John Waite "How Did I Get By Without You"
Apr 1, 2007 19:37:01 GMT -5
Post by jaxxalude on Apr 1, 2007 19:37:01 GMT -5
By 1995, I guess we could pretty much say that the continued popularity of alt.rock (well, what the industry sold as alt.rock, anyway...) made a possible return of classic AOR and melodic pop/rock highly unlikely. Sure, Bryan Adams was still riding high then, what with all his mushy soundtrack ballads keeping him afloat. Sure, Bon Jovi followed his lead and also started to rely heavily on AC-friendly slow numbers to keep delivering the numbers. And yes, even Van Halen took notice and churned out "Can't Stop Lovin' You" and "Not Enough". In a way, all of them realized on time that, in order to still have mainstream success, you maybe had to grow with your audience, instead of either rocking out as if it was 1985 until infinity or trying to chase the younger audience by (almost always not successfully) trying to adapt to a zeitgeist that was as far from their own original roots as could be.
As a seasoned arena-rocker himself (The Babys, Bad English, his own solo career in the 80s), John Waite was no fool and readily took the bait by releasing the suitably sentimental "How Did I Get By Without You" as the single to kickstart promotion on his then new album, Temple Bar. And for a short time, it seemed like he too was pulling the trick, since the song was slowly but steadily gaining foot with both the AC and the Pop crowds. Trouble was, this came at a time when Imago (the record label he was working with) was just folding, following a difficult time which occurred after it lost its distribution deal with BMG. This, of course, affected Temple Bar's promotion, meaning that John Waite's chances at actually surviving the alt.rock onslaught were already gone before he had a real chance.
In a way, it's a shame it had to be this way. Even if his material is straight-up MOR business - and this ballad certainly wasn't exempt from it -, the fact is John Waite always had one thing going for him: his voice. Not only in a strict musical sense, but also in the way he always imbues his performances with obvious passion and emotion. And as his monster smash "Missing You" proved, that was sometimes enough for him to convincingly sell material that in other hands would otherwise just be too run-of-the-mill. But, as they say, shit happens. And the thing is, he's survived and he's still making music, albeit in a much more low-key way, with no real expectations for mainstream success anymore. He'll always have that voice, though.
As a seasoned arena-rocker himself (The Babys, Bad English, his own solo career in the 80s), John Waite was no fool and readily took the bait by releasing the suitably sentimental "How Did I Get By Without You" as the single to kickstart promotion on his then new album, Temple Bar. And for a short time, it seemed like he too was pulling the trick, since the song was slowly but steadily gaining foot with both the AC and the Pop crowds. Trouble was, this came at a time when Imago (the record label he was working with) was just folding, following a difficult time which occurred after it lost its distribution deal with BMG. This, of course, affected Temple Bar's promotion, meaning that John Waite's chances at actually surviving the alt.rock onslaught were already gone before he had a real chance.
In a way, it's a shame it had to be this way. Even if his material is straight-up MOR business - and this ballad certainly wasn't exempt from it -, the fact is John Waite always had one thing going for him: his voice. Not only in a strict musical sense, but also in the way he always imbues his performances with obvious passion and emotion. And as his monster smash "Missing You" proved, that was sometimes enough for him to convincingly sell material that in other hands would otherwise just be too run-of-the-mill. But, as they say, shit happens. And the thing is, he's survived and he's still making music, albeit in a much more low-key way, with no real expectations for mainstream success anymore. He'll always have that voice, though.