In 1985 She RULED the Charts-Then DISAPPEARED….15 Years Later Came Back In a RAGE!-Professor of Rock

in 1985 rock and roll music or pop music for that matter was not a forum for the dark subject of abuse but an awkward singer finding a new way ban from Boston brought the taboo topic to light with a groundbreaking song about empowerment it was one of the most memorable hits of the mid-80s had an acclaimed music video that was both daring and disturbing when we tell the story of this Eerie track you're likely to hear it with a whole new understanding and appreciation of its brilliance it has a misheard lyric in it and there are a lot of urban legends about what this song really means the most haunting song of 1985 also might be the year's catchiest it's all coming up next on professor of Rock hey music junkies professor of rock always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time you know if you remember dial MTV back in the day you know seeing if your favorite video stayed at number one or if you even voted in it you're gonna dig this channel of musical Nostalgia make sure that you subscribe below right now check the box you always know when our stuff's coming up uh jump in the time machine every day with us and make sure to see if you are subscribed because we've had a lot of problems lately with whether someone subscribes and it didn't work um and it really help us out if you hit the like button because uh we're not getting getting as many impressions as we normally do so if you do that we appreciate it speaking of dial MTV I remember when Def Leppard was at number one forever I'm so happy the band's doing well by the way what's with the hair okay so thinking back on 1985 great year in pop music uh rock music it was a very exciting time in music the artistic creativity coming from arguably the peak of the new wave era was really interesting it's thought provoking and spiritually absorbing artists like Tears for Fears The Smiths Talking Heads Eurythmics Kate Bush Dire Straits and the Cure they were breaking through to a larger audience starving for stimulation that was missing from the doldrums of the musical period from 75 to 82. I mean I like that period but um anyway there was an abundance of songs with heady themes such as repressed childhood trauma let me know gender role reversal [Music] social bigotry [Music] nuclear war [Applause] stalking you [Music] I had to say that one these and other forbidden topics were becoming sing-along conversations that evoked A New Perspective on subjects that many labeled as taboo you know to address some popular music record labels they were inclined to keep everything you know light and bouncy not wanting to give radio programmers an excuse not to play a particular single but in 1985 a Boston band with a striking yet shy front woman dared to expose the effects of a controlling abusive relationship the band was till Tuesday it featured lead vocalists and Lyricist Amy Mann one of my favorites the song was their undeniable and a haunting to man went through an incredible ordeal when she was only three years old after her parents divorce she was kidnapped by her mother and her mother's boyfriend she was rescued after her father hired a private detective that found his little daughter in Europe young Amy was returned to her father's home in Boston and she was reunited with her stepmother and Two Step Brothers now this experience it deeply affected Amy's childhood and it complicated the rest of her life Amy was so traumatized by the kidnapping that she didn't speak for months at a time her parents were worried that she had developed serious psychological issues now when reflecting on that period of her life Amy said she remembers feeling trapped on every side and with the help of a psychiatrist she gradually felt comfortable with her surroundings and when she was 12 years old she began to learn to play the bass guitar her family told her that it wasn't ladylike to play a guitar and for a good year she resisted the urge to play the bass eventually she was unfazed by the ridicule of her parents she began to play her brother's bass inspired by the music of David Bowie and Iggy Pop and she was actually particularly motivated by Patty Smith whom she regarded as a hero as someone who showed her that a woman could be something more break away from Conformity and repression [Music] Amy wanted to pursue music so she enrolled in the Berkeley School of Music in Boston and she joined a local punk band named the young snakes she left the young Stakes because they didn't like the songs that she wrote and then she became a member of the band Ministry in 1981 this is where she met Al Jorgensen back in 1981 Ministry in Al Jorgensen they were not the industrial hardcore band that they are now [Music] early on Jorgensen and Ministry embraced the emerging new romantic music genre they had songs like Revenge [Music] work for love [Music] Amy's short tenure with Ministry is significant because she and Jorgensen had a romantic liaison during that time and Jorgensen claimed that Amy told him that voices carry was about their dysfunctional relationship like I said in the beginning of this there will be several different accounts about what truly inspired the song including those by Amy yourself she would know she wrote the song Amy form till Tuesday in 82 with Robert Holmes on lead guitar Joey passion synthesizer and keys not that Joe Pesci and Michael Houseman on drums the the band became a hot free agent when they won the wbcn rock and roll Rumble in 1983. the runner-up in that competition was Boston's del Fuego so it was a serious deal [Applause] [Music] on the strength of their Buzz created by their Victory on the rock and roll Rumble till Tuesday they were assign new Epic Records the group started to work on their debut album voices carry with Producer Mike Thorne whose biggest claim to fame at that point was his skilled craftsmanship on Soft Cell seductive version of Tainted Love Now shortly