Day After Day #60: Don't Change

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Don't Change (1982) 

The 1980s were a ridiculously long time ago. There was a lot going on, but one thing that's almost forgotten 40+ years later is that INXS was consistently one of the best bands going for most of that decade. They weren't trying to save the world like U2 or Peter Gabriel, they weren't larger than life like Michael Jackson, Prince, Bowie, Madonna or Springsteen, they were just a damn good band. 

INXS could play new wave, pub rock, dance music or mournful ballads, but their secret weapon wasn't so secret: it was frontman Michael Hutchence, who looked like a male model and could move like a combination of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison. Formed in 1977 in Australia, the band released two albums down under before their third album, Shabooh Shoobah, was released internationally in October 1982. The first single, "The One Thing," became a top 30 hit in the U.S., with the video getting a lot of play on the then-new MTV. 

The band toured the U.S. for the first time in the spring of 1983, opening for Adam and the Ants, the Stray Cats, the Kinks, Hall & Oates, Men at Work and the Go-Gos, as well as on the new wave day of the US Festival.  

"The One Thing" is the big hit from that album and the band's first foray into pop stardom, but the second single, "Don't Change," has the most lasting impact. It's different from a lot of INXS's party rockers in that it's a more philosophical-leaning song. Andrew Farriss begins the song with a majestic synth line before the rest of the band kicks in.

"I'm standing here on the ground/The sky above won't fall down/See no evil in all directions/Resolution of happiness/Things have been dark for too long/Don't change for you/Don't change a thing for me."

"Don't Change" is big and anthemic, with Hutchence and Kirk Pengilly on the chorus providing an added boost that launches the song into the stratosphere. Unlike a lot of the new wave acts that were popping up at the time, INXS had been playing pubs and honing their chops for years, so by this point they were a well-oiled rock machine: in addition to Hutchence, there were three Farriss brothers (Andrew on keys, Tim on lead guitar and Jon on drums), Pengilly on guitar and sax and Garry Gary Beers on bass. 

Whereas many of the songs that were hits in the early '80s are very of their era, "Don't Change" has a timeless feel. It soars and as the last song on Shabooh Shoobah, it served as a launching off point for a very successful decade for INXS.

The band built up steadily, releasing The Swing in 1984 with hit singles "Original Sin" and "I Send a Message"; the album went platinum in the U.S. Listen Like Thieves followed in 1985 and was an even bigger hit, going double platinum with four songs getting radio play; "What You Need" went to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. That led to the biggest INXS album, 1987's Kick, which had four top 10 singles, including "Need You Tonight," which went to #1. The band was all over MTV and on top of the pop world.

I had been a fan since "The One Thing" came out but didn't buy an INXS album until Listen Like Thieves. A group of us from my college newspaper were in New York City for a conference during spring break of 1988 and were walking past Radio City Music Hall, where INXS was playing a sold-out show the next night. Arthur, our arts editor (who got me in to see The Pursuit of Happiness and Duran Duran a year later), casually mentioned that he had tickets to the show and asked if one of us wanted to go with him. Everyone thought he was joking, but I said sure and a day later, we were sitting in the middle of 6,000 screaming teenage girls. Public Image Ltd. opened the show and it was quite enjoyable watching this crowd try to figure out what John Lydon was all about. Then INXS came out and just slayed; they were a masterful live act (a few years earlier, Rolling Stone had proclaimed them the best live band going). I ended up seeing them a few more times, at UNH on the Kick tour and in Worcester on the tour for their follow-up album X).

Released in 1990, X was less successful than Kick, but it would have had a tough time surpassing an album that went six times platinum in the U.S. alone. Also, three years had passed since Kick's release and musical tastes were changing. Still, it went double platinum in the U.S. and got up to #5 on the album chart. There were three more albums in the '90s with diminishing returns, the last being 1997's Elegantly Wasted. In November 1997, Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room; the coroner ruled it a suicide but some have speculated it was accidental. He was 37.

After a year or so, the band played some shows with a variety of singers, including Jimmy Barnes, Terence Trent D'Arby and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply. Then in 2004, they participated in a reality show called Rock Star: INXS in which contestants competed to become the band's new lead singer. Eventually, a Canadian singer named J.D. Fortune was named the winner. They recorded a new song and then released an album, Switch, in 2005. They toured together for a few years before firing Fortune in 2009 and then bringing him back a year later. Ciaran Gribbin, a singer from Northern Ireland, became the band's new singer for a tour in late 2011. A year later, INXS announced it would no longer tour.

Despite the cheesy last few decades, INXS left behind a strong body of work that was probably underappreciated in the long run.

Quest for the Cup

It's a great time of year to be a sports fan. The Chicago Blackhawks just won their first Stanley Cup in 49 years, the Celtics are battling the Lakers in the NBA finals, the baseball season is in full swing and the World Cup is about to begin. I live-Tweeted the hell out of that Cup-clinching win last night, so I'm not going to get into it here, but I did want to talk about soccer.

