Regarding Some Songs

Don't Lose Your Head

First up, I feel it's incumbent on me to mention this was the theme song for the movie Face/Off, which is a film based around the concept of two guys who—wait for it—swap their faces (hence the interminable John Travolta monologue at the start of the above clip, which I chose to include purely for historical referencing purposes).  It is therefore already, even without any further justification, a notable song.  I mean, c'mon—swapping faces?  Nick Cage?  John Woo?  Completely unfathomable numbers of both doves and guns?

Yes, please.

But that's not why this song is here.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't hurt.  Being connected with a dumbarse, so-bad-it's-good, brainless action flick is a pretty good start for any song, if you ask me.

I like INXS.  Given I'm Australian and liking INXS is practically in the constitution, that's hardly a surprise, but it would be fair to say I like them even beyond any state-mandated requirements.  After all, for a brief window in time, way back in the 80s, they were pretty much the biggest band in the world.  I Need You Tonight, New Sensation, Never Tear Us Apart—the list of hits is long and distinguished (no sniggering, Top Gun fans).  I mean, forget Bon Jovi and U2 (Uwho?)—in the late 80s, INXS were the act to see.

But then came the 90s. And the 90s were not kind to the lads from Perth.  In the era of grunge, INXS's funk-driven pop-rock became just a little archaic.  A little out of place and a lot underappreciated.  And to be fair, there were some less than stellar songs in there.  Some undoubted winners (see Baby Don't Cry and By My Side) but a distressing number of...well, let's not say losers.  Let's just say songs with a slightly higher content of mediocrity than you might ideally want to find in a song.

And that was even before lead singer Michael Hutchence died, in 1997.  Don't get me started on the post-Hutchence era of Rock Star: INXS and the disaster that was JD Fortune and the revolving cast of interchangeable and forgettable Hutchence wannabes that cycled through the lead-singer role, into the 2000s and beyond.  I mean, can you imagine the Stones without Jagger?  Foo Fighters without Dave?  AC/DC without Bon Scott?  Hmm.  Actually, now I think about it, that last one kind of turned out okay.  Bad example, forget that one.  My point is, sometimes a band just needs to know when it's over.  INXS didn't.

Sad.

But anyway, I digress (you were warned).  We're not here to reflect on the rise and fall of INXS.  We're here to reflect on one of the great songs of their twilight years.  Most certainly not their best song—not even close.  But a damn fine song, nonetheless.  And, I would argue, probably the very last of their genuinely good singles.

For a brief, shining moment in the early part of 1997, a pub-rock band from the west coast of Australia, a bunch of suburban kids made good, a sextet of fading superstars well and truly on the steep downward slope from the dizzy heights of their peak, threw off the years, gave the middle finger to the prevailing musical ethos of the time and released the track Don't Lose Your Head proving that (despite significant and mounting circumstantial evidence to the contrary) they'd kept theirs.

For just a little while, INXS rocked again—and it was good.  But unfortunately it was to prove a brief resurgence—the final flare of fading embers casting a flickering shadow fit to remind us of the colossus that once was.  Within a few months Michael Hutchence would be dead, the band would be in disarray and to all intents and purposes INXS would be over—irrespective of reality shows and reunions and relentless attempts to resurrect them.

Bummer, hey?  But enough of my morose ramblings.  After all, as the song itself says:-

Your point of view's so meaningless
If you ever had one at all

Point taken, Michael—point taken.  So, just crank it up, and enjoy.  Socks and air guitar optional.