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Stranded on a Foreign island

Pick your Foreigner poison

Head Games	0 votes
Blue Morning Blue Day	3 votes
Long Long Way from Home	3 votes
Cold as Ice	1 votes
Juke Box Hero	0 votes
Urgent	1 votes
Hot Blooded	2 votes
Double Vision	1 votes
Feels Like the First Time	1 votes
I Wanna Know What Love Is	1 votes
Waiting for a Girl Like You	0 votes
I Have Waited for So Long	0 votes

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 09:02 AM

Holy shit. I never gave these guys a thought post 'Cold As Ice' but Christ on a Cracker did they crank out the candidates or what? Vote for one if you can. Note the Mick Jones vocals on "I Have Waited" in the ballad subsection. If Gramm is your singer why not use him? Jeez. Head Games Blue Morning, Blue Day Long Long Way From Home Cold As Ice Juke Box Hero Urgent Hot Blooded Double Vision Feels Like the First Time (wuss division below) I Wanna Know What Love Is Godammit Waiting for a Girl Like You I Have Waited So Long

batmagadanleadoff Aug 22 2008 09:04 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Aug 22 2008 09:10 AM

Foreigner? I'd rather stuff sand in my ears and talk to my Wilson volleyball. I do get to have a volleyball on this island -- right? I await the inevitable Styx poll.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 22 2008 09:09 AM

Just kidding. Kind of. Okay, I wasn't really kidding. I was kidding when I said I was kidding. I get cranky whenever I think about being stranded on a desert island, that's all. But that's just me. Is there a radio for Mets games on this island? Blue Monday. Poison, indeed.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 09:14 AM

Yeah, no one said this would be easy. On the plus side you only get one song. On the down side, you get one song. I'm going for "Long Long Way from Home" -- appropriate subject matter, I think those are baritone saxes in the background plus that scifi intro. Gotta hand it to Gramm -- he's got some Major League pipes. I like his solo "Midnight Blue" song probably more than any of these but it's not eligible.

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 09:48 AM

i'm guessing that Gramm was on hiatus during Ferner's "I Have Waited So Long" era --- crossing the country, singing "Midnight Blue" and laughing at how lost Mick Jones is without him. Nobody but nobody is going to vote "I Have Waited So Long." For a band noted for being overblown and overproduced, that sounds like an indifferently mastered demo.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 09:53 AM

I read up on that one. Seems that Jones was the driving force behind the whole balladeering thing. That song is actually from their 1st or 2nd album, giving us a preview of the crap to come. Lou Gramm has overcome a brain tumor, I didn't know that either. Catch his band opening for Boston at a state fair near you this summer!

metirish Aug 22 2008 09:54 AM

Voted for Hot Blooded , a song about a Rocker getting hot and bothered after meeting a fan , very 70's.

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 09:59 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Aug 22 2008 10:06 AM

A few side questions: How gross is the notion of putting a teenage tramp with her ass in a urinall on the cover of Head Games? Is that poor young woman pre-coital or post-coital? She seems sickened by what she's reduced herself to either way. She has musical notes on her skirt. Is she supposed to be a Foreigner groupie? Could she be an actual Foreigner groupie? Could this be a barely posed shot of an actual groupie in between romps with Foreigner members? Is this a snuff cover? Foreigner was so called because their original lineup was half American and half British. Is the title Head Games, along with the cover, a pun on the usage of the term to mean a lavatory? Is that a British usage or more of a naval usage? Is it a pun because the poor young woman just gave or is about to give Foreigner head? Is it a double pun? Is the toilet paper to wipe her mouth? What the Hell? Where were the outraged parents? Did they dream up that cover concept in Thailand or something?

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 10:05 AM

I went for "Long Long Way from Home." A lot of the hits are equally good/bad, but in a long trail of cock-rocking date-raping embarrassing self-aggrandizement, that's the only lyric that shows a smidgen of self awareness. OE: My sig line looks funny on this post.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 22 2008 10:14 AM Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Aug 22 2008 07:11 PM

="AG/DC"] How gross is the notion of putting a teenage tramp with her ass in a urinall on the cover of Head Games? Some toilet album covers: From the novelty book "Worst Album Covers": And a rock classic: and on edit, another pop classic:

seawolf17 Aug 22 2008 10:24 AM

I don't particularly love any of these, but since "Blue Morning" has been stuck in my head since I first saw the poll go up, I guess that one gets the nod.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 10:37 AM

As I remember it the Head Games cover did conjure up some controversy (just as planned I'm sure). I think it's a double-triple entrendre, as you suggest: head-head-head. I think she's trying to erase her phone number off the stall-wall with the tp. Asked about it, Mick Jones remarked "What's wrong with being sexy?" Whatever, this cover was about the 5th or 6th thing wrong with this album, which was a step down from Double Vision, which was a step down from the debut, which I thought was pretty good.

metsguyinmichigan Aug 22 2008 10:43 AM

I like Foreigner, though I would have picked "Dirty White Boy" if that was one of the options. I had a concert t-shirt with that Head Games cover on it, one of the ones you used to buy from a guy with a gunny sack in the Nassau Coliseum parking lot after the show. My parents were not thrilled, but did the whole "let this phase pass" thing. The live version of "Urgent" is killer. Saw them twice, once with Billy Squire on the 4 tour, and once at Jones Beach on the "Agent Provocateur" Tour.

