Favorite Song Friday: I Still Believe

I can't quite do it. No matter how many times I listen, no how much I know that the first note isn't on the one, I can't quite hear it any other way. And then the rest of the band kicks in and for just half a beat I'm totally discombobulated before it all slides into place and all is right.

I first heard this song when I was working at a record store in the 1980s. Peter Gabriel, Bono and Jim Kerr were huge fans, all the promo material at the time said, so I gave it a try. And there was absolutley nothing on the album that did anything for me. Except this song. But boy howdy did it ever.

And yet. There's so much to dislike about this song, for me, anyway. The incredibly dated 1980s synths. The bombastic delivery. The biblical lyrics, something which (unless the singer is African-American, and yes, I'm aware of the double standard and am quite okay with it, thanks ever so) has always really grated on my nerves.

And none of that matters. Because just like I'm okay with U2's Bo Diddley impersonation, since it was good enough, I'm okay with the U2 impersonation going on here. Because the melody's righteous, the guitars, if mixed too low, are crunchy and, the drummer does a wonderful Mel Gaynor impression, and most of all, there's that bass, that bass, that bass.