before the recording sessions began for the voices carry album any man of Michael Houseman ended their live in Romance the relationship was Rocky at times and there are many that speculated the Amy's lyrics on the title track were based on a heated argument between the couple especially in the dramatic chorus [Music] voices carry that was written about the Dark Side of romance Behind the Walls that people rarely see pain and abuse it's literally hushed away some of the people close to the band they insist the song was not conceived from Amy's brief relationship with Jorgensen or her love affair with Houseman Mike Thorne is one of those who adamantly states that the line shut up can't you keep it down was Amy singing to another woman and that the gender was changed from a female to female relationship to a male female relationship because of label pressure there is validity to Thorne's assertion because uh of the original lyrics in the 1984 version of Oasis carry actually the original second verse went like this when she goes to get her Fortune told she just leaves me out in the cold if only she would leave me a clue or leave me alone when I ask her what I should do I'm on my own the bridge in the 84 version read she wants me to take her out of the town the lyric was subsequently changed for the final recording to he wants me but only part of the time it [Music] is Amy conveyed that the song was neither based on her relationship with Jorgensen or Houseman but it was actually inspired by a female acquaintance she further maintained that she composed the song from a male's point of view you know Hush Hush voices carry she clarified her actions on a podcast with Conan O'Brien saying that she wrote voices carry after a male friend shared a story with Amy about a relationship with a girl that didn't want to be affectionate with him in public her friend told her that when he attempted to express his feelings for like in a restaurant or something she shot him down keep your voice down I don't want people to know that we're dating is what was said [Music] Amy listened intently to her friend's story because she could relate to what he was feeling she knew what it felt like to be silenced by someone that she was in love with now according to Amy Mann the Rewritten bridge in the studio version of voices carrier that begins with he wants me but only part of the time that was centered around something very real something that she was going through in a relationship she was in at the time [Music] gender swap notwithstanding voices carry it's a powerful song The disrupted conventional mores about a happily ever after love affair instead voices carry exposed to pain a woman feels while entangling a relationship with a controlling abusive man it was one of the first songs that Amy Mann wrote without any assistance acutely portraying the the misery and the dread imposed in a toxic relationship the power of the signs evocative narrative strikes sharply from the very opening line in the dark I'd like to read his mind but I'm frightened by the things I might find it's sad that when the heroin wants to express her true feelings for her partner he coldly dismisses her when I tell him that I'm falling in love what does he say hush hush keep it down now voices carry hello what is I always heard it differently more on that in a second the emotional potency though of Amy's composition escalates with her towering vocal by the size refrain she unleashes her stifled frustration and her voice carries louder and louder you know Define the belittlement of her selfish demeaning lover [Music] as the song Fades there is a soft heartbreaking yearning and when Amy sings I wish he would let me talk you're just left with the feeling that she like many women in an abusive relationship you know stay in the misery instead of leaving it there's pressure much more so in the 80s you know to conform to the norms and societal expectations and just stick it out no matter how much it hurts perhaps that last subtle lyric is the most poignant part of voices carry [Music] Amy tries to explain how exasperated she is in the verses Joy Pesci's synthesizer Parts give voices carry a really eerie darkness that underscores Amy's desperation throughout the track I mean most profoundly in the musical interlude before the bridge foreign this definitely made it one of the most haunting songs of the 80s it just gets underneath your skin it cuts to the Bone one of the best songs in 1985 for sure for my money when the voices carry LP was completed Mike Thorne and the four band members they were torn between looking over my shoulder and loving a vacuum as the lead single from the record after all loving a vacuum was the song that they performed when they won the rock and roll Rumble that was their Tipping Point for success it was epic's head of a r dick Wingate that decided on voices carry to be that first single he really believed in the track he said it precisely to find what till Tuesday was all about [Music] voices carry was liberating for Amy Mann in so many ways besides being a number eight hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the number 14 Rock track it really showcased Amy's deeply perceptive lyricism and it provided the stage for Amy to break away from the shy scared of the world young woman that you know plagued her adolescence the music video for voices carry that proved to be is groundbreaking as the song is an expose on the the harmful reality of emotional abuse I turned the song into a symbol of empowerment for women the treatment for the clip produced by DJ Webster was scripted around Amy as an aspiring musical artist in a toxic relationship with a disapproving and demeaning boyfriend it's played by Coley Holland who portrayed a prototypical bud Fox style 80s Yuppie who only cared about you know money and you know social status in addition to the psychological derision inflicted on his girlfriend there's a scene in the middle of the video where the boyfriend