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 10:45 AM

My parents had the same attitude toward my Millie Jackson poster.

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 10:57 AM

Foreign Trivia: "Waiting for a Girl Like You (to Bore Me with a Slowly Repeating Synth Phrase)" set the record (later tied by Missy Elliott's "Work It") for the longest time for a single to sit at number two (Billboard's Hot 100) while never reaching number one. What other singles held the top spot during this period, denying Foreigner their boring destiny?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 11:02 AM

Beat It, Billie Jean & Thriller. Yeah, forgot Dirty White Boy, plus others everybody knows like Say You Will. These fucking guys just knew how to get shit played on the radio.

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 11:07 AM Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Aug 22 2008 11:09 AM

No Michael Jackson. It was 1982. Two of these were tracks that owed their success to heavy rotation from the very early version of MTV --- which was then a mostly mostly white/rock outlet, getting in on the pop-punk and nu wave tip. The third was a single so big that it more or less ended the artist's career. It was like he/she/they knew he/she/they couldn't top it and stopped trying.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 11:08 AM

1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun 2. Down Under

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 11:09 AM

Neither "Girls" nor "Down."

bmfc1 Aug 22 2008 11:16 AM

Foreigner had many memorable hits that still have me hitting the steering wheel when they come on XM 70s or 80s. "Blue Morning" got my vote but it was close.

RealityChuck Aug 22 2008 11:20 AM

I wouldn't call Foreigner a great group, but they were OK to listen to. "Double Vision" gets my vote for some of Ian Macdonald's sax playing.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 22 2008 11:23 AM

="batmagadanleadoff"] Some toilet album covers: I'm back in the toilet again because I can't believe my head* that I forgot this legendary classic: *This is word-play. Can't believe my head because If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears is the title of this Mamas album. Head because toilet, eyes and ears, Head Games.

cooby Aug 22 2008 08:31 PM

"Feels Like the First Time". Even the guitar sounds raunchy.

cooby Aug 22 2008 08:35 PM

seawolf17 wrote: I don't particularly love any of these, but since "Blue Morning" has been stuck in my head since I first saw the poll go up, I guess that one gets the nod. That's a nice song

cooby Aug 22 2008 08:55 PM

AG/DC wrote: No Michael Jackson. It was 1982. Two of these were tracks that owed their success to heavy rotation from the very early version of MTV --- which was then a mostly mostly white/rock outlet, getting in on the pop-punk and nu wave tip. The third was a single so big that it more or less ended the artist's career. It was like he/she/they knew he/she/they couldn't top it and stopped trying. My guess is that Huey Lewis and the News sang one of them. Funkytown for #3?

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 09:08 PM

Not Huey Lewis. Not Lipps, Incorporated.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 22 2008 09:14 PM

Hall & Oates -- Maneater Joan Jett -- I Love Rock and/or Roll Wall of Voodoo -- Mexican Radio we'll be needing more clues when these don;t turn out right

TransMonk Aug 22 2008 09:18 PM

Newton John's "Physical" was huge that year. JCL's gotta be on the right track with Hall and Oates, too.

batmagadanleadoff Aug 22 2008 09:30 PM

Now it can be finally told. What was "Waiting For A Girl Like You" stuck behind on the Hot 100 for all that time? Well, for the first nine weeks at No. 2, Olivia Newton-John's smash "Physical" was at No. 1, while for "Waiting's" last week at No. 2, it played second fiddle to Daryl Hall and John Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." [url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/ask_bb/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003705587&inp=true]Billboard link[/url]

AG/DC Aug 22 2008 09:38 PM

On eidt: Cheater.

HahnSolo Aug 27 2008 10:29 AM

I can't believe I missed this. Went up when I was out of town. Foreigner's "Records" was one of a young HahnSolo's 13 cassettes for a penny from Columbia House. The correct answer must be Long, Long, Way from Home.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Aug 27 2008 10:34 AM

xcellent. Now we need someone to break the tie

HahnSolo Aug 27 2008 10:43 AM

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: xcellent. Now we need someone to break the tie And someone to fix their "I Want to Know What Love Is" misvote.

cooby Aug 27 2008 08:15 PM

did a whole lot of stuff get deleted from this thread?