Bop Or Not: Fine Young Cannibals “Johnny Come Home”

Sam Wilkinson

According to a faithful reader, I'm Ordinary Times's "least thoughtful writer." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

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13 Responses

  1. Doctor Jay says:

    I agree that “She Drives Me Crazy” pretty much hits perfection. “Good Thing”, also from the same album, is very close. It’s hard for me to say why, but I agree that “Johnny Come Home” lacks bop. There’s a lot of very good things happening in that track.Report

    • Sam Wilkinson in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      I once wrote a movie review of something – Ocean’s Eleven maybe? – where I gave it a 7/10 and people were aghast, as if that was insufficiently celebratory. In retrospect, it is probably slightly better than that. To me, “Johnny Come Home” is a very, very, very good song that still isn’t a bop. This isn’t me indicating that I don’t love the song. I do. But a bop is a bop and this ain’t a bop.Report

  2. Pinky says:

    “She Drives Me Crazy” is good…but perfect? Nah. There’s a little less substance in the verses than there needs to be. In the first verse, it’s not noticeable because of the unique vocals, but by the second verse it creates a lull. In the third verse, they’ve added a guitar lick.

    I’ll give you another song that falls short of perfection, but this one because there’s too little substance in the chorus: Runnin’ Down A Dream, by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.Report

  3. krogerfoot says:

    I’m impressed that we’ve talked about Fine Young Cannibals for this long and haven’t mentioned their cover of “Suspicious Minds” that put them on the map. With the (enormous) help of the video, all the salient facts regarding FYC were established, to wit: 1) Roland Gift’s vocal genius, 2) Roland Gift’s outrageous handsomeness. I say this as someone who phreeked out heavily on both of that band’s records—they achieved something remarkable without being a very good band.Report

  4. Brandon Berg says:

    I know what you’re thinking, and, yes, I agree. The Fine Young Cannibals did achieve musical perfection with “She Drives Me Crazy” a song that literally could not be any better than it already is. The song’s clincher is its absolutely massive hook and Roland Gift‘s delivery of it.

    Really? It’s always struck me as fairly run-of-the-mill. I don’t even know what hook you’re talking about.Report