Favorite Band = Foreigner

            This British/American (hence the name) Arena Rock Super Group has been my favorite band ever since I was 16 and actually started to care about music (due to the fact that I needed something to listen to while driving). I “borrowed” five Foreigner tapes from a friend, and proceeded to play those tapes until they would play no more. Foreigner just has so many great songs, but the strange thing is that few people (of my age at least) can recognize the band by name. Similar bands like Journey, Styx, and Queen seem to be much more widely known, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s this semi-exclusive quality that I like about them, but anybody who has listened to classic rock radio should recognize at least a half dozen of their songs. It’s the songs that are what I really love about this band. I know virtually nothing about this band outside their music (maybe a low profile lifestyle is why this band isn’t recognized), and I really don’t care to. The songs are what I love so the songs are what I will talk about. In the order in which they appear in the discography, here are discussions of my favorite Foreigner songs:

The Self-Titled Album

Feels Like The First Time – The aptly named first song of their first album. In my opinion, a mandatory opener for any Foreigner compilation tape. Nothing amazing in the lyrics department (most just repetitions on a theme), but Lou Gramm is really belting it out in this one. Off to a good start, let’s continue.

Cold As Ice – Now we’re talking. The piano part is so simple yet so charming. This song is a good example of how well structured many Foreigner song are. The song is simply a Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge with the ending basically just Cold as Ice being repeated as a round with some nice background vocals. It’s nothing fancy, but it works. The lyrics even come in within the first ten seconds, and I appreciate a song that gets right down to business.

Starrider – Definitely one of their dorkier songs, but I’m a sucker for a sci-fi theme. Based on a true story of when the band was abducted by aliens (the same thing happened to Styx). The crescendoing “speed increasing, all control is in the hands of those who know” chorus is my favorite part of the song.

Headknocker – This one has a bit of southern-rock flavor to it with a theme about a bad-ass guitar playing, back seat mauler, bar room brawler. This dude has a ’57 coupe (only rhymes with the American pronunciation), walks with a stoop, and swears James Dean isn’t dead. The warnings not to mess with this guy and his threatened violences escalate as the song progresses, which is a nice touch.

Long, Long Way From Home – An up pace, somewhat confrontational song. I enjoy the songs were they work in a saxophone since a sax solo can wail just as hard as anything, if not harder (it is probably the hardest rocking instrument that you need to blow into). The “I’m looking out for the two of us” line is delivered as only Lou could do it, and is my favorite part of this one.

I Need You – Starts with an amazing slow build up, and I thoroughly enjoy all the instrumentation in this song. There are times when I don’t even know how many instruments are playing, but I know that I like it. This is true super group material, and everybody is bringing their A-game to this one.

The Sophomore Album

Hot Blooded – I really like how they jump right into the chorus 15 seconds into the song. This is my ultimate pick up song, and I don’t even live a pick up lifestyle. There are some legendary rhymes in this song with stuff like you-rendezvous-do-who, but the whole thing is nearly ruined for me by the fact that the first verse matches mind with mind. You guys can do better than that! Here, how about this: “You don’t have to read my mind, Baby it ain’t hard to find, honey you ought to know.” Was that so complicated? They also rhyme sign with sign later in the song, but it works due to the pleading nature of the lyrics, so I’ll let it slide. In the end, when they change up the third chorus to say “burning inside of me” instead of “one hundred and three” I totally forgive any bad rhymes. This song even got reference in Dinosaur Comics, so you know it must be good.

Love Has Taken Its Toll – A like a song that tells a story. This is a plain story about a man winning over a woman who wanted nothing to do with him. You can’t really fit much narrative into a three and a half minute song, but this one does a good enough job for me. She kind of jumps right from backhanding him to pleading him (nearly), but they do drop a “to make a long story short” in there, and that sax solo could melt any women’s heart.

Double Vision – A song about parting hard and getting mentally befuddled. The weird thing is that the tone is neither hard nor fast like you would expect of a song about partying hard and living fast. It’s really a fairly smooth and mellifluous song, and comes across as a praise of the phenomenon of double vision rather than any causes of such phenomena. It’s strange, but I like it. The line “my mind is racing, but my body’s in the lead” is my favorite part.

