Only Music Class Will Tell

A look at the songs that have shaped
my life and ended up on my devices.

When MTV first came into the Francis family home, circa 1982, every time I turned to that channel, I saw this video from Asia.



What's more, we studied this song in my fifth-grade music class. From time to time, our music teacher would play a hit record and we'd study the elements. With Asia, you had a lot of elements to study: you had a powerful synthesizer track, powerful vocals, soaring guitars, and that distinctive "phooom" of Moog Taurus bass pedals.

We studied other pop hits in that class:
"Silvery Rain" by Olivia Newton-John
"The Devil Went Down To Georgia" by Charlie Daniels (the cleaned-up version which had the line, "I told you once you son-of-a-gun" instead of the more famous retort)

Asia mastered progressive rock with a pop sensibility, and they did it a lot quicker than Genesis. Still, unfortunately, they took a lot of flak for being too commercial.

This is one of the songs I have watch out for if I play it in the car. I could tend to speed up over its power and enthusiasm. That's the kind of thing that led to a criminal speeding ticket when I was driving to Las Vegas. I won't make that mistake again.