Burning Bridges - a Quo classic?

[cammythemortonfan]

I’d consider Burning Bridges a Quo classic, however do you feel that many don’t regard it as such purely because they don’t like it? Or it is an era of Quo which is far removed from the rock of the seventies? Or both!

Three reasons why I think it is a classic:
1) it’s hugejy popular at concerts and gets one of the best reactions.
2) It was a massive hit single in terms of chart position and units sold.
3) it’s survived he test of time

Know, I know not all Classics meet the criteria eg Backwater or 4500 Times.

But when a song is still very popular 30 years on, surely it can be afforded classic status ?

[smokie]

I thought that this was OK when I first heard it and enjoyed it the first few times that I heard it played live but I soon fell out of love with it. 

Not sure why to be honest. 

It falls/fell into the same category as Rockin' All Over The World for me in that I'd be kind of half hoping that they won't play it but deep down, I knew that they would. 

And everytime, without exception, when they do/did play it, it always, always takes the roof off the place which again, just shows how much I know

[mortified]

A classic is what you want it to be and not what the media tell you it is. 

But if there was some sort of criteria for measuring these things, Burning Bridges would fit into it. So would Marguerita Time. But yer average Quo fan tends to go for Rain, Down Down, Caroline and Paper Plane. It suits better 

I suppose there's a classic hit on a general basis and there's classic Quo. If you want to get pedantic. 

You're supposed to like a classic. That's the rules. If the media say it is and you don't. Well, you're a luddite. And vice versa 

[Deleted]

Mar 7, 2018 7:20:49 GMT mortified said:

A classic is what you want it to be and not what the media tell you it is. 

But if there was some sort of criteria for measuring these things, Burning Bridges would fit into it. So would Marguerita Time. But yer average Quo fan tends to go for Rain, Down Down, Caroline and Paper Plane. It suits better 

I suppose there's a classic hit on a general basis and there's classic Quo. If you want to get pedantic. 

You're supposed to like a classic. That's the rules. If the media say it is and you don't. Well, you're a luddite. And vice versa 

Totally agree about the term 'classic'.  What does it actually mean?  Old, successful, stereotypical?  Who knows, very much each to their own.

BB typifies everything great about Quo for me.  Fills me with joy and makes me want to bounce.  A definite favourite of mine, that's for sure.

Is it a 'classic', no idea, I'd take it over Rain any day of the week, (although that said I'd rather listen to a dripping tap than Rain).

[kursaal75]

I liked this track a lot, when I first heard it and was a good party record when it was released as a single before Christmas 1988.
I always enjoyed this live when I went to see Quo, I even enjoyed the live Aquostic version at the Roundhouse & Royal Albert Hall.

[gogs]

Definitions are difficult when individual or collective taste/opinion is involved. So I don't care if "people" think it is or isn't a classic. For me, it will always invoke memories of happy days in Germany in the late 80s, and a great tour (AC). It still makes me smile, and like @bam still makes me want to bounce (aka dae the bouncey). And I reckon a shed load of other punters still smile when it's played at gigs. Whether any of us now have the stamina to bounce during the encore is entirely another matter!!

So for me, yes a classic; although I much prefer the album version with the full 6 line first verse. Those first 2 edited lines are the most upbeat bit of the lyric.

Also agree with kursaal75 re the aquostic version.

[craydarr]

Its a classic live as far as I'm concerned, the reaction it get is fantastic.

I have never understood how FF fans slate BB but they are quite happy to have the Jig in Roadhouse Blues. No difference as far as I'm concerned.

[col]

Mar 6, 2018 20:13:28 GMT cammythemortonfan said:

I’d consider Burning Bridges a Quo classic, however do you feel that many don’t regard it as such purely because they don’t like it? Or it is an era of Quo which is far removed from the rock of the seventies? Or both!

Three reasons why I think it is a classic:
1) it’s hugejy popular at concerts and gets one of the best reactions.
2) It was a massive hit single in terms of chart position and units sold.
3) it’s survived he test of time

Know, I know not all Classics meet the criteria eg Backwater or 4500 Times.

But when a song is still very popular 30 years on, surely it can be afforded classic status ?

Using your criteria, then Rockin' All Over The World, Margarita Time, The Blunderer, WYW are all classics, whereas, to my ears and I think the majority of people (IE not just Quo fans), they are little but glorified nursery rhymes. As is the Quo version of Roadhouse compared to The Doors, which has the blues, something stripped out by Quo.

Harsh maybe, alas certainly true.

