Rhinofy-Cuts Like A Knife
I know, I know, I’m supposed to feature something exotic, something lost to the sands of time, something that deserves a flashlight upon it. But I was just in the grocery store and I thought the song intro’ing over the PA was "Straight From The Heart".
SoCal is weird. There really is no winter. It just gets a bit grey and a bit cooler, barely qualifying as autumn in the rest of the country, but it changes your mood, it makes you reflective, it makes you open to your past. And when I thought I heard "Straight From The Heart" it brought me right back to ’83, when I used to play Bryan Adams’s album "Cuts Like A Knife" every day in the shower.
Well, that’s not exactly how it happened. You see I just cranked the stereo in the living room until the sound washed over me as I was performing my ablutions. I’d drop the needle on "The Only One" and by time I got out of the stream, by time I was toweling off, I’d hear "Straight From The Heart". Which segued into "Cuts Like A Knife" as I got dressed, which psyched me up for my entry into the big bad world.
It was all about "Lonely Nights".
Oh baby, I just can’t stand another lonely night
So come on over and save me
Save me from another lonely night
I was finally ensconced in my own apartment, I was finally over the previous relationship, I’d played the field a bit, I was optimistic, but still lonely.
It’s the human condition, even though no one can admit it.
They say that women are desperate, but they’re nowhere near as bad as men. Girls can call their friends, discuss their emotions, feel connected. A guy can watch the game with his buds but you’re lucky if you get more than a grunt when it comes to feelings. For that we need women, to confess to.
And "Lonely Nights" had that cry of desperation all men feel, ensconced in a rollicking cut that promised when she did come over, she’d have a good time.
There was this playful guitar intro, a bit of organ, and then it was like a ride in a pickup truck, before safety became a rule, when you’d ride in the back with your hair flowing, thrilled to be alive.
And I didn’t buy "You Want It You Got It", from which "Lonely Nights" emanated, that didn’t happen until after getting hooked by "Cuts Like A Knife", but I experienced "Lonely Nights" enough on the radio that when I heard "Straight From The Heart" I immediately went out and bought "Cuts Like A Knife", you always start with the new album and work back.
Oh, give it to me straight from the heart
Tell me we can make another start
You know I’ll never go
As long as I know
It’s comin’ straight from the heart
One of the problems with becoming ultra-successful, rolling the ball right up the middle for a strike, is that the naysayers take over public opinion, the hipsters that control the media, and you don’t get your due.
Bryan Adams has one of the best voices in rock and roll. Right up there with Rod Stewart. You believe he believes every word he’s singing. There’s this throaty element that conveys emotion, he’s the opposite of the boasting rappers. It’s become anathema to display weakness in our society, politicians cannot say they’re wrong, sure, there are apologies, but they’re momentary detours on the way back to winning. But life isn’t like that, life is complicated, it’s three-dimensional, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes it eats you. When Bryan Adams sings, you hear all that. "Straight From The Heart" is a plea that evidences no misery, we’re not turned off, we just want to say we feel the same way. And in this duplicitous world, that’s exactly what we want and so rarely get, the story straight from the heart.
But the killer is the title cut, "Cuts Like A Knife".
Ain’t that how it always is. At least with vinyl records. You drop the needle on your favorite cut, and suddenly the one after it, the one the album slips into when you can’t lift the tonearm, ends up becoming your favorite.
Drivin’ home this evening
I coulda sworn we had it all worked out
You had this boy believin’
Way beyond the shadow of a doubt
The calm before the storm. Just when you start to relax, when the fight is behind you…that’s when you’ve got to worry.
Then I heard it on the street
I heard you mighta found somebody new
Well who is he baby – who is he
And tell me what he means to you
You’re always the last to know. How can you be so close, yet out of the loop? And the thought of her with another drives you freakin’ nuts. The thought of someone else touching her makes your skin crawl.
I took it all for granted
But how was I to know
That you’d be letting go
Letting go. Like untying the rope holding the boat to the pier. Just slipping away. Letting go of the grip. We think of endings as combustible affairs, explosions. We can understand that, but when you just turn off…it’s like dropping the thermostat, it takes us a while to realize it’s cold inside.
And then there are the little touches… Especially the organ right after Bryan sings "Times I thought I’d been misunderstood", it hearkens back to the relationship, it adds a dollop of sepia-tinged nostalgia in between the anger.
But really, the song starts to peak with the "na-nas".
Nonsense lyrics just like the early days of rock and roll, like in that old song by Steam, it’s when everybody in the band comes together, when Bryan’s buddies surround and defend him, that’s when the magic becomes undeniable. Everybody’s been doing his own thing, the guitar’s been wailing, the drums have been pounding, but suddenly they’re all of one mind, they’re locked on, it goes on and on. "Cuts Like A Knife" might not have the reputation of "Free Bird", but it’s not dissimilar. They both build, they’re both infectious, you play them once and then have to play them over and over again.
And then there’s "I’m Ready". This isn’t about the end, but the beginning. He’s ready to love you, and when the organ twirls in the chorus, you feel the adrenaline of love.
But as good as "I’m Ready" is, it’s cut to shreds by the slowed down take on "MTV Unplugged", with the acoustic picking and string background. Suddenly, the meaning is different, instead of bluster, you get wistfulness. And instead of the organ, you get strings in the chorus, and a descending line that evidences a brand new hook. It’s so intimate, you’re almost creeped out.
Some of the greats are sitting right in our midst. It’s fun to excavate the obscurities, try to shine a little light on work that’s been unjustly overlooked, but sometimes the mega-platinum artists are such because they’re just that damn good.
Bryan Adams blinked a couple of albums later, with "Into The Fire", his political project made in response to the critics who wanted meatier subject matter, but if you let other people dictate your direction, you’re screwed. You’ve got to do it your way, you’ve got to be yourself. So Bryan is singing about adolescence and love… There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s universal, it’s the human condition.
Yes, it’s the follow-up to "Cuts Lke A Knife", "Reckless", that went nuclear, with "Run To You" and "Summer of ’69". But I always preferred "Cuts Like A Knife", it was just a little less obvious, a little more subtle, there was little success to build upon, Bryan Adams still had to prove himself.
Don’t be too proud to dig this music.
It’s great.
