Limes with Orange

My last Rock Star: INXS post. (I may well follow up on my favourite rockers as I find out what they're up to, but that will be about their own careers, not Rock Star: INXS)

For starters, I'm surprised the finale didn't recap any of the reality episode footage of the final three rockers writing songs with Andrew Farriss (watch songwriting video). Both MiG and Marty actually prepared for this opportunity. What did J.D. do? Listen to the track once and jot down about three words. Does this remind anybody else of the recording studio episode, where everyone else actually learned the song they were supposed to sing the next day and J.D. had some beer and passed out early? And INXS actually wants to work with a guy who so obviously doesn't want to do any of the prep work?! Why?!? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

On to the performances: J.D.'s song choice was fine and his performance was fine... I'll give him that much. (And that's a lot given how much I don't like the guy.) I don't think MiG made the right choice with "Bohemian Rhapsody." I think all the reasons that he had for not picking it the first time around still stood. How does reminding INXS about his stage career help show them how he fits with them? (Plus, I think Suzie McNeil's version was much more impressive.) Now for Marty... some people criticized him for choosing "Wish You Were Here," a song that he'd already done. But it was a fabulous song the first time around and really seemed to strike a chord with the band, both in its subject matter and the tone of Marty's voice when he sang it. I think it was a good choice. (Watch the videos.)

Then MiG was cut and J.D. and Marty fronted INXS for one song each (I had a feeling it would come down to the two of them). I think Marty rocked his song and made it feel fresh and new. Once again, J.D. was fine... and very firmly inside the INXS comfort zone.

And I think that's what it all came down to. A comfort zone. Which, I would like to point out, is not the same thing as a good fit. A comfortable fit does not set the world on fire. And nor will INXS with J.D. Fortune fronting them.

Marty Casey and INXS would have been a good fit, a symbiotic relationship, each bringing out the best in the other. But I think Marty was too ambitious for INXS, had too many ideas about the future that I now see were outside their comfort zone. INXS just wants Michael Hutchence back, which they obviously can't have. So they went with the person that they considered to be the next best thing: a controversial, "sexy" bad boy with a tendency to impulsively indulge in everything in excess. (Who even looks just a bit like Hutchence, dontcha think...)



I'll wrap this up by quoting from llamabean: "The only way their decision could be rationalized would be that INXS was afraid to select Marty because he would have taken the group in new, daring and ultimately groundbreaking directions, while J.D.'s former life as a musical whore (ie. elvis impersonator) makes him a perfect pushover; willing to submit to the elderly and obviously senile INXS leftovers."

Here, here!

And finally, my previous Rock Star posts for anyone who's interested:
INXS Mis-Fortune (9.20.2005)
Sweet Suzie McNeil (9.15.2005)
Two Words (9.14.2005)
I Searched Afar The Land (9.07.2005)
Top 5 (9.06.2005)
Rock Star Ramblings (9.05.2005)
Such Sweet Sorrow (8.31.2005)
Suzie McNeil is a Goddess (8.31.2005)
Colour Me Stunned (8.25.2005)
Just a Bad Dream? (8.24.2005)
Top Three Good, Bottom Three Baaad!! (8.18.2005)
MiG Joins the Game (8.17.2005)
Rock Star Volleyball (8.10.2005)
The Man Who Sold the World (8.07.2005)
Just Jordis (8.05.2005)
Ty TV (7.26.2005)

Labels: music, pop culture, rockstar, tv