[I Ain't Complaining]

Mar 6, 2018 20:13:28 GMT cammythemortonfan said:

I’d consider Burning Bridges a Quo classic, however do you feel that many don’t regard it as such purely because they don’t like it? Or it is an era of Quo which is far removed from the rock of the seventies? Or both!

Three reasons why I think it is a classic:
1) it’s hugejy popular at concerts and gets one of the best reactions.
2) It was a massive hit single in terms of chart position and units sold.
3) it’s survived he test of time

Know, I know not all Classics meet the criteria eg Backwater or 4500 Times.

But when a song is still very popular 30 years on, surely it can be afforded classic status ?

It may be poppy Quo, but I agree, I think it is now classic (poppy) Quo!

[cammythemortonfan]

RAOTW and WYW fit the criteria as classics.

Marguerita Time no, as I’m not convinced it’s popular enough live.

I don’t think anyone could really make a case for WYW not being a classic, surely ?

[Quoincidence]

Mar 7, 2018 19:25:35 GMT craydarr said:

Its a classic live as far as I'm concerned, the reaction it get is fantastic.

I have never understood how FF fans slate BB but they are quite happy to have the Jig in Roadhouse Blues. No difference as far as I'm concerned.

It's completely different...

The jigs in Roadhouse Blues are more or less to get the crowd going as it's a heavy blues track whereas Burning Bridges is not... it's an uplifting pop/rock track

Burning Bridges is one of those tracks that is also better live than it is on record

[mortified]

So, are we saying there are classic live tracks and then there are classic records? With an element of overlapping here and there?

Not simple, is it? 

Gonna write a classic; gonna write it in an attic. Remember that? 

I tell you what, if any Quo single has the right to be called "a classic" it's probably Pictures of Matchstickmen. Certainly there have been enough covers of it to suggest it's loved by a greater cross-section of artists. 

I'm already thinking the Rick solo single Long Distance Love is a classic. But that's because I like it so much. 

I could go round in circles with this. So I'll knock off... 


 

[Deleted]

This song is my guilty pleasure and always puts a smile on my face either the recorded version or live.

A classic or not I love it.....

[mortified]

Mar 9, 2018 8:00:18 GMT colin69 said:

A classic or not I love it.....

Bottom line.... 

[lazypokerblues]

I can remember thinking back in '88 when they played Burning Bridges, that they were acknowledging they needed a new 'bouncy' song that belonged to the new line up.

We'd always had Hold You Back, and the jig in Roadhouse Blues, but ever since '86, Roadhouse Blues had obviously changed with Rick singing it. I always felt that when they did Alan's songs, such as Backwater, Roadhouse, Bye Bye Johnny, that it felt a bit karaoke, that they were still doing these songs because they felt they had to.

So bringing in a new bouncy song like BB, meant that they could gradually drift away from playing the old dinosaurs like Roadhouse Blues. And of course, on the '88 tour, they completely changed the structure of that song by introducing yet another medley into it, and making it a 'party' track to close the main set with. I loved it at the time, but looking back now, it feels a bit cheesy.

[mortified]

I'm sort of with lazypokerblues to an extent. I think there was a deliberate attempt to get another jig going. Rhino calls it "the Scottish song" and there is a traditional arrangement in there somewhere as I recall. Mr Bown's doing I think. 

Quo have gone down this "jig" road a few times, either deliberately or coincidentally. Roadhouse Blues (live), Slow Train, Hold You Back, Burning Bridges, Figure Of Eight; these are off the top of my head.

 

[lazypokerblues]

Yes that's right, Andy found an old reel/jig song that was out of copyright called Darby Kelly:

youtu.be/-Z4zhcCSO0s

I think that they were very much still into encouraging crowd participation during this time.

Hence the following year, when they were influenced by John Farnham's 'You're the Voice' to introduce a crowd sing-a-long with 'The Power of Rock'.

[smokie]

Mar 9, 2018 11:16:11 GMT lazypokerblues said:

Hence the following year, when they were influenced by John Farnham's 'You're the Voice' to introduce a crowd sing-a-long with 'The Power of Rock'.

I think I read an interview that Rhino gave to a magazine and he said that the band would have recorded "You're the Voice" had John Farnham's version not had been such a big hit.

[mortified]

Mar 9, 2018 13:33:38 GMT smokie said:

Mar 9, 2018 11:16:11 GMT lazypokerblues said:

Hence the following year, when they were influenced by John Farnham's 'You're the Voice' to introduce a crowd sing-a-long with 'The Power of Rock'.

I think I read an interview that Rhino gave to a magazine and he said that the band would have recorded "You're the Voice" had John Farnham's version not had been such a big hit.