yells out to Amy's character why can't you for once do something for me and he aggressively pushes her into a staircase as she screams out that disturbing image it resonated with women to speak out against physical and mental blade on MTV and actually till Tuesday won the trophy for Best New Artist in the video in 85 at the MTV Video Music Awards also in 85 Amy was named best female performer video for acting invoices carry her performance was praised as being honest and authentic the video is widely regarded as one of the 100 greatest music videos of all that was released as the follow-up to voices carry fortunately installed at number 61 on the billboard hall 100. and then the third single that was love in a vacuum that's a cut that I've always felt should have been a big hit [Music] good I guess a great 80s shouldn't Jam the song failed to generate airplane it didn't even crack the survey actually I also loved you know the rest from the album it has that biting Melancholy haunt of Amy Mann's sacred voice tell ya triple track it was the Lone hit from what ended up being a Bonafide gold record till Tuesday's sophomore album that was welcome home came out in 86 it featured What about love that inch up to number 26 on the Hot 100 in a mid-charted in Canada but didn't quite uh match the success or impact of voices carry [Music] after the futility of their third LP everything's different now in 88 until Tuesday broke up and Amy embarked on a solo career in 1990. I've always felt that till Tuesday was one of the most underappreciated bands of the new wave era for sure their albums are chocked full of great 80s rock and pop you got to go back and listen for sure speaking of Amy's solo career it's three years for Epic Records to let her out of her contract so she could start making solo records Amy's debut album whatever that came out in 93 a classic featured the cool number 16 alternative rock single I should have known [Music] and the deeply heart-wrenching song stupid thing [Music] I'm with stupid the album that came out two years later but both of them were solo records They didn't sell very well they weren't pushed by the label much she was playing small clubs in La some referred to her as a casualty of 80s pop a series of broken promises and bad luck had really made Amy disillusioned and distrustful of the record industry [Music] but then in 1999 director Paul Thomas Anderson was inspired by Amy's music and he asked her to contribute songs for the soundtrack of his movie Magnolia these strange things happen all the time now the year before she was on the Jerry Maguire soundtrack with a great song as well so people were starting to notice her genius but Magnolia it made huge impact the film included dialogue from Amy's lyrics from her song wise up [Music] the song also from Jerry Maguire and her composition Saved Me from the movie was nominated for a Grammy award for best female pop vocal and also an Academy Award for best original song the LA Times called save me man's Masterpiece Amy described the Magnolia experience as a blood transfusion for her career [Music] in the 21st century the music of Amy man is much different from the time she was the leader until Tuesday Circa 82-90. Amy feels she has become a much better songwriter with age experience and wisdom she has a better understanding of how to connect with her and herself really for years Amy didn't perform any of the old till Tuesday songs not even voices carry until the song's 20th anniversary in 2005. this is when Amy recorded a stripped down version of her 80s classic the anniversary reinterpretation of voices carry features a lonely intricate aimy man vocal you know a tender backup support in that hush-hush chorus [Music] an arrangement with a sensitive acoustic guitar Melody and a Melancholy piano accompaniment restored The Haunting darkness of the original song [Applause] [Music] voices carry it's a song for the ages one of the most distinctive pop hits of the new wave era that blew the lid off of a sensitive hidden subject Amy Mann may not have written it to be a female Anthem per se well this resonant empathy and intuitive sentiment that's what it became the song enticed a shift in the power Dynamic of traditional male and female role play long silenced by a controlling dominating partner women were inspired to speak up you know confront their Tormentor just as Amy's character did in that iconic music video and you know freely let their voices carry it was always a favorite of mine though as a 10 year old kid hearing it on the radio for the very first time in the first couple of times I have to admit I thought she was seeing it's so scary now years later I was talking about this song with some friends who also misheard the lyrics as this is Carrie um you know it was misheard by quite a few people over the years that I've talked to [Music] but you know when this song forced me to really listen to the lyrics Beyond The Haunting and catchy synths and the video the video really put in perspective it's a song that someone very close to me I said was a motivator to get out of the abusive marriage she was in even though she was very afraid I'm so grateful that this song was the Catalyst for this amazing person to have the courage to leave and open the door to A Whole New Life whole new happiness hopefully the song will continue to empower victims to do the same

Channel: Professor of Rock

Views: 930,866

Keywords: professor of rock, professor of rock 80s, behind the music, classic albums, song story, 80s, 80s pop, 80s greatest hits, 80s music, 80s hits, 80s nostalgia, professor of rock til tuesday, til tuesday, voices carry song, til tuesday documentary, til tuesday interview, ’til tuesday, voices carry album, eighties, 1985, aimee mann, new wave, synth pop, 80s rock, voices carry music video, til tuesday voices carry, meaning of voices carry, classic rock, tears for fears, magnolia

Id: 88TMaC-uO-0

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023