Never Tear Us Apart – INXS

Welcome to Tune Talk!

One of the things I have truly grown to love about writing our Tune Talk posts is all of the interesting behind the scenes stories I have found along the way. They really make you appreciate just how much effort and creativity goes into writing a song.

One of the most interesting facts that I found about “Never Tear Us Apart” is that keyboardist Andrew Farriss never intended for it to be a big power ballad. He actually wrote it as a fast, up-tempo blues-rock song meant to sound like the classic 1950’s rock style of a singer like Fats Domino.

When he played the demo for Michael Hutchence, Michael immediately heard the chords in his mind as something more deep and dark to fit the lyrics he had in mind, and he insisted that the tempo be slowed down. Between that change, and producer Chris Thomas adding in the heavy hitting orchestral sound, the rest is history. Close your eyes for a minute and try to hear it in your mind as a 1950’s rocker. Can you do it? I can’t!

This song truly carries a lot of emotional weight, and from the story above, you might even say it became Hutchence’s greatest labor of love. When he passed away in 1997 at just 37 years old, “Never Tear Us Apart” was played as his coffin was being carried out of the church.

We take turns choosing the songs we discuss in Tune Talk. This one was Lori’s choice, and when she mentioned it my first thought was “oh, that’s about a 5 for me.” It’s funny how time can change your feelings on a song. I hadn’t really listened to the song in a very long time, and once we played it I wondered why I had originally felt that way.

Hearing it again with fresh ears gave me a new appreciation for it, and it moved up to a solid 7 for me. Perhaps in the past it simply wasn’t a song I was ready to embrace or one I could identify with. To me, that’s the true beauty of music – how we feel about a song can be ever changing. A song we loved 20 years ago can make us cringe today, and a song we thought was “meh” can take on a whole new meaning.

Now it’s your turn: does this one always, or never, tear you apart? Drop a comment and let us know!