In Demand

Other than the usual 3-minute tales of romance both won and lost there are a few Texas tunes with another common theme, that of abandonment when the chips are down. The tune So-Called Friend and this weeks' featured song In Demand being two of them. While this just might be a case of going to the same creative well as other performers do for romance it is otherwise interesting to me that more than a few songs address this theme. Since I have never read about why this subject might be important to the band I can only speculate that this might have its origins the waning popularity and career changes of the band members who moved from Altered Images. The members of a once-popular band labored in relative obscurity for a few years and had to overcome the challenges of a changing market until they found new and moderate success with Texas.

The several tunes that deal with fair-weather people goes into even further detail, remarking that there are people who only want to be associated with the band or an individual only after they gain some notoriety. It is not unreasonable to think that the support of fans and business contacts would vanish with new directions in music or the first poorly selling album, only to be inundated with well-wishers, friends and parasites when later a single climbs the charts.

In Demand was a pretty respectful hit for Texas back in 2000. The song performed well even in countries it was not officially released in, undoubtedly reaching a wider audience through various online resources. The music video is notable for featuring popular actor Alan Rickman, who didn't appear too bewildered (as most movie stars do when appearing in music videos) and there is little reason not to suspect his part in the video helped promote the song.

From the compilation Texas The Greatest Hits is In Demand, featuring lead vocal Sharleen Spiteri fleeing from the Papparazzi and flirting like crazy with Hans Gruber.