INXS – Ash Clifton, Writer

Back in the late 1980s, INXS bestrode the rock world like a colossus. Their most successful album, Kick, came out in 1987 and included such minor classics as “Never Tear Us Apart” and “Need You Tonight”. But I had already been a fan for years by that time, having gone through high school listening to their earlier hits, especially their first major one, “Don’t Change.”

When the Grunge phenomenon hit in the 1990, INXS pretty much disappeared from the premier stage. The band’s popularity dropped off, and lead singer Michael Hutchence killed himself in 1997, just three years after Kurt Cobain, the frontman for Nirvana (the band most primarily responsible for INXS’s displacement) did the same.

I really, really wish he hadn’t.

“Don’t Change” is one of the best rock songs of the 1980s. I remember clearly the first time I heard it, standing in a bookstore here in Gainesville, Florida. (Yes, that’s right—I first heard it a bookstore. I am that kind of nerd.) And even through the tinny, five-dollar speakers that had been installed in the shop’s ceiling, I picked up on the soaring lyricism and heavy rock beat of the song. And I was instantly a fan.

Enjoy…