Happy 30th: Julian Lennon, “Stick Around”
30 years ago today, Julian Lennon released “Stick Around,” the first single from his second album, earning a top-40 hit, a #1 Mainstream Rock track, and the immediate ire of critics who were sharpening their knives for the “sophomore slump”-themed reviews they’d already started writing in their heads.
As it happens, Lennon himself didn’t entire disagree with those critics…or if he did then, he hasn’t in recent years: when chatting with Popdose in conjunction with the promotion of his most recent album, 2011’s Everything Changes, he didn’t hesitate to explain both his position on The Secret Value of Daydreaming – the second album in question – and the reason why the album turned out the way it did.
“I’ve always said that it was a bunch of demos that never got finished. It truly came about from being on the first world tour, finishing it, and then coming off of that experience and being told by the studio, ‘You’ve got to get back in the studio in the next two weeks.’ And I’m going, ‘You’ve got to be crazy! Number one, can I breathe for a second? Number two, I need a little time to write some more material! We’ve used all of the best stuff up on the first album!’ Anyway, that time was neither allowed nor given, so I was put in a position of doing the best I could, but the band and I were all the same band as had been on tour, and we were all a bit wary and beaten up and tired from being on the road for a year, or however long that was. You know, I just don’t think we really had a chance to really…Well, again, the songs sound like unfinished demos to me. I don’t think I was given the time to write a decent follow-up. You know, here were some good ideas on that album, some nice bits and bobs, but in my mind it never really came to fruition the way it should’ve done.”
As for “Stick Around” itself, Lennon’s remarks about its composition can be found on the fansite HeyJules.com, but it’s apparent that we might never have heard it at all if it hadn’t been for guitarist Justin Clayton. After Lennon came up with the opening of the song, he blanked on anything else, so he stopped for a bit, revisiting it later with Clayton.
“Justin sat down and just listened to it over and over again,” said Lennon, who started going back and forth with the guitarist, eventually coming up with the recurring “if you wanna” bit of the song. Unfortunately, Lennon wasn’t recording their efforts. “I didn’t tape it. ‘What was it again? I can’t lose it!’ But I forgot one bit, and he reminded me, so I finally got it together. If he hadn’t been there, it would’ve been half a song at the moment.”
The video for “Stick Around” is also well-remembered by those who were watching MTV at the time, as it was relatively star-packed, featuring appearances from Michael J. Fox, Joe Piscopo, and Playboy playmate Peggy McIntaggart, but the real star of the show is Jami Gertz, who plays Lennon’s apparently long-suffering girlfriend in the opening and closing moments of the video.
Mind you, everything that takes place during the video happens at a speed more appropriate for “Yakety Sax” rather than “Stick Around,” but you can’t say it isn’t memorable.
