In defense of In the Heart of the Young

Winger ?! Winger! Are you serious, coach? Especially-THAT ALBUM?!!?
      Sometimes you end up liking music because it brings back memories despite it not necessarily being your cup of tea.
       In the Heart of the Young. What a weird sounding album. I had a girlfriend that loved Winger,Bon Jovi etc. So, I listened to it by default.
I couldn't dig it.This was the summer of 1991, a year after it's release. My girlfriend pops the tape in her 90 Mustang.(What a shitty car) "Can't we play some Megadeth or something? Jeez".
I swear I could hear trumpets or saxophones (I'm not good with wind instruments, please feel free to set the record straight) in the song "Easy Come Easy Go".

      It's January 1992. I'm sitting in an office building, next to an Air Force base, doing a short lived stint in the Army Reserves. I HEAR THAT SONG AGAIN. "Easy Come Easy Go" . I listened to it intensely. Then I promptly forgot about it.1992 was a strange year in music, a post black album malaise had seemingly took over the metal scene. Fear of the Dark,The Ritual,Countdown To Extinction,Force Of Habit .A terrible year for the old guard, all sounding tired and dated.Of course, there was some great stuff too-Manic Frustration ,Angel Dust,Danzig III,Songs For Insects .Winger was that band with the "she was only seventeen, song, Right?" Whatever.....
     
   It's 2007. I'm poking around the Flea Market, and I find a used "In the Heart of" for a dollar, mint condition. Ah what the heck, it's only a dollar. I go home, stick it in the stereo and I start hearing an almost weary, regretful, retrospective vibe in some of the material. Almost as if Kip knew as he was recording it, that the good times of the eighties were coming to an end. Can't Get Enuff, and Loosen Up are throw away material, while Miles Away was forgettable.
      There is really only three great songs on the album,"Easy Come Easy Go" with it's infectious chorus," Rainbow in the Rose" and the crown jewel , "In the Day We'll Never See".
       Yep, that is the song Kip was destined to write.
When all the children sang and all you heard was the word
It's funny how we've changed, we're getting closer
To the day we'll never see the rising sun, it's setting
In the day we'll never see, what have we done?
      What was Kip thinking about when he wrote these lyrics? Cold War paranoia? Did he sense that the future was going to get worse? That a whole genre of music was about to be buried, never to be seen again other than older nostalgic bands that would become parodies of them selves, or seen as a novelty act/ironic joke band like Steel Panther?
 Crucify, while you stand by, you hear the call, don't blink an eye
Where will you go, nowhere to run, what can we save when the damage is done
The world is spinning round
The light of the moon is now the tear of the clown
Hear the word, it's comin' down, we're getting closer
Are we there yet, Kip?
     The rest of the album, is relatively unremarkable. Ironically, there were two songs omitted from Young,"Never" and "All I Ever Wanted", which definitely fit with the theme of the album, but were considered "too heavy" (!).
       Winger wasn't the only band that sensed the good times were about to end. Do you remember these lyrics from 1990?
 
Past tense to future tense let history unfold
So ends a decade now what will the nineties hold
You know we're verging on the edge of an age
Then another century will turn the page

What do you think they will say when they look back on this
Were the eighties just a time of spoiled innocence
We leave our legacy like dust in the sands of time
Let's hope the seeds we plant can carry the weight of our crimes
So there were other bands that sensed that something was amiss.

Do you have any late eighties/early nineties rock songs that touched on this weird zeitgeist during that time period? Please share. thanks for reading.

The title track is one of the most inspirational pop metal songs ever produced. So much, that I'd put it on a compilation of metal songs inspired by the compassion and hope of the Salvation Army. All proceeds go to charity to help feed the homeless.

i like winger but i've never heard this album, only the debut and Pull. i'll probably get around to it someday, but god knows when that will be, haha.

i never knew there was a need to defend it??

I was never a big Winger fan considering the fact that I was 17 when She's Only 17 was a hit! Anyway their 3rd album Pull was really good and the band had won me over with songs like Down Incognito, Junk Yard Dog, and Blind Revolution Mad. The bands last hurrah before grunge took over

I only own a best-of disc by Winger and that's pretty much all I'm ever gonna need from them.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I only own a best-of disc by Winger and that's pretty much all I'm ever gonna need from them.

i will disagree there. Their best material has been in their later career. There is some great stuff from Pull through Karma.

Karma was excellent, which is why I was really bummed when Better Days Coming came out, really poor album all around.

I haven't heard anything past Pull. The first three are all good listens.

Never listened to these guys besides them being on the radio/Much Music. I hear from a few people that there later albums are good, I will keep an eye open for them.