Who's been writing song titles on this stall, and what is this women doing in the men's bathroom?

Dirty White Boy – The classic tale of a lower class boy getting together with an upper class girl told in song form. This theme shows up everywhere; from Billy Joel songs, to Star Wars, to Super Mario Brothers. None of them coin such a stupendous term as Dirty White Boy though, and I also get a hint of a dominant/submissive aspect to this relationship (“you want me to be cruel to ya”), which is something.

Love on the Telephone – An angry song for a nice change of pace. This one is the story of a relationship falling apart over a long distance. Plenty of phone references to be found that aren’t applicable to today’s world, but I still enjoy when he threatens to tear a phone out of the wall (to an operator no less). One of a few Foreigner songs where days of the week appear in the lyrics, but they are so easy to rhyme with that I guess it’s not super surprising.

Women – This is kind of a silly song that just throws out a bunch of different kinds of women (from those “behind bars” to “in limousines”). That’s all it is; no story, no chorus; just... women. The word “women” is used 35 times in this song, which is an average of once every 5.83 seconds. Another rhyme fest, which is something I like, and I don’t know what is going on with the guitar in this song, but I know I like it.

I’ll Get Even With You – Revenge is this song’s theme. The lyrics are mostly descriptions of the negative impacts on the singer, and his assurance of getting even. I like how the target of this revenge is never describe, and the nature of the offence is left vague as well. It could be about anything and anyone and I appreciate how it’s so widely applicable.

Head Games – A person can only take so much psychological warfare in a relationship. You can’t always solve a problem by talking and some people are just bound to fight. Interpersonal relationships are hard, and leaving can be the only good option left.

Rev on the Red Line – Hints of illegal street racing before it was cool. This song was way ahead of its time. It discusses a love a cars, women who love the best times (as in track times), high speed chases, and paying off court officials. I think that pretty much covers it.

My favorite album of the bunch

Night Life – Another song about partying, but with a lively mood this time. This song glorifies all things nocturnal, and refers to the day only with disdain. The life of the night is complete with everything from neon and noise, night owls, and girls “never doing what they oughta.” I have no desire to live this life for myself, but I do enjoy the occasional song about it.

Juke Box Hero – A coming of age tale about a boy who goes from listening to concerts from the rainy alley outside, to a rock legend. A tale about the power of one guitar. A tale about struggling to get on top, and struggling to stay there. A tale about stars being in people’s eyes. This song just rocks so friggin’ hard that I can’t help but feel good when I listen to it. This is early 80’s rock at its finest.

Urgent – Some love songs just don’t have any room for romance. A body has needs, and these needs can get Urgent. When two people can satisfy these needs for each other it’s something worth singing about. Another great saxophone song, and there is also some synthesizer work by Thomas Dolby, which is always excellent.

I’m Gonna Win – The greatest tragedy of the 1980’s what that this song never made it into a montage. This song oozes that 80’s motivational charm. The grim determination towards winning just makes me feel capable of anything (“I want to taste it while its hot”). Even the instrumental in the song reeks of the will to succeed. This is my favorite Foreigner song due to these stimulating qualities, and a good song to end on.

            After their first four albums I haven’t found any Foreigner songs that I really love. They still have some pretty good music there, but it just isn’t at the same level for me. All the non-Lou Gramm stuff I just don’t have any interest in. One disappointing thing about Foreigner is that they never really figured out music videos. Maybe this is why they aren’t well known by my generation (I also don’t judge them to be the most attractive musicians of the era). It isn't hard to find a radio station that doesn't play at least a few of their songs, so they aren't that obscure. My old tapes have now been replaced by CD's and it is only a matter of time until those will be worn away by use as well.

Myriad (this is my attempt at a catchy name for a philosophical text)

            I’ve come to a conclusion that all justice, morals, virtues, and concepts of good and evil are completely relative. Not in the way that you can come up with whatever you want and be correct, but that they are determined by the social system in which they exist and not universal constants. This statement seems obvious after thinking about it for so long, but I guess I can still back it up with some discussion. Morals are going to get the most focus since they’re most commonly believed to be unchanging.

