Soft rock vs. something else

Dr. X comments:

I think this is where the line is (see live performance below).  Anything softer than this is effeminate and pointless soft rock.  But I am not prepared concede that this is effeminate or pointless.  It is light in the verses, but not the loafers.  The chorus is soulful and the performance is, if a bit too polished and technical, certainly competent.  Hall and Oates have nothing to be ashamed of here.



As for Seals and Crofts or Bread, well, no, I can't get behind that, man.  But we must be honest, too - weaker artists can produce strong performances, or at least perform good songs comptently.  I believe it was Johnson who said 'Nay Sir, argument is argument.  You cannot help paying regard to their arguments, if they are good...argument is like an arrow from a crossbow, which has equal force though shot by a child.'  The same is true, I say, of a good song, and I will go to the wall even for songs originating even with The Archies or, perhaps more defensibly, The Monkees.  Open ears and open minds, I say.


That said, some rock is soft but still rock, or perhaps something richer.  Competence is one thing, greatness another.  I wish to dedicate this to an old acquaintance, since passed from this life, who once played 'Springtime for Hitler' on the Vassar bells.