Saturday, September 19, 2009

Power Ballad of the Day September 19th

Today: "Only My Heart Talkin'" by Alice Cooper:



This song -as well as all the other songs on "Trash" very successfully captures the essence of mainstream, late 80's LA metal. A concept that Trond Holter and Wig Wam has been able to bottle in a similar manner, I might add; there's no signature sound whatsoever, only the sense that you've heard it before and that it was a big hit.

That's not a knock on either Mr. Vincent Furnier og Trond Holter, by the way.

As is the case for many power ballads, the video and the song content seriously clash here. The main "story" in the video appears to be a girl with a backstage pass (actually depicted in the video - yes) who wakes up in Alice Cooper's bed - alone - and starts to ponder that she might not be the only or true love of Mr. Cooper.Consequently, after much tossing and turning in her lingerie, she decides to pack her stuff and face up to the big rock star. She tosses her backstage pass back to Alice, and proceeds to waltz out into the back yard, where she enters limo, which turns out to be belonging to a certain Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Whether the song is meant to portray the fact that groupies in LA in the late 80's had seen the ceiling of every tour bus in town, or that the groupies probably aren't the brightest bulbs in the box remains unclear.

5 comments:

Torbjørn said...

Great song from a great album!

I would have gone for "Hell is living without you" from this one ;)

Wilhelm said...

Dude - I totally agree with "Hell Is Living Without You" being thebetter song of teh two. Just couldn't find a video for it is all.

Anders said...

What's wrong with Poison? Or doesn't that qualify as a Power Ballad?

Torbjørn said...

Nothing wrong with poison, I tell you that.

Wilhelm said...

..kind of borderline as to whether or not it's a true power ballad. Moreover, it's more fun if I pick some songs that are just outside of the beaten path, right?