Tour Memories (and occasional musings)

The Cover of Play - credit to HNET Do You Believe in Love a.k.a. "The One Whose Title Is Perilously Close to Another Song’s" This is a Zac song, and Zac songs always seem to attract rave reviews. I get it - he’s got the hair, the moves, he hits all the high notes. Only last year Hanson recorded a cover of the Darkness’ I Believe in a Thing Called Love for the Roots & Rock'n'Roll EP and although I’ve never been a fan of that song, I have to admit that Zac nailed the challenging vocals, gaining the approval of none other than Justin Hawkins himself. DYBIL is half Darkness, half Queen. It doesn’t accurately represent Hanson as a songwriting band but it speaks miles of their fun, devil-may-care attitude: (Hey you guys, this year we want to channel our inner glam-rock gods! Sorry if it’s not your thing!). It’s also a pretty good fun to hear live, and watching Zac drum at break-neck speed and sing at the same time is a show within the show.

But don't forget the songs
 That made you cry
 And the songs that saved your life
 Yes, you're older now
 And you're a clever swine
 But they were the only ones who ever stood by you The Smiths, "Rubber Ring" Sometime last year, when I had yet to experience the kind of monumental pain that comes with loss, I had a conversation on social media with a fellow Hanson fan about one of the band’s best loved songs. The fan said she hoped that Hanson wouldn’t play 'With You In Your Dreams’ at the next concert she was due to attend. She had just lost a parent and was worried that WYIYD was going to make her sad during the concert; in other words, it would be a bit of a mood dampener. A mutual friend jumped in the conversation, agreeing with her. I disagreed with both and a debate ensued: why should artists censor themselves, I argued, and refrain from playing some of their most emotionally-charged, powerful songs? What about songs about breakups the

Oh La La La Très chic Okay, I wasn’t too keen on this song when I first listened to it in my hotel room in Tulsa. It sounded a bit weak, and another example of Taylor trying to hit high notes when a lower note would serve the song better. The lyrics didn’t fill me with enthusiasm, either: Damn good looking/Oh, you make me say/Ooh, la la la I t gets worse: And your lips are red to tease/And your hair is drawn back tight/But you play it off with ease/While you leave me paralyzed Those are typical Taylor lyrics: he seems to have a penchant for fictional (we assume) femme fatales who bossy him around at the snap of their perfectly manicured fingers while he makes sex noises and reduces the fan base to jelly in the process. There are several such songs in the Hanson catalogue: ‘Give a Little’ , ‘Cut Right Through Me’ , ‘Show me the Way’ - and they tend not to be my favourite as I feel that, lyrically speaking, Taylor can do a lot better than that. Things took a tur