You remember Air Supply, right? They recorded some of the sappiest ballads ever. Horrible music. And yet my sister and I are sitting here at the office with her new Air Supply compilation CD singing out loud.
When she and her high school boyfriend broke up the first time, she remembers playing the cassette tape over and over, singing, amidst sobs, "Just when I thought I was over you, just when I thought I could stand on my own . . . "
And I remember singing “two less lonely people in the world, and it’s gonna be fine,” when I met some guy I dated for a few weeks.
I also remember learning how to play “Making Love out of Nothing at All” on the piano. Those thunderous, crashing chords that drove everyone out of the house while I played.
So c’mon, anyone else remember Air Supply with such fondness mingled with such antipathy? I do realize how horrible this music is, and the inaninity of the lyrics and lush music makes me laugh even while I can’t help singing aloud.
And if not Air Supply, what? Spill your dirty secrets about teenage love lost and found and the songs that just totally expressed your thoughts like nothing else!
Let’s be clear on this: Air Supply is crap. Crap, crap, crap.
I can barely tolerate being seen to have posted to this thread, but there is a pretty funny digression on Air Supply in a thread I started about Music Snobs (yeah, I have MS - it’s true).
I tried to do a search on that post, but the SDMB is running particularly slow for me right now. Search for it yourself when you get a chance, under Music Snob within Cafe Society…
Okay, I’ll be the one…My name is Dung Beetle and I too enjoy Air Supply! I keep their greatest hits in my car. I could go for some “Sweet Dreams” right now. “Close your eyes, I wanna ride the skies…” Ahhh…it’s sixth grade all over again!
The first album I ever bought for myself, back when I was 10 or 11, was a collection of Air Supply’s greatest hits (at the time). I’m pretty sure I don’t own it anymore, and I sincerely doubt I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. The snatches of Air Supply I’ve heard since, well, they don’t hold up to my remembered affection.
Also, I discovered recently that my favorite Air Supply single, “Pilot of the Airwaves,” was not in fact an Air Supply song. That was a surprise. Gotta love memories.
(On the other hand, the first single I bought was “The Tide Is High,” so I wasn’t a complete lost cause.)
I’m pretty much the least hip guy on this message board. I actually enjoy all that stuff that the more sophisticated folks here realize is total crap. Celine Dion. Shania Twain. Chicago from the mid-to-late 80’s.
And Air Supply.
I won’t apologize for it. “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” still bowls me over, especially that middle part. The imagery of “Every star in the sky taking aim at your eye like a spotlight”…beautiful.
I proposed to my wife with that. Clearly, I did something right.
I’m pretty sure that on this message board, my only saving grace in artistic taste is that I like South Park, Simpsons and Futurama. Aside from that…well…
Chicago from the mid-to-late 80’s is Air Supply. Here is an entry from my journal dated Jan 20th in which I rant about this very subject:
*I’m listening to a best of Chicago CD. I love Chicago-- ass-kicking horns, beautiful harmonies and funky as all get out. But suddenly they turned into Air Supply.
Sure, they always sang love ballads. Color My World has a flute solo for sappiness’ sake. Yet Color My World has muscle. I like it. Then came Peter’s hold on lead singer.
Hard To Say I’m Sorry
Hard Habit to Break
You’re The Inspiration
Under normal circumstances I’d probably love these songs. I like sappy love songs. I even like Air Supply-- but not at the expense of Chicago!
I really don’t know what caused the Airsupplification of Chicago, but there’s Peter’s voice front and center.
YOU RUINED ONE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS, PETER CETERA!!! I HATE YOU!!!
*
I too did the Air Supply eye roll. I too was far, far too cool for Air Supply.
Until: the late eighties/early nineties I was in a van with friends and acquaintances while two girls nattered on about Air Supply. The rest of our group was going to an out of state amusement park for rides, fun and chasing each other, playing grab ass, while these two boobs were going to see Air Supply – in some incarnation, who were now at the end of their “run” & were now reduced to playing amusement parks – no one was louder than me teasing the girls.
Then we arrived and I saw the sign out front “Air Supply Cancelled”. My heart fell. I realized I had teased the girls because I hated my inner-Air Supply lover. Imade sure from then on I asked myself why I react to stuff the way I do – very valuable lesson for me. So now older and wiser due to this group I can sayon the SDMB:
Yes N.Sane ** I too love Air Supply. Hail to thee comradecmkeller**! Long live Air Supply.
Ohhh, Air Supply. The very name conjures up horrible memories of family road trips from Atlanta to Chrleston, West Virginia. We’d be in the big ol’ station wagon, me and my brother in the “way-back,” riding backward through the mountains all night while my stepfather cheerfully played Air Supply’s Greatest Hits over and over and freaking OVER on the tape deck.
Reading this thread (I had to read it, of course) has made me cringe, almost physically, at every quoted lyric.
Wait a moment here, horrible music? Sounds like blasphemy to me!
Confession time: I’m a hopeless Air Supply fanatic. I listen to Air Supply day and night. The second I saw this thread, I had to put in their Definitive Collection DVD. (However, I’m not such a fan of their post-1991 stuff – as far as I am concerned, the album The Earth Is… is about the end of their good stuff, with the exception of the song Goodbye, released in the mid-90s).
The funny thing is, Air Supply was big when I was too young to remember them very well. I only rediscovered their music in 2000, and have been hooked ever since.
By the way, for the rest of you Air Supply fans/detractors, they are still alive and well.
PS: Not hip, cmkeller? Pfft, I’ve always adored your taste in music!
Air Supply conjures up memories of the first time I had sex. All the bf would play was Air Supply and Heart. Repeatedly. After a few hours I threatened to leave if he didn’t play something else.
Led Zep being more to my liking, I stuck around.
So no, I’m not a fan of Air Supply. Or Heart for that matter.
I freely admit I have no taste in music and I’m still trying to find out Janet Jackson lasted this long, so I have no problem admitting I liked Air Supply, and I spent far too much time singing along with them.
Auntie Em, although eclectic in taste (after all, she did jump the broom with this pinkish personage), finds most of her musical anchors in funk, so her eyes are constantly stuck up North whenever she sees me pulling out the Air Supply and Chicago CDs.
And records. And 8-Tracks.
Air Supply has always been sappy and pop-ish; Chicago, however, rocked well early on, and thanks to the '80s albums, I was led to their '70s offerings. But I love 'em all, despite pressure from WordMan and others of his evil ilk.
I’m glad to be in the company of lel, cmkeller and Siege!
Last night (Thursday) on the Late Show, Letterman was requesting Paul Schaeffer to play Air Supply songs all night. I had almost forgotten those songs, but when Schaeffer started playing a few, all the painful memories came back.
It’s a funny coincidence that both you, N. Sane, and Letterman were reminiscing about Air Supply yesterday.
