More about my list: The great NYFD firefighter and actor Steve Buscemi immortalizes this song in the otherwise forgettable Adam Sandler vehicle The Wedding Singer: he winces, he exhales extra H's, he emotes. Spandau Ballet's lead singer, Tony Hadley, would never have done that; dressed in all his Bryan Ferry finery and sporting his New Romantic do, he stood with the mike pinched in the fingers of his hand... and emoted. "Oh I want the truth to be SAIIIIID [then his voice breaks]. [Pregnant pause.] [And then the Uh-huh-huh-huh-hi comes in again.]
Yes, "True." Performed by a band with one of the most stupid band names imaginable, "True" invaded Philippine airwaves, spawned a silly Spandau Ballet - Duran Duran showdown on DWLS 97.1*, and jumpstarted the dead-end careers of a million amateur singers. (My good friend Dudz Villanueva, who actually could sing, once performed this during some high school party, and had it choreographed so that the lights would go out during the "pregnant pause." The women screamed.)
But darn it, the song still gets to me -- not every time, God no, but only when I'm in a semi-nostalgic mood regarding the worst years of my life (high school). That cheesy sax instrumental break that still haunts my dreams! The harmonizing Kemp brothers! "Always in time / But never in line for dreams!" The sound of my soul indeed.
*I was the "Durannie," primarily because the Taylor brothers could actually play guitar, and Simon LeBon looked like he actually got chicks; my brother was the -- can't remember what they were called. He actually had a Spandau Ballet poster in our room. We also used to annoy each other by replacing syllables with the word "fuck," so he would get really pissed off whenever I said "Spanfuck Ballet." (All he could respond with was a pathetic "Durfuck Durfuck" or something like that.)
Posted by the wily filipino at July 24, 2003 07:19 AM