kruger,[1] the INXS keyboardist explained: "I was writing lyrics like 'Baby Don't Cry' and 'Beautiful Girl' and lyrics just about how wonderful it is to have something else in your life besides yourself to worry about and think about." Bono of U2 sing backing vocals on the track and also plays Electric guitar. The song was used for an American TV awareness campaign about the effects of anorexia.[2] CD5 maxi single INXSCD24 Mercury/UK Beautiful Girl (3:31) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) In My Living Room (3:56) Ptar Speaks (3:39) CD maxi single INXCX24 Mercury/UK Beautiful Girl (Mendelsohn Mix) (3.11) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) Underneath The Colours (Chicken Mix) (4.08) Wishing Well (Instrumental) (3.26) CD5 45099-18322 EastWest/Australia Beautiful Girl (3:31) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) In My Living Room (3:56) Ptar Speaks (3:39) Wishing Well (Instrumental) (3.26) 7" Vinyl and Cassette single INXS24 Mercury/UK Beautiful Girl (3:31) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) Cassette single 4-87383 Atlantic/US Beautiful Girl (3:31) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) Cassette single 45099-1844-4 EastWest/Australia Beautiful Girl (3:31) Strange Desire (Original Recording) (4:40) In My Living Room (3:56) Ptar Speaks (3:39) Weekly charts Chart (1993) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[3] 34 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[4] 39 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[5] 9 Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[6] 64 Germany (Official German Charts)[7] 39 Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[8] 11 Ireland (IRMA)[9] 28 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[10] 50 UK Singles (OCC)[11] 23 US Billboard Hot 100[12] 46 US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[13] 45 US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[14] 10 US Mainstream Top 40 (Billboard)[15] 24 Year-end charts Chart (1993) Position Canada Top Singles (RPM)[16] 71 ------------------------------------------------------------------- The intro to this song is great. We have a really nice guitar arpeggio that gets the keyboard melody come in over the top. When the keyboard bass line comes in, it gives it a sense of being quite grand, and in spite of the gentle nature of the song, it feels sort of powerful to me, if that makes any sense. Nicky's in the corner With a black coat on Running from a bad home With some cat inside Now where did you find her Among the neon lights That haunt the streets outside She said, stay with me Beautiful girl (stay with me) Beautiful girl (stay with me) She wanna go home From doorway to doorway Street corner to corner With the neon ghosts in the city And she says Stay with me Stay with me Stay with me Stay with me (Stay with me, stay with me) She's so scared So very frightened Anything could happen Right here tonight Beautiful girl (stay with me) Beautiful girl (stay with me) She wanna go home Stay with me (beautiful girl) Stay with me (beautiful girl) Stay with me (beautiful girl) Stay with me (beautiful girl) Songwriters: Andrew Farriss Beautiful Girl lyrics © Chardonnay Investments Ltd., Xl Publishing Pty. Ltd., Inxs Publishing Pty. Ltd., Jeff Bass Music Llc, Big Note Music Ltd, Don Black Music Ltd It is really interesting that this was inspired by Andrew having a baby girl. When I look at the lyrics, it has the feeling of a new scared father, who is well aware of what a terrible place the world can be for a young woman. It kind of makes me sad, the context that I get out of the circumstances and theme here. This song has such an excellent gentle beauty. I think Canada shows some class by getting this into their top ten. It's pretty cool that Bono sings and plays guitar on this ... though to be honest, he has never stood out to me on here. I think this tender, thoughtful kind of song is a really nice change up for the band. Generally they lean towards danceable tracks, or quite big powerful ballads. Here we just get this soothing, gentle, reflective song, in which Hutchence gives one of his most tender and touching vocals.
In My Living Room We open with either a middle eastern or Indian type vocal ... forgive my ignorance that's as close as I can get. We drop into this kind of slow funk. We get some vocalising on top, but the bulk of this is based around a groove with some bits and pieces dropped in for textural definition. The slide guitar effect about halfway is pretty cool. An interesting b-side, but not something I would listen to much.
Underneath The Colours - Chicken Mix It's interesting that they dug up this track for a remix. I must say the first thing that struck me here, was how long ago this song seems in the context of the thread. This is quite an interesting redo of the song. We get the crispy snare drum sound. It feels like it speeds up a bit in the middle, and we move into this neat lead guitar and the keyboards get a bit more funky ... then we drop out to another verse. I probably prefer the original, and maybe that is a familiarity thing, but I don't dislike this.
