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Starship song "We Built This City" - crappy or not?


Texas King
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Starship song "We Built This City" - crappy or not?  

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  1. 1. Is "We Built This City" a crappy song or not?



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"We Built This City" is the result of a band not sticking to its guns in the 1980's MTV era.

 

Look what happened to Billy Squier as the result of one bad song and even worse video.

 

Some "classic rock" bands negotiated the choppy waters of being relevant in the 1980's and came through it unscathed.

 

Others, did not...sadly.

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"We Built This City" is the result of a band not sticking to its guns in the 1980's MTV era.

 

Look what happened to Billy Squier as the result of one bad song and even worse video.

 

Some "classic rock" bands negotiated the choppy waters of being relevant in the 1980's and came through it unscathed.

 

Others, did not...sadly.

I remember seeing this for the first time on MTV. My cousin reworded the song "We built this city on cock and bull..." Perfect. The '80's did destroy a lot of '60's and '70's bands. Their style of songwriting was outdated. Zipper pants didn't help. Never mind Van Halen kickstarting the sound of an upcoming generation, '81-'82 seemed to be a real noticeable stylistic break. Thank god for heavy metal. Thank you, thank you.

 

Thinking of this, I'm not sure how even Led Zepplin would have weathered the '80's had Bonham not died.

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I remember Paul Kantner saying, as part of the VH1 Behind the Music on Airplane/Starship, "we built this ciy on rock and roll, f--k you" and giving the camera the middle finger salute.
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"We Built This City" is the result of a band not sticking to its guns in the 1980's MTV era.

 

Look what happened to Billy Squier as the result of one bad song and even worse video.

 

Some "classic rock" bands negotiated the choppy waters of being relevant in the 1980's and came through it unscathed.

 

Others, did not...sadly.

I remember seeing this for the first time on MTV. My cousin reworded the song "We built this city on cock and bull..." Perfect. The '80's did destroy a lot of '60's and '70's bands. Their style of songwriting was outdated. Zipper pants didn't help. Never mind Van Halen kickstarting the sound of an upcoming generation, '81-'82 seemed to be a real noticeable stylistic break. Thank god for heavy metal. Thank you, thank you.

 

Thinking of this, I'm not sure how even Led Zepplin would have weathered the '80's had Bonham not died.

I think Plant's solo albums and The Firm albums are a good indicator of how Zep would have sounded in the 1980s.

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Not just crap, but absolute crap. If you buy the CD it comes wrapped in a roll of toilet paper!

 

NO IT DOESN'T! and someone on the web calls this a Mickey Thomas song. Bernie had help from peter wolf, [not the guy in J.Geil's band] and another band member of starship. NO MICKEY THOMAS.

It is POP ROCK, but that's NOT a bad moniker. I LIKED this song. not my FAVORITE of theirs, but it's not bad in my opinion.

JGJEdLh.jpg

Edited by OldRUSHfan
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I voted Nope. It's catchy as hell. I think people get hung up on the fact that remnants of the great Jefferson Airplane put it out and that is the main reason for the vitriol directed towards the song.

 

As a 13 year old kid in ‘85 with very little knowledge of Jefferson Airplane, WBTC was pure crap. Now that I have an idea of Jeff Air, it still doesn’t factor in to my thinking that WBTC is crap! To me, it doesn’t matter which version of the group made it. Crap is crap. :P

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"We Built This City" is the result of a band not sticking to its guns in the 1980's MTV era.

 

Look what happened to Billy Squier as the result of one bad song and even worse video.

 

Some "classic rock" bands negotiated the choppy waters of being relevant in the 1980's and came through it unscathed.

 

Others, did not...sadly.

I remember seeing this for the first time on MTV. My cousin reworded the song "We built this city on cock and bull..." Perfect. The '80's did destroy a lot of '60's and '70's bands. Their style of songwriting was outdated. Zipper pants didn't help. Never mind Van Halen kickstarting the sound of an upcoming generation, '81-'82 seemed to be a real noticeable stylistic break. Thank god for heavy metal. Thank you, thank you.

 

Thinking of this, I'm not sure how even Led Zepplin would have weathered the '80's had Bonham not died.

I think Plant's solo albums and The Firm albums are a good indicator of how Zep would have sounded in the 1980s.

 

I did think about that. Plant's new direction was the bigger break from Zep's sound. He was probably ready for change. I doubt Bonham would have gone for it. Being in Led Zepplin had some constraints. I'm gonna have to listen to the Firm again. I don't think I have since my cassette died in the '80's

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"We Built This City" is the result of a band not sticking to its guns in the 1980's MTV era.

 

Look what happened to Billy Squier as the result of one bad song and even worse video.

 

Some "classic rock" bands negotiated the choppy waters of being relevant in the 1980's and came through it unscathed.

 

Others, did not...sadly.

I remember seeing this for the first time on MTV. My cousin reworded the song "We built this city on cock and bull..." Perfect. The '80's did destroy a lot of '60's and '70's bands. Their style of songwriting was outdated. Zipper pants didn't help. Never mind Van Halen kickstarting the sound of an upcoming generation, '81-'82 seemed to be a real noticeable stylistic break. Thank god for heavy metal. Thank you, thank you.

 

Thinking of this, I'm not sure how even Led Zepplin would have weathered the '80's had Bonham not died.

I think Plant's solo albums and The Firm albums are a good indicator of how Zep would have sounded in the 1980s.

 

I did think about that. Plant's new direction was the bigger break from Zep's sound. He was probably ready for change. I doubt Bonham would have gone for it. Being in Led Zepplin had some constraints. I'm gonna have to listen to the Firm again. I don't think I have since my cassette died in the '80's

This track from Plant's solo debut seems pretty close to something Zep might have progressed into...

 

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It’s kinda lame, and not very interesting, but I’ll take it over The Chainsmokers, or Lil Pump, or Vanilla Ice, or Nickelback, or The Black Eyes Peas...

 

Am I sure music wasn’t actually better on average before the 90s and 00’s?

 

Whatever, Jefferson Airplane is where it’s at in any case. White Rabbit, man!

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I was a casual JAirplane fan back then. When the band split ( JStarship, Hot Tuna ) I went the Hot Tuna lane. My buddy did the Dragonfly Red Octopus route. ugh

 

I saw Jorma a few weeks back. He still can pick.

 

Jack Casady dipped into the punk scene with a San Fran band called SVT, which I followed. Great album.

 

 

This album selection is for The Cat3.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/tKD7x2J57rc

 

http://youtu.be/kEjRJVA7-Ro

Edited by custom55
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I was a casual JAirplane fan back then. When the band split ( JStarship, Hot Tuna ) I went the Hot Tuna lane. My buddy did the Dragonfly Red Octopus route. ugh

 

I saw Jorma a few weeks back. He still can pick.

 

Jack Casady dipped into the punk scene with a San Fran band called SVT, which I followed. Great album.

 

 

This album selection is for The Cat3.

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/tKD7x2J57rc

 

http://youtu.be/kEjRJVA7-Ro

Sonically, very much like the Church. I like it!
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