FEATURE:
Too Good to Be Forgotten: Songs That Are Much More Than a Guilty Pleasure
Starship – We Built This City
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THIS is probably going to be….
IN THIS PHOTO: (From left): Mickey Thomas, former Starship drummer Donny Baldwin, Grace Slick, and Pete Sears/PHOTO CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/Getty
the most maligned and ‘guilty pleasure’ song I will put in this feature! I was not even aware that Bernie Taupin co-wrote Starship’s We Built This City, but he is one of the cooks that, according to a few polls of the worst songs ever, seriously burnt the kitchen down! Taken from Starship’s weirdly-named debut album, Knee Deep in the Hoopla, We Built This City has earned a reputation as one of those songs that one does not really sing loud or be proud to admit that they like! If one is compiling a list of the worst songs ever, I would not even consider Starship’s debut single! Sure, I am not going to argue that it is an all-time classic, but the Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert and Peter Wolf-written song is one that definitely gets in the head for the right reasons. Maybe critics feel that the lyrics are a bit dumb and do not make much sense – how can one build a city on Rock ‘n’ Roll?! Despite reservations and criticisms from some, We Built This City did get to the top of the Billboard chart and, as it was released in 1985, I guess it did not sound too bad when placed against other popular songs from that year like Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing, Huey Lewis’ The Power of Love, and a-Ha’s Take on Me. 1985 was a weird year for music, and I don’t necessarily think that Pop and Rock was at its strongest!
There was a lot of gated reverb and drum beats; plenty of cheesiness around, but I really like Starship’s hit and I think it is far stronger than a mere guilty pleasure! Although Rolling Stone’s 2011 poll of the worst songs ever saw We Built This City stand at the top with no close challengers, it is a really fun track and one that will get you singing along without feeling embarrassed! Starship are a classic one-hit wonders kind of band: after We Built This City, they really didn’t set alight the charts, and Starship were initially a continuation of Jefferson Starship; the band underwent a change in musical direction, they suffered a subsequent loss of personnel and a lawsuit settlement that led to a name change. I feel sorry for Starship, as they definitely formed from a rather troubled past and there is nothing inherently bad or offensive about We Built This City! I could name far weaker songs if we are putting together a list of the worst songs ever, and We Built This City definitely gets the voice raised and the feet moving. I will quote from Wikipedia, who discuss the origins of the song:
“What exists of a narrative in the song consists of an argument between the singers (Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick) and an unidentified "you", presumably a music industry executive, who is marginalizing the band and ripping them off by "playing corporation games" ("who counts the money underneath the bar?"). In response to this injustice, the singers remind the villain of their importance and fame: "Listen to the radio! Don't you remember? We built this city on rock and roll!"
PHOTO CREDIT: George Rose/Getty Images
A spoken-word interlude explicitly mentions the Golden Gate Bridge and refers to "the city by the bay", a common moniker for Starship's hometown of San Francisco. Starship's predecessors, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, were prominent members of San Francisco's psychedelic rock scene in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. However, the interlude then rapidly refers to the same city as "the city that rocks", a reference to Cleveland, Ohio (home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum), and then "the city that never sleeps", one of the nicknames for New York City”.
I think one of the problems is that a lot of the music from the mid-‘80s has not dated that well. Compare that to music ten years previous or later, and it is an odd thing about that period. There are definite flaws with We Built This City – some of the lyrics aren’t too great; the production isn’t the best -, but it is a song that you can put on and just enjoy because of the energy and catchiness. I think a lot of people feel guilty listening to songs that others dislike, but there are plenty of people who love We Built This City. I want to source from a GQ article from 2016, where we get an oral history of the song from some of those who helped bring it together:
“Dennis Lambert (executive producer): The Starship was one more act in a long line of artists I worked with who, if they weren't given up for dead, were thought of as being in a deep career hole. Bringing them back wasn't gonna be easy.
Peter Wolf (producer): There was a lot of hate inside the band. What was his name, the gentleman who just died? Paul Kantner. Paul [Jefferson Airplane's co-founder] was an old hippie who was not relevant anymore. Everyone wanted to go more modern, and he didn't want to. I was happy Paul left. He argued with everybody, and I hated that.
Mickey Thomas (Starship vocalist): I joined Jefferson Starship in 1979, which was one of the pivotal points of re-inventing the band. I wasn't exactly a Starship fan—I came out of soul music. There were always different members coming and going, so the band was constantly evolving. I shaved my mustache. We were re-inventing ourselves, so I wanted to re-invent my personal look as well. The music itself was a huge gamble.
Martha Davis (vocalist, the Motels): As best I remember—and we're talking about the '80s, so I don't remember much—[Elton John lyricist] Bernie Taupin sent me the lyrics to “We Built This City” so I could write music to it. I called Bernie and said, “My artistic muse won't let me finish the song.” Regrets? Oh, hell no.
Martin Page (co-writer): Bernie was moving away from working with Elton John. Everybody wanted him to work with a Tom Dolby kind of writer—someone using new technology. I wanted to impress Bernie: I did a demo of the song on a Fostex deck in my living room. It sounded like Peter Gabriel's “Shock the Monkey.” I sent it to Bernie, who said, “Bernie Taupin comes into the future.”
Bernie Taupin (lyricist, in 2013): The original song was… a very dark song about how club life in L.A. was being killed off and live acts had no place to go. A producer named Peter Wolf—not the J. Geils Peter Wolf, but a big-time pop guy and Austrian record producer—got ahold of the demo and totally changed it.… If you heard the original demo, you wouldn't even recognize the song.
IN THIS PHOTO: Grace Slick
Grace Slick (Starship vocalist; ‘Vanity Fair,’ June 2012): I was such an asshole for a while, I was trying to make up for it by being sober, which I was all during the '80s, which is a bizarre decade to be sober in. So I was trying to make it up to the band by being a good girl. Here, we're going to sing this song, “We Built This City on Rock & Roll.” Oh, you're shitting me, that's the worst song ever.
Stephen Holden (critic; ‘The New York Times,’ 1985): A compendium of strutting pop-rock clichés, Knee Deep in the Hoopla represents the '80s equivalent of almost everything the original Jefferson Airplane stood against—conformity, conservatism, and a slavish adherence to formula”.
I do love that Slick has a dig at the song but, whilst it is not everyone’s cup of tea, Starship’s We Built This City is far greater than its reputation would have you believe! People have very specific reasons for disliking the song, but strip away arguments as to whether the song is dumb and has much meaning and focus on the positives. We Built This City is a lot of fun and, thirty-five years since its release, it still gets a lot of airplay and people (unironically) sing along. At such a weird and stressful time for everyone, I don’t think people can be too snobby about music. I am looking for music that makes me feel more positive and lifts the energy levels. I know that 1985 was fraught with music that seems dated now, and We Built This City is certainly not immune. It is definitely not the worst song of all-time and I don’t think people should consider it a guilty pleasure or a song that you listen to when nobody else is around. It is a song that can, for several reasons, raise a smile and, when the world is going through a huge test of patience and resilience, there is certainly…
NO shame in that.