I read that as well. That they'd even dabbled with it in the studio. 

Never liked it myself personally. So small mercies I suppose 

[craydarr]

Mar 8, 2018 20:58:25 GMT Quoincidence said:

Mar 7, 2018 19:25:35 GMT craydarr said:

Its a classic live as far as I'm concerned, the reaction it get is fantastic.

I have never understood how FF fans slate BB but they are quite happy to have the Jig in Roadhouse Blues. No difference as far as I'm concerned.

It's completely different...

The jigs in Roadhouse Blues are more or less to get the crowd going as it's a heavy blues track whereas Burning Bridges is not... it's an uplifting pop/rock track

Burning Bridges is one of those tracks that is also better live than it is on record

It’s really the jig part I was talking about, I wasn’t comparing the 2 tracks. FF fans love having that in the in the set but B.B. which Is basically a song around a jig is slated.
You are right it’s far better live.

[Quoincidence]

Best version of said track, IMO

[col]

Mar 9, 2018 6:14:49 GMT mortified said:

 

Gonna write a classic; gonna write it in an attic. Remember that? 

 
 

I do, unfortunately.

Adrian Gurvitz.

File along with Randy Van Warmer.

Both are on the next Quo covers album called  "Songs You Hated As Much As You Loved Quo"

[mortified]

Mar 11, 2018 13:21:35 GMT col said:

Mar 9, 2018 6:14:49 GMT mortified said:

 

Gonna write a classic; gonna write it in an attic. Remember that? 

 
 

I do, unfortunately.

Adrian Gurvitz.

File along with Randy Van Warmer.

And Christopher Cross.

And Rupert Holmes

And Peter Cetera

And Randy Newman (what is it about the name Randy?) 

And any number of other American singer songwriters whose single was record of the week on the Noel Edmonds Breakfast Show 

[snakelady]

Mar 11, 2018 15:31:57 GMT mortified said:

Mar 11, 2018 13:21:35 GMT col said:

I do, unfortunately.

Adrian Gurvitz.

File along with Randy Van Warmer.

And Christopher Cross.

And Rupert Holmes

And Peter Cetera

And Randy Newman (what is it about the name Randy?) 

And any number of other American singer songwriters whose single was record of the week on the Noel Edmonds Breakfast Show 

No idea who Noel Edmunds is, but I'd ride like the wind to have a Pina Collada with 6 (or rather 7) fine English boys from Birmingham. It's only PC who's not an inspiration.

.. and to return to BB - a classic ? I've no idea ! Like most of you I struggle with a general definition.
A song needs to have a certain age for me to still like it after a time and yep, I've got to like it, no matter what others think, to become a classic for me. Songs from the last decade are still too new for that reason, but say Fakin' The Blues is a classic for me: Great tune and I know I'll always love it. Newest ones would probably be You'll Come Round plus a few from ISOTFC.

BB works live, but as far as jigs go, I much prefer Hold You Back, so in that case, that's the classic for me ..

[mortified]

Mar 12, 2018 7:35:07 GMT snakelady said:

Mar 11, 2018 15:31:57 GMT mortified said:

And Christopher Cross.

And Rupert Holmes

And Peter Cetera

And Randy Newman (what is it about the name Randy?) 

And any number of other American singer songwriters whose single was record of the week on the Noel Edmonds Breakfast Show 

No idea who Noel Edmunds is, but I'd ride like the wind to have a Pina Collada with 6 (or rather 7) fine English boys from Birmingham. It's only PC who's not an inspiration.

.. and to return to BB - a classic ? I've no idea ! Like most of you I struggle with a general definition.
A song needs to have a certain age for me to still like it after a time and yep, I've got to like it, no matter what others think, to become a classic for me. Songs from the last decade are still too new for that reason, but say Fakin' The Blues is a classic for me: Great tune and I know I'll always love it. Newest ones would probably be You'll Come Round plus a few from ISOTFC.

BB works live, but as far as jigs go, I much prefer Hold You Back, so in that case, that's the classic for me ..

6 fine English boys from Birmingham? Well, Black Sabbath takes care of 4 of them. Who else? Roy Wood? Simon Le Bon? 

Noel Edmonds was a very popular Radio 1 DJ in the 70's and ultimately became a TV presenter on a number of light entertainment shows, children's TV programmes and quiz shows. He had the Radio 1 breakfast show in the morning and he seemed to like his singer songwriters. Hence the banter between myself and Col. Because we don't   

This is him. I always found him to be OK. Certainly not the worst out there.