To me it has a R&B jazz riff to it…

The Finn brothers wrote this song for their dad who was a jazz fan.

@Mrc172 did they have a grudge against him? This isn't remotely jazz.

The intro is a pentatonic lick repeated by Eddie on piano. There's a shuffle beat. The refrain contains a clever swing era syncopated figure over a walking bass. And Eddie's piano solo takes the song out with blues licks. It's not bebop or any of the subsequent substyles of bebop, but it has a 1930s and 1940s swing era feel to it. I can see why they are smiling. I think it's funny that an 80s rock band incorporates old-timey swing into a song. I think both Tim and Neil Finn are versatile songwriters - and this song is one of my favorites of Neil.

Once Neil took over it became a very different band.

Yes - a very underated album

@@arthurjohnwilkins8865 true.

He was, but thats not Mike Chun chief

Nigel Griggs was an amazing bass player

You're on to it @@m0peds 👍

Not because of the quality of the song, though...it's another good Neil tune. The band was having internal issues and were falling out of step with commercial pop radio by that time. Ironically, their next and last album sold even less but was an improvement overall.

@@BlueEyes-gp8lg Agree with all of that

@@BlueEyes-gp8lg Nah, they were done.

​@@BlueEyes-gp8lgConflicting emotions really was a bad album. Strait old line might have been a good song but not the best song to choose as a single from the record. If only they fixed the issues enough for the first crowded house record to be a split end record. If they fad don't dream it's over they would have been saved. If they were able to get their old sing Phil judd back too that would've worked if he brought tunes like The Swingers counting the beat and they brought back the strange image.