More Than Words by Extreme

[PerfectYear321]

Anybody remember this song?

I was early teens and thought it was the most amazing, perfect and romantic song I'd ever heard in my life 🤣 The video was easy on the eye too.

I suddenly remembered it recently and searched for it on YouTube. Was surprised that it had nowhere near the effect on me...in fact none😂

Just really interested if anyone here remembers when it came out, how they felt at the time and how they feel now when they listen to it!

It isn't about a shag at all. It is basically saying action not words but not in the shag sense. There's an interview with Gary Cherone who explains it as being you can say you love me, but if you behave like you don't, it doesn't matter what you say.

Oddly, this is not representative of their main catalogue of music. A bit like Chris Rea writing Fool If You Think It's Over. There must have been so many people go to see him and find something completely different.

Back to Extreme though, their new album is amazing.

I was rewatching the Freddie Mercury tribute the other night and I must say Extreme were brilliant. I didn't actually remember them on the bill from when it was shown live, way back when.
I was never that keen on that particular song, though. I remember on a school residential trip around the time it was massive, one girl spent an evening listening to it on a loop on her Walkman in the dorm, occasionally weeping! She was otherwise quite level-headed!

You are so lucky that a boyfriend played it to you on his guitar! I would have swooned! I've listened back to the words and think it's romantic and not aggressively sexual.

Just re typing the words doesn’t prove your point (which is wrong) that it’s about coercion and he doesn’t even mention choosing between people… you’re making it up.

Haha, I don't blame her..I would have been the same at the time! I loved it so much! Do you have a link to the tribute you watched?

Yeah reading the lyrics for me that's a reach to make it about co ercion I'm not reading it that way

Early 90's was great for soppy love songs.

Stay by Shakespears Sister
Why by Annie Lennox
Nothing Compares to you by Sinead O'connor
Everything I Do, Bryan Adams
Goodnight Girl, Wet Wet Wet
Would I lie to you Charles and Eddie
I Will Always Love You, Whitney
Without you, Maria Carey
Stay, East 17
Dreams, Gabrielle
Love is all around, Wet Wet Wet
Bed of Roses, Bon Jovi
Everybody Hurts, REM
Unbreak My Heart, Toni Braxton

I could go on all night. Such a perfect sound track to go with all my teenage crushes and first loves back then. I can remember boyfriend making me a mix tape of love songs and another one quoting song lyrics in love letters.

New album?! 👀

That's what I think!

You're too young to love this song! I'm 46 and was just in my teens when it came out 😂

How old were you?

Yep - if you actually read the words the line
'Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying "I love you"'
Indicate that it is about treating someone badly then saying I love you and thinking it will make everything OK.
Like all 'art' everyone will have their own interpretation but it certainly isn't a case of it definitely meaning sex.

PerfectYear321

I'm looking through my history but can't find the one I watched specifically, but there are loads of versions on youtube. Some are complete, some are split into parts. It is called 'The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert' it's from 1992 and was at Wembley. Some uploads look/sound better than others X

I used to love this song, knew all the words and harmonies...still do 😳

I remember watching the band in an interview once. I think their normal music was much more heavy metal and they said they had all these teenage girls turn up at their shows expecting croony love songs but instead they got a heavy rock gig 😆

Early 20s.

Let me start by saying that extreme are now in their 60s 😱. That's scary. I was obsessed with them as a 14/15 year old. Utterly obsessed. Three friends were as well. I don't think teenagers go through band obsessions in the same way now? I got to see them on the stop the world tour in 1992, not long after the Freddie Mercury tribute. Now I listen to them for the nostalgia value and the new album is OK but I know what you mean about it not being the same anymore. I think time and place was everything, and people who read a lot into MTW are maybe looking at it through a modern lens. I would give almost anything for a time machine to go back and listen to tapes in my room with my friends. One of them has passed away now 😢 <takes maudlin sentimental hat off>

Also I will say that extreme played an important role in many rock fans lives because they were a gateway between boy bands and harder rock. They had quite a clean image and parents weren't worried about their daughters being interested. But we moved onto other bands as we grew up.

To be fair, it was released last year. It's possibly their best yet.

OMG!

more than words is literally the only song I can play (and not very well) on guitar.

edited to say no idea why that is quoted.

I'm confused...what was released last year @HappiestSleeping

Singer-songwriter, this is him in 1974…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dAo4xWIPFE0

I prefer the album version, but it’s a lovely song. He also wrote Song To The Siren.

It’s always linked to Mr Big’s Be With You in my head. They must have come out around the same time. My music app thinks so too, as it always plays these 2 songs together whenever I give it free reign.

Extreme's new album.

It was the only song one of my housemates knew how to play on the guitar. He'd sing it repeatedly in a really cheesy style when he'd had a few, complete with the knocks on the guitar body. Fortunately we all thought it was as funny as he did (we were in our mid twenties rather than impressionable teens).