A different perspective: it's almost always worth your time

This amusement never ends

I can think of so many times during the course of my career, when a different perspective on something I’d once cast aside, has proven fruitful. Things are almost always worth a second look.

A few days ago, my Harry Styles obsessed wife sent me this video and said: “great cover!” I’m not Harry Styles obsessed, but I like him. Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’--I could take it or leave it. But my wife is a good judge of what I like and if she sent it, it’s probably worth it. 

I watched it! And my feelings on the song are completely changed. In the beginning Howard Stern ask Harry why he loves the song. Styles says he feels it’s “the best mixed song” and he had recently recorded in the same studio. Watch and listen for yourself…

Sledgehammer has never been a song I really fancied. Released in 1986, I think it was just overplayed (in my mind) on the radio station I always listened to, or maybe I just found the much loved music video annoying. When the opening lines came on, I was likely to change the station, or tune it out.

As I watched the video of Harry Styles and his band covering the song, I heard it with new ears. The synths, horns, guitar riff and bass are all brilliantly topped by the scratchy vocals. A brilliant sound and amazing song; my impression was totally changed. At the end of the video, Howard Stern says: “I forgot how much I love that song.” I didn’t love the song, but I do now and I’ve been blasting it 🔂 ever since. 

Over the years, there are so many things about my job I viewed just like Sledgehammer. Things I saw and heard, but never appreciated, until I got a different perspective, which changed my mind completely. The moral of the story, don’t cast things off, your next 🔂 might just require a different perspective.