            The way I see it, it all starts with the social system. A social system is just any structure that human beings use to organize their interaction with one another, ranging from a nation, to a club. By my definition; within a society justice is beneficial action, virtue is valuable traits, morals are concepts for propitious behavior, and good and evil are labels for anything that is advantageous or harmful. Here’s an example. In my wider culture of the United States of America during the early 21^st Century, sex between an adult male and a young boy is considered to be very wrong. So much so that it’s considered justice to send those whom commit this act to jail, where they will be considered to have less moral value that murderers and thieves. Compare this to Classical Hellas, where love between a man and a boy could be considered superior to love between a man and woman (See Plato’s Symposium). Men would have a mentoring relationship with young boys and these relationships included a physical component. The boys were not damaged in any way since this was a completely accepted aspect of the culture, and they likely benefited since they learned stuff and a caring physical relationship can hardly be traumatic. A similar system also existed in Feudal Nippon, just to show it’s not a lone aberration. I realize that in modern times these relationships are typically conducted with additional antisocial acts like assault and kidnapping, but the sexual aspect is usually considered to be the most morally reprehensible part, and without the stigma against the relationships the violent aspects probably wouldn’t commonly exist (I assume here that being taught that one’s natural urges are wrong and need to be repressed might create an unstable and violent individual). This moral belief and others sex related morals (anti-homosexuality, condemning premarital sex, and denouncing all non-monogamous relationships to name a few) can probably be traced to this countries early Puritan roots. But how about murder, it’s always evil right? Well, I can come up with a social system that wouldn’t agree. Imagine a warrior society that believes in a concept of survival of the fittest and glory through combat. Killing others could be viewed as a way to prove ones worth and also as a way or removing those who weren’t valuable to the community. Hypothetical societies like this can be imagined for any act viewed as morally wrong in a culture, and also the opposite where good morals are viewed as evil.

             What I think can be taken away from this idea is that you can’t judge actions within another culture as right or wrong by your own cultural standards. It’s easy to view another society as inherently evil due to differences in the morals built into the social systems, and it’s harder to just accept and tolerate differences. Morals are not completely subjective though, and an individual can’t act in any way desired and claim to follow a different system. Citizens in a social system are obligated to act in the society’s best interest or expect repercussions. It’s only natural for a society to protect itself and encourage the behavior that benefits it, and this is where laws, police, moral education, and such come from. It seems like the problems are that social systems can’t be objectively measured as better or worse, and that many people live in systems that they don’t completely agree with. A solution to this would be to organize various parallel social systems that exist with free movement of their citizens. Diverse cultures could be created in something like city-states, and every member of a culture would be expected to be a willing participant. The more diverse cultures the better, with differences ranging from political organization to economic systems to whether or not people eat meat. Individuals who find that they don’t agree with the culture they live in could hopefully move to another that better suits them, and many morally influenced crimes could be simply punished with exile to another culture that doesn’t view them as crime. Thieves could be sent to the city where property doesn’t exist, adulterers to a free loving state, and embezzlers to a free market anarchy. Exile could be used as a punishment for all serious crimes, with those unable to fit into any group sent to uninhabited areas to create new groups (this isn’t really feasible with the current population on Earth, but once we are capable of living off this planet we can send them to live on asteroids or the like). I’m a big fan of exile, since with justice being actions that benefit society, if a criminal can’t be trusted to cooperate with the social system it's more beneficial to simply make them leave than to dedicate infrastructure to imprisoning them or to waste their life by ending it. I hope societies could be much more stable with all the members giving their full support, and as long as each group recognized the morals of the others as different but not inherently wrong, then many conflicts could be avoided (like Crusades). A focus on judging laws and morals according to how they better a social system rather than as objective facts could also be helpful (such as would legal drug use or the illegal drug trade causing more damage to the society).

            I’m tempted to go on about my opinions on the social contract and other thoughts but I think this is enough moral/political philosophy for now. I think my postulation that morals are relative base on the social system in which they exist is sound, and I fail to come up with a moral idea that can’t be reversed within another viable system. The first way to apply this idea is to be more tolerant of the morals and cultures different from my own. This is easy for me with my non-coercion leanings, and leaving others to their own devices is what I do naturally. In conclusion, I agree with the belief that no one does evil intentionally, but my interpretation is that they just don’t agree on what actions are the most beneficial for society.