Soccer, or football to the rest of the world, has never been able to truly catch on in a big way in the U.S. And yet every four years, the World Cup takes place and garners at least some attention Stateside. I'm not really sure why it hasn't caught on here. I hear folks argue that it's boring and low-scoring, and yet the same people are perfectly willing to spend three hours watching a baseball game or a golf tournament (I love both those sports, but you see what I mean). Seems to me there's just an inherent mistrust of anything that's really popular in Europe. Whatever the case, ESPN is going all out with its World Cup coverage and the USA-England game on Saturday will likely be the most-watched soccer game in American history.

My relationship with soccer goes back to my days as a yute in the suburbs of Toronto. I started playing organized soccer in fifth grade when my parents signed me up for an indoor soccer team. Before that, I would play in pickup games that would take place at Douglas Park in Pickering, the town I lived in. The indoor league held its games in a gym in the town community center, using a softer ball on a regular gym surface.

The real reason my parents pushed me towards soccer was because I wanted to play hockey and they didn't want me to. Many of my friends were playing in organized leagues and my parents agreed to send me and my little brother to hockey school, which was the introductory level for kids. I was 8 and my brother was 4; my parents bought us full equipment and took us every Saturday to Don Beer Arena. So I figured the following year, I'd be playing in the local pee wee hockey league, which was the next level. But no, my parents were dead set against it. They said they didn't want me to get hurt, but I think they didn't want to drive me to 5 a.m. practices and the like. I even went so far as to have some of my buddies who played come over to the house to talk about how it wasn't a hassle and how they'd give me rides on occasion, but my parents wouldn't budge. It pissed me off to no end; still bothers me. My parents every so often would just make these edicts that made no sense whatsoever. Why buy all that equipment and then tell me I couldn't play? It was just cruel.

But they didn't have a problem with me playing soccer, hence the indoor league. A few years later, I started playing "house league" soccer, which was essentially a league run by the town rec department. I was a scrawny little puke back then and didn't have much of a shot, so they pretty much always put me at fullback. I played two years, including one year when my dad's union sponsored our team. It was about as involved as my dad ever got in my sports career. Our name was really long, something like the "Ontario Hydro CUPE Union Local 513"; it was 1980, so I don't remember the exact name, but it was sure unwieldy. I used to ride my bike about 10 miles to practice, do the practice, and then ride home. I don't remember ever being sore, either. After we moved to Richland, Washington, in late '81, I didn't play soccer again for two years because there was no organized soccer (or hockey) at my school at the time. I remember we played soccer a few times in gym class and I dominated, scoring a bunch of goals. But that was all the soccer I'd play for a while.

When we moved to New Hampshire, I ended up going out for the soccer team at my new high school. I was a junior, but I hadn't played in a few years, so the coach put me on the JV squad my first year. I was still scrawny and did my best, but I only scored one goal that year. Senior year, I was on the varsity. However, the coach didn't put me in much, so I was essentially a well-conditioned benchwarmer. We were a small school and didn't have a huge talent pool, but we were in good shape because he ran us into the ground.

I played some intramural soccer, outdoor and indoor, at UNH, but it wasn't until a few years after graduation that I started playing again. It was 1992 and I was at the Peabody Times when my editor decided to put an indoor team together at Soccer Etc. in Beverly. I had a blast and ended up playing for the next 10 years, first in Beverly and then at the Topsfield Fairgrounds. With a lot of playing time, I actually became a better player than I was in high school. I actually scored a shootout goal that won us the championship one session. And afterwards, we would go to a nearby bar and close the place. When I turned 30, I started playing in an over-30 outdoor league with a lot of the guys from my indoor team. It was a traveling team, so my Sundays would be full of driving all over the area for a few years. It was the combination of Hannah's birth and training for my first marathon that finally got me to quit, in addition to the hassle of all the travel. I also eventually stopped playing indoor, which was a lot of fun.

Now my connection to the game is primarily through the girls, who both play soccer. I've coached both Hannah and Lily. It has been fun to watch Hannah especially really enjoy playing outdoor and indoor soccer; Lily's in a kindergarten soccer program and is having fun for the most part.

Despite that history, I've never really gotten into watching much soccer on TV, except for the World Cup. I've followed the New England Revolution over the years from a distance, but have never really gotten into the team. It's not that I don't like watching it, but I just haven't had the attachment to a particular team. As a kid, I rooted for the Toronto Blizzard in the NASL, back in the days when Pele played for the New York Cosmos. But this World Cup feels different. There seems to be a palpable buzz built up this time around. I'm really looking forward to it.

And someday when I have more time, I hope to get back to playing soccer as well. Although I must say I really like watching my girls play. I hope they stick with it as they get older. It truly is a great game to watch and play.



Kick: