BOYZ II MEN – "End Of The Road"

TOTPWatch: Boyz II Men performed ‘End Of The Road’ on Top of the Pops on four occasions. Details of the Christmas edition shall be provided anon;

24 September 1992. A live performance by satellite in New Orleans. In the studio that week were; Messiah, Sade, Boy George, Suede, Mike Oldfield and Tasmin Archer. Mark Franklin was the host.

15 October 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Sunscreem, Bizzre Inc featuring Angie Brown, Doctor Spin and Tasmin Archer, plus a live performance by satellite from Bon Jovi in New York. Mark Franklin was the host.

29 October 1992. Also in the studio that week were; Go West, Felix, Vanessa Paradis and Rage, plus a live performance by satellite from Erasure on Broadway. Mark Franklin was the host.

Light Entertainment Watch: Just the 2 UK TV appearances for Boys II Men on the list;

FRIDAY NIGHT WITH WOGAN: with Craig Charles, Jo Brand, David Sullivan, Eddie Murphy, Boyz II Men (1992)

THE O ZONE: with Boyz II Men, The Four Tops, Peter Cunnah (1995)

OMG I can’t believe you don’t like this Tom – it’s a total unimpeachable classic for me, the ultimate last-dance song – even the most #whitepeople of gatherings respond to it. (Case in point – when Hot Chip DJed on Broadway Market one summer evening a few years ago, they played this last, and EVERYONE started swaying and singing along. It’s a pop culture standard, not just a song, by now.) The way all the instrumentation drops out for the last chorus, and it’s sung acappella + handclaps…so amazing, every time. The harmonies throughout are the most incredible things.

I think a lot of people get stuck on whether R&B singers really “mean” these impassioned declarations of love. Isn’t the point that these feelings (and this fantasy you’re temporarly buying into) ARE ridiculous and over-the-top? If you need them to mean it, they do. If you don’t, it’s pretty funny. Sometimes both! The spoken word section here makes me melt and crack up at the same time. It’s not about whether they mean it, it’s about whether you (the listener) are open to them meaning it. About whether you mean it!

It’s interesting that this happens with male R&B singers a lot more than female ones (R Kelly gets it a lot, far too much of his critical re-evaluation was based on only being able to like him once everyone knew that everyone else found him SO HILARIOUS – and the minute her released a classicist ballad-heavy album, far better than the wacky Trapped In The Closet nonsense, it was roundly ignored). Actually, I can’t think of any R&B girl group or female solo singer whose ballads/slow jams elicited this weird “I don’t know if they mean it” fear.

There was a Guardian music podcast where this was discussed, it was the one in the wake of my anti-Weeknd piece, and I can’t remember who actually said this, but they actually came right out and expressed a discomfort with/dislike of this kind of adult male sexuality, which was honest at least, though no less risible.

Anyway 10, 10, 10, forever 10.

Hated at the time, fairly warmer to it these days (part 357)…nearly as much as I can be for a ballad this emotionally in yer face yet instrumentally slight*. I do like the vague sense of hope in the chorus (by ending on an impressively harmonised ascent notationally) but for all the bluster I never got the sense of desired melancholy that I feel comes through better on their collab with Mariah ‘One Sweet Day’ (plus the evidently sexier ‘Feenin’ by Jodeci). 5 for BIIM in the end because I just never really wanna hear it.

*To contradict, or make an exception to my rule I think I like Shai’s ‘If I Ever Fall In Love’ more than this too but that may be because it doesn’t compromise at all, being straight a capella.

I started to like glum (yet uplifting) RnB ballads a bit more after getting MTV (a year after this) when the often epic videos added a kitschier dimension – R Kelly’s ‘Down Low’, ‘Feenin’ as mentioned plus Mary J Blige’s more traditional-sounding (brassier) Rose Royce cover ‘I’m Goin’ Down’. I never actually bought this stuff or made it a major part of my life but ‘End Of The Road’s success above all these makes it a flagpost for a RnB/Swing golden age distinct from its 80s equivalent (‘Hello’ et al), highly revered and fondly remembered by those with any appreciation for the next generation’s take on ‘Soul’ at the time.

#3 I am sure Boyz II Men appeared on Dance Energy performing ‘Motownphilly’, with Normski’s then-sidekick Vas Blackwood goofing around in the same preppy clobber they were rocking at the time. The latter definitely happened, but maybe just along to the video?

I’m sort of with Lex on this one. It’s not a 10 for me but I think it’s pretty good. It seems a bit of a throwback to me – an entirely welcome one as it goes – to mid 70s soul balladry. Maybe it’s just the spoken word section but it definitely reminds me of The Chi-Lites and various other vocal groups of that era, albeit somewhat updated for the New Jack Swing/modern R&B era. I was able to sing the chorus before I’d even looked it up on Youtube, which given I don’t actually own the song in any format, must mean it made an impression on my young mind and after re-listening and grown up somewhat since its release, for me, it does a pretty good job of hitting a decent tone of regret for the end of a relationship. I even rate the vocals highly – yes, even the one of them who seems to be straining in the lead in to the chorus is doing so to the service of the song’s sentiments; that this is the end of something he doesn’t want to finish. The a capella (with handclaps) breakdown just pushes it higher in my reckoning – it’s not quite as good as En Vogue’s a capella break down in My Lovin’ (but few things are). It really does it for me. Strongest #1 in a while I reckon – certainly since Stay.

Clearly these guys could sing their asses off, but I basically share Tom’s blindspot with respect to this one: my principal memory of EOTR is of trying to avoid it/change channels away from it for what seemed like months. (Checking now, it was #1 for 13 weeks in the US. Figures.) B2M’s ‘preppy’ image rubbed me the wrong way too for some doubtless irrational reason.

I guess I like Prince’s long swoony songs (Adore most obviously) a lot more than EOTR, but I’m also not sure I can really defend that preference. It’s frustrating to feel so unmoved by EOTR when so clearly it does in fact work as ‘the ultimate last dance song’ for a lot of people.

#14, seems unfair to blame Boyz II men for X Factor balladeering. Those with little talent but no real musicality or discipline will always oversing slow ballads, and have been doing so since time immemorial.
I like the song, but if I was going to pick nits, I’d say it’s let down by a clumpiness in the drums.
Listen to the song take off when the instruments fade out and you’re left with just the vocal and the handclaps – crucially, they’re right on the back of the beat and suddenly the song is swinging in a way that it can’t with a quantized rhythm track.

10 is a little high, but I do agree with Lex that this one is a classic. I love the drama in this and, sure, the syrupiness too.

By the way, this one was #1 for 13 weeks in the US, at the time the longest reigning #1 ever, though this record was broken by “I Will Always Love You” a few months later. (Boyz ultimately reigned supreme as “One Sweet Day” eclipsed all and still holds the record at 16 weeks).

I can’t see how it’s unfair to blame Boyz II Men for X-factor balladeering, and honestly I’ve tried very hard to think of how they might be let off the hook.

It’s Motown’s biggest hit in the same way Kokomo was the Beach Boys’ biggest hit; sure, it’s there in print, but that’s about it. 80s Motown was always a very hit and miss affair in every sense, so it’s not that the takeover ruined everything, but there’s a “corporate” sheen to this, an ironed-out slickness that Gordy’s LA Motown never really embraced (be it through lack of time, money or attention); the result is rather pretty but ultimately meaningless slop, and 4 seems about right.

#14 – I can see where you’re coming from in regards to the X-Factor almost like this is the genesis of soulful gesticulation that every contestant seems to do now. The video seems to be the first of its kind that for a ballad actually focuses on the singers. What cliché cinematic shots of the lost love are fleetingly brief instead of prolonged like most ballad videos. This may be due to the fact it’s four guys seemingly referring to the same girl. It must of been on heavy rotation at the time and sunk into the psyche that in order to be soulful these are the things you need to do. Nearly 20 years later they are still doing it.

As for the song itself it was only lauded as amazing at the time as it was far more polished than anything else around hence why it stood out so much. Clearly after playing grebo, grunge and rave the radio DJs were singing their praises as at last here were a band that could sing not just that but could do harmonies, like the good old days. Hated the song then as a 14 year old lad and agree with my younger self now, though they did do a half decent cover version of “In the still of the night”

#26, Tom, I don’t watch X Factor much, so can’t comment on recent episodes, but it’s not all in the inflection.

Perhaps Boyz II Men didn’t invent the hand-over-the-mic type ballad in which several singers showcase their same-ish-style vocal talents against each other in turn, to the detriment of the sincerity / meaning of the lyric. However, they innovated / popularised it to a degree that was previously unimaginable.

For once, I’ve not checked my facts, but I’ve a strong feeling this was the first UK no.1 in which more than one lead singer has a go when the song doesn’t demand it (ie it’s not “Float On”) and there’s no charity to benefit (Band Aid, Ferry Aid, Hillsborough, The Crowd – which in any case showcase substantially different vocal styles). After this record, the previously unusual Boyz II Men approach became commonplace, perhaps even a genre in its own right.

[As it happens, I agree with #25’s interpretation of #14, for the individual styles, it is “almost like this is the genesis of soulful gesticulation that every contestant seems to do now”]

Is this the first record covered on Popular while it is actually on the chart?

This week sees it slip to #89 from last week’s #79.

I presume some nobody must have “made it their own!” on X-Factor, or whatever inane drivel is currently occupying pre-pubescent minds on a Saturday evening.

Possibly. I don’t follow the MOBOs – was their award announced beforehand, as it was already on the chart before the Awards night?

Probably not responsible, but there’s a big B2M sample (from Uhh Ahh apparently) in Beyonce’s (well vidded!) recent/new single Countdown… so general B2M awareness is definitely on the up-swing right now.

#29, #34 Wow! what a question. Maybe it does depend on what is meant by being “in the charts”. If it’s extended to the Top 200 singles the answer is definitely “no, it’s not the first time”. For one, Bohemian Rhapsody was on the Top 200 at the time it was first written about in Popular.

I realise Top 200 is stretching most people’s definition of the chart.

and surely even 75-100 is pushing it although 100-200 is IMO doubly unnotifiable in the fact that 1)it takes away any real achievement to “getting in the charts” and 2) no’s 100-200 aren’t even available to the general public. ps It also messes up weeks on charts records as just about any reasonably sized hit now seems to rack up 100+ weeks on the charts (with most of them seemingly in positions 100-200)even though the reference books still only include Top75 weeks.

The production is wonderful and retrograde – quite Cyndi Lauper. I had forgotten how the different vocal styles was a talking point – I didn’t pay much attention to it, or them, at the time, but it does make good use of the range within the quartet.

There was not a chance in the world that I would have cared about this when it came out – it wasn’t even something I knew about enough to be derisive. I’m fairly sure I stood through a short set they performed while I was at university, and I entirely ignored them.

I rather like the sound of it now, although the spoken passage intrudes too much. Its still a workmanlike piece though.

Motown junk to my ears. The first of 3 number ones in a row where the vocals become rather icky. I would go along with the score given.

Hm, I have to agree with Tom on this one. I can’t deny it’s quite an effective song in the earworm sense (I still remember most of the lyrics with surprising clarity), or that it’s technically impressive, but I still feel as I did then about the way it seems to go on and on and on forever…

I also have very little time for faux-sincerity, so I admit I’m biased against this sort of thing from the get-go. It just feels like a sermon of the wrong sort, where emoting is taken to indicate passion. It makes my inner frigid Brit deeply uncomfortable.

Every time I catch a glimpse of that sleeve at the top of the popular page, my mind tells me it’s a Nintendo DS game, and I have to look again to check. Obviously just a coincidence, but has anyone else had the same thought?

(Unless Nintendo DID nick the design….)

@46:

I assume that Chi-Lites comment was directed at me. It’s simply the bass spoken word section in this reminds me of “Have You Seen Her?” which is as far as I am concerned is equally overwrought lyrically as EOTR (though I will allow that the Chi-Lites has that peppy backing vocal going on which gives it a lightness that this lacks).

Just an aside, it’s a pleasure to participate and read these threads. I love my rugby but the comments sections in some of the other areas of the internet that I frequent this weekend have been pretty poisonous. At least differences of opinion here are civilly expressed.

No harm, no foul, as far as I am concerned.