Showing posts with label Night Ranger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Night Ranger. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2012

Night Ranger - "Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Anymore)"

Four In the Morning - 7 Wishes

(Debuted August 24, 1985, Peaked #19, 13 Weeks on the Chart)

As a writer, I sometimes try not to look at the clock while I'm working. Frankly, most of the time I really don't want to know how late it is. I've been known to write stuff late into the night, so the first line of the song ("Four in the morning came without a warning") is something I've been able to relate to. For Night Ranger member Jack Blades, that was the time it was when he wrote this song. "Write what you know," the saying goes...

As one of three hit singles from Night Ranger's LP Seven Wishes, "Four in the Morning (I Can't Take Anymore)" was a continuation of a string of hits that began with the MTV monster hit "Sister Christian" in 1984. Little did we know at the time, the ride was soon about to end. However, the song was a hook-filled confection that exemplified what we now call "arena rock," chock-full of 1980s music cliches yet still sounding good all these years later. Part of it sounds like a narrator talking to a half-empty beer bottle just before the bar is about to close, but it deserves to be better remembered than it eventually became.




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Night Ranger - "When You Close Your Eyes"

When You Close Your Eyes - Midnight Madness

(Debuted July 14, 1984, Peaked #14, 17 Weeks on the Chart)

After time has passed and life goes on, it's perfectly natural to wonder about whether those whose paths once ran along with yours and then diverged ever think back to "those days." I can relate to that; sometimes I wonder how old friends and girlfriends turned out after we lost touch. That seems to be the idea behind this song.

In 1984, you had to be living under a rock to miss the mania that was "Sister Christian." Heck, I lived in the middle of nowhere at the time and it was part of the soundtrack of the Summer of '84 for me. Then, one day I saw the video for "When You Close Your Eyes" on MTV and immediately took to it. Perhaps the line about learning about love "in the back of a Chevrolet" caught my attention (I was still a little young to do anything but hope when it came to that subject), but I'm sure the melody and guitar lines hooked me as well. I still don't have any idea how the song wasn't as big a hit as "Sister Christian" was.

It's interesting to say, but hearing "When You Close your Eyes" immediately takes me back to that summer and memories of things that are long gone. Such is the power of music.