Foreigner: "Juke Box Hero"

In his first post of 2012, please welcome the fashionably late Juke Box Hero with, dare I say, his best post yet, in which he gets to discuss two of his loves: classic rock and "The OC."

On the occasion of my tenth post under the moniker 'Juke Box Hero,' I thought it appropriate to feature the song that inspired the name.

During my brainstorming I was reminded of Josh Schwartz's brilliant cultural saga for the small screen, "The OC." In one particularly memorable scene, it’s unveiled that "core four" character Ryan Atwood, a hard-edged, scrappy kid from rough and tumble Chino, harbors a secret love for mega-hit classic rock band Foreigner.

This is a perfect character trait for Ryan, since on the surface he’s rugged but defensive – you’d imagine him cranking up some Rage, Korn, or even Anthrax. But underneath, Ryan is a bit nicer, a good kid who’s been dealt a few bad hands, who just needs to get some hard, fast rock & roll out of his system (a.k.a. fists of fury) every now and then. Foreigner: a bit nicer than Anthrax, but, you know, can still throw down.

Why ‘Juke Box Hero’? Well, for one, it sounds like a person’s title, rather than ‘Cold As Ice’ or ‘I Want To Know What Love Is.’ Don’t get me wrong, those are both classic tracks, and those megahits defined the careers of all 31 past and present members of Foreigner. Though it appears on the group’s best-selling record 4, it’s not your typical straight-ahead rocker, and I like that.

The track is a little frenetic. Its multiple-tempo sections prevent you from head-banging continuously throughout, and I can’t immediately think of another rock song where the chorus is dramatically slower than the verses. It has the effect of a slight emotional letdown since the increasing tempo and energy of the bridge signals that something faster and louder is on its way, but the "We Will Rock You"-esque slow jam perfectly sets up a shredding guitar solo.

The live guitar solo, as demonstrated in this video (along with the jukebox inflated mid-song – if only they’d lit it on fire!), is exactly the reason to go to concerts: Mick Jones’ solo on the studio version is just okay, but not very long or exciting. Onstage, he lights up the fret board like a stringed supernova. Lou Gramm’s face is just awesome as well; there’s some raw spirit in this performance that’s absent from the studio recording. It helps that he kind of looks like a lion roaring at various points (see Figures A, B below). Not too often you get man-lion transformations in the studio.