There was this guy. He wore something that looked like a Kangol hat. I think he was shaved bald. A white guy. You know the kind. He had a band called the New Radicals. People then closest to him insist to this day that he was really some kind of high-order genius. They had a song that was everywhere.
It was a big pop hit.
Now, I'm piecing all of this together, long after the fact - so bear with me. I loved that song, like everybody did. But at the time, if I gave a thought to whose song it was, I think I had some vague idea that maybe it was U2. U2, maybe U2 trying a more boppy direction (this was before "Elevation," so, it wasn't an entirely unwarranted hypothesis as it turned out! - albeit, the New Radicals didn't much sound U2-y, but then neither did U2 at the time. And while the singer's voice was not Bono's, there was a sort of earnestness to the vox that seemed possibly Bono-esque).
The song was called (I believe) "You Get What You Give." In any case, it was the one that went, "Don't! Let! Got! You-got-the-music-in-you, Fast! Or! Slow!, deet-doodle-deedle-dee-do, Don't! For! Get! You gotta reason to live! Best! Bet! Yet! You only get what you gi-i-i-iiive..."
(Lyrics simulated).
Bottom line: that guy completely lost perspective.
He took a long look at the crazy intense pressure of this one swamping and improbable wave of success, based on one song. Based on this one deliciously terrific, and buoyant, and sincere(-seeming) great song, and he interpreted that level of intense public interest as the solid and dependable harbinger of what was coming his way from there on out. So much so that he decided he needed to put his foot down, to keep that from happening, in order to not sell out, or in order to not become compromised artistically.
Now he didn't need to do that. He didn't even need to worry! He couldn't have kept that level of success up if he'd tried. He could have tried as hard as he wanted and it was never going to be a problem.
But he should have tried. I mean, if you're going to go around acting like you could have kept it up...if you're going to act like you deliberately stopped your own unrepeatable success level...come on. At least have something more to show for it than one adorable fluke hit.
Put together a legacy first, before you ruin it.
It was a big pop hit.
Now, I'm piecing all of this together, long after the fact - so bear with me. I loved that song, like everybody did. But at the time, if I gave a thought to whose song it was, I think I had some vague idea that maybe it was U2. U2, maybe U2 trying a more boppy direction (this was before "Elevation," so, it wasn't an entirely unwarranted hypothesis as it turned out! - albeit, the New Radicals didn't much sound U2-y, but then neither did U2 at the time. And while the singer's voice was not Bono's, there was a sort of earnestness to the vox that seemed possibly Bono-esque).
The song was called (I believe) "You Get What You Give." In any case, it was the one that went, "Don't! Let! Got! You-got-the-music-in-you, Fast! Or! Slow!, deet-doodle-deedle-dee-do, Don't! For! Get! You gotta reason to live! Best! Bet! Yet! You only get what you gi-i-i-iiive..."
(Lyrics simulated).
Bottom line: that guy completely lost perspective.
He took a long look at the crazy intense pressure of this one swamping and improbable wave of success, based on one song. Based on this one deliciously terrific, and buoyant, and sincere(-seeming) great song, and he interpreted that level of intense public interest as the solid and dependable harbinger of what was coming his way from there on out. So much so that he decided he needed to put his foot down, to keep that from happening, in order to not sell out, or in order to not become compromised artistically.
Now he didn't need to do that. He didn't even need to worry! He couldn't have kept that level of success up if he'd tried. He could have tried as hard as he wanted and it was never going to be a problem.
But he should have tried. I mean, if you're going to go around acting like you could have kept it up...if you're going to act like you deliberately stopped your own unrepeatable success level...come on. At least have something more to show for it than one adorable fluke hit.
Put together a legacy first, before you ruin it.
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