Decadence Dance Am I Ever Gonna Change Extreme

Decadence Dance Album: Pornograffitti (1990)
Am I Ever Gonna Change Album: III Sides To Every Story (1992)
by Extreme

Extreme were well aware of rock star clichés and did what they could to avoid them. "Decadence Dance" is song that looks at how the lifestyle can quickly spiral out of control:

It's hard to stop once the music gets started

Written by lead singer Gary Cherone and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, it opens the Pornograffitti album with an orchestral soundscape where we hear a mother yelling, "Francis, be careful!" as the guitars and drums kick in.

"Pornograffitti evolved into a loose concept record," Cherone said in a Songfacts interview. "I was writing those lyrics at a certain point in time, so there were running themes going throughout. 'Decadence Dance' was the overture of the record and it was setting up a theme of a loss of innocence. A young boy leaving home and going into the decadent world and being tempted by all the things that go on in life."

Extreme released their first (eponymous) album in 1989, but they had been at it since 1985, playing a lot of gigs in the Boston area before signing with A&M Records. They weren't very decadent compared to other hair metal bands; there was no way they could compete with the likes of Guns N' Roses and Mötley Crüe in terms of hedonism. They certainly looked the part, though, and musically they could more than hold their own, with Cherone's clarion vocals and a supershredder guitarist in Bettencourt.

They didn't sing about groupies or drugs, so it helped them to have a concept like they did on Pornograffitti. Their next album, III Sides To Every Story, had a far more developed concept, with each side representing a different variation of truth and having a different sound.
"Decadence Dance" was the first single from Pornograffitti. It went nowhere, and the follow-up, "Get The Funk Out," also died on the vine. It looked like Extreme might be left for dead, but then A&M issued the acoustic balled "More Than Words" as the next single, and it went to #1. They followed with another ballad, "Hole Hearted," which was also a hit. This gave the band new life but led to a disconnect because those songs didn't represent their sound.

Decadence Dance runs 6:49 on the album but the single is cut down to 4:31, omitting the opening sound collage.

The music video opens with stodgy guy in a bowtie from "parents for a wholesome America" with tips on how kids can have some good, clean fun. Tip #1 is "learn a music instrument," at which point we see the band rocking out.

Extreme had been making videos before they even had a record deal. In 1985 they made a video for their song "Mutha (Don't Wanna Go To School Today)" that aired on a Boston UHF station devoted to music videos.

In this song, Extreme lead singer Gary Cherone takes a hard look at himself and wonders if he's on the right path. These are tough questions, asking if he's holding true to his values or living a lie. It's tinged with religious imagery as he looks to the afterlife:

This peace I seek
Till thy kingdom comes

Cherone is Christian, and questions of faith often show up in his lyrics. The most blatant example is the 1995 Extreme song "There Is No God," which has a different meaning than the title implies.

Gary Cerone said that Am I Ever Gonna Change is one of the band's most important songs, calling it "powerful" and "lyrically, self-reflecting."

Am I Ever Gonna Change is part of a 22-minute orchestral suite called Everything Under The Sun that's part of the third Extreme album, III Sides To Every Story. It's the second of three sections, following "Rise 'n Shine" and "Who Cares?" The band used a 70-piece orchestra for this section recorded at Abbey Road studios in London.

The spoken interlude at the four-minute mark ("Indulgentiam, absolutionem...") is in Latin, delivering the statement a Catholic priest would say at the end of a confessional. It roughly translates to:

May the almighty and merciful God
Grant you indulgence, absolution, and remission of all your sins

According to the liner notes in the album, the priest is voiced by Dr. Edward de R. Cayia.

The III Sides To Every Story album is the follow-up to Pornograffitti, which contains Extreme's two big hits, "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted." III Sides To Every Story had just two minor hits, "Rest in Peace" and "Stop The World," but is more ambitious, with a "three sides" concept. The first side is a collection of rocked-out songs called "Yours," followed by the more mellow "Mine," and finally "The Truth," which is made up of the Everything Under The Sun orchestral suite.