In case I somehow forget. On the b-sides here we have the instrumental of Wishing Well, which I should remember to post tomorrow. But we also have the original version of Strange Desire, which will likely be next Tuesday.... so if I forget, please remind me or put it up for everyone .... cheers
Beautiful Girl: 5/5. Now, this song shows the grace and beauty of the band. Micheal’s fragile delivery is perfect. Iconic song really. In My Living Room: 2/5. Arabic language to me. B-side material. One can here Micheal moan, I think. Underneath the Colours: 3/5. Meh...
This is the video I remember seeing in the U.S. Very well done, yet I remember Robert Smith from the Cure calling Michael a hypocrite because "he only dates supermodels." Anyway...great, great song. Like I pointed out earlier, I don't remember it making much impact at the time, yet somehow it's turned into one of their top streamed songs. Shame they didn't play it often live, the one clip I can find on YouTube Michael seems to struggle switching back and forth between the low and high registers. This begins my favorite stretch of the album BTW. For this and the next 3 songs the band seems to relax and just be themselves, and it works beautifully, resulting in an almost hypnotic suite of songs, one of the best runs of their career.
"Beautiful Girl": This is it. This is their best song, their pinnacle. The first time I heard it was when I was playing the new album the first time after buying it on release day. Given up to this point in the record, I was already shocked/impressed/overwhelmed over what I was hearing. "Baby Don't Cry" was fading out and as you heard the last "Baby Don't Cry" sing faintly away, that riff came in. The riff was then joined by the piano and my first thought was that I was listening to some SMiLE outtake. I've always considered Andrew Farriss the Brian Wilson of the group and this intro seemed like a direct tip of the hat to it. Then the song continues the riff as the drums kick in. Michael sings in this low energy, detached vocal style while organs swell up and around the song. Kirk's sax slowly drifts into the song and plays a restrained melody. I love love love how the call and response starts as "Beautiful Girl - stay with me" and then in the end of the song, it reverses into "Stay with me - Beautiful Girl". Just a beautiful song all over. Up to then, my favorite INXS song was "The One Thing". That moved to #2 the very first moment I heard "Beautiful Girl". As singles were being released from the album, I blatantly hoped that "Beautiful Girl" would be released as a single. I had almost lost hope until I finally started hearing it on the radio stations being announced as the new single. I eagerly watched the music video they released for the song and I was impressed that they were making a statement about the expectations of beauty with women and it just blew my mind that they were putting out a message music video in the middle of the grunge era where you didn't see or hear anything like this going on in the scene. The single started climbing the charts and was making its way into the Top 50. I was excited to see how big this was going to be. After "Not Enough Time" peaked at #28 and "Taste It" peaked/flopped at #101, I felt that this single was finally going to be the biggest hit off the record. This one was going to pull it off. Easily a Top 10. You could imagine my disgust when the song stalled/peaked at #46. Some said the music video was too preachy (?) and started having more limited airplay than before, along with radio joining in when the song slowly started slipping back down the charts. I was completely dumbfounded. How can a song THIS GOOD just be shoved aside into obscurity? The best song they ever did and once again a plug somewhere was pulled. As all of this was going on, I couldn't tell what hurt the band more: the music scene had changed so much that they only had two or three chances to make everything take off but just got finally swallowed by the domineering new music scene or Atlantic Records only gave a half-hearted attempt to put the record out and not give it enough push/money to make it work. Can't help if INXS had the same kind of push U2 did, we wouldn't be having this conversation. What could have been. U.S. version of the video posted for reference:
It is strange to me listening to this album, and knowing it wasn't as big as it should have been. It is even more strange to me that the singles, in general, didn't do better ... I'm not sure if I think this is the band's best album or not, but for me it is a better album than Kick, or X .... Not being very in touch with the music scene of the time, it almost seems like there was a backlash against the band or something. Is there some major offense from the band that I am unaware of? Or is it just one of those typical WTF music moments?
The biggest "offense" was that they were seen trying to ride U2's coattails into doing new experimental music in the new music scene. I didn't believe that at all. What else were they going to do - keep putting out dance/rock retreads hoping that they would catch back on? They took on the challenge of not being typecast and left behind in the new era by coming up with one of the greatest albums ever made. The problem was that the majority of the current music listeners just saw the new album as a weak attempt of trying to do their own Achtung Baby while still being tagged as the "Need You Tonight" guys as everybody else was now obsessing about songs like "Spells Like Teen Spirit" or "Even Flow".
