5/7/2023 0 Comments Subvert city lyricsLeave it to Sparks, who’ve covered everything from marrying Martians to Mickey Mouse’s love life, to fill that gap. Since there are so many actual narcissists in the pop world, it’s surprising that there aren’t more songs about narcissism. And since Clapton admits in the last verse that he’s too tipsy to drive home, you have to wonder if Pattie wasn’t feeling some frustration herself.Ĭlick to load video The Self-Love Song Falling In Love With Myself Again (Sparks, 1974) It sounds more like a celebration of the mundane details that make up a marriage. Originally it was Clapton venting his frustration at how long his wife Pattie took to get ready for parties the song’s true intent was more like, “Yes, dear, you look wonderful – now can we please get the hell out of here?” But despite its origins, “Wonderful Tonight” came out sounding exactly like a love song, with the first real crooning Clapton ever did, and a slinky guitar line that exudes romance. The irony is that it wasn’t conceived as a love song at all. Writing a wedding standard was probably never high on Eric Clapton’s list of priorities, but, sure enough, “Wonderful Tonight” became one of those songs that every wedding band has to know. The Love Song Despite Itself Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton, 1977) Love is the highest of human emotions, and humans have a tendency to mess things up. Some of these songs celebrate love and some dump on it, but they all have one thing in common, a factor that proves Cave’s point. Here’s a look at some of the darker and more offbeat themes that have turned up in some of our favorite love songs. We’ll just respond to that with the title of a Graham Parker song from two decades later: “That’s What They All Say.” Buddy Holly is cocksure in “That’ll Be The Day” because he knows his sweetheart wouldn’t leave him in a million years. Even the happier romantic classics have a bit of undertow if you look close enough. For starters, all of Frank Sinatra’s “saloon songs” are duende personified. Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to Be With You” comes to mind right away, as do songs as diverse as Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight,” The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine,” and Ramones’ “She’s The One.” Yet these probably represent a minority of the songs we’ve grown up loving. We could certainly play devil’s advocate with the latter view, as it’s not hard to name love songs that are both great and truly joyful. Anything that doesn’t acknowledge these emotions, he says, is nothing more than a “hate song” and not worthy of our attention. “It is a howl in the void, for love and for comfort, and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother… The love song is the sound of our endeavors to become God-like, to rise up and above the earthbound and the mediocre.” He also suggests that a great love song can never be truly happy, since the potential for loss and abandonment is always there. In Cave’s view all love songs, whether spiritual or sexual, are at heart a cry to God. In the lecture, he admitted that much of his own writing was largely prompted by the loss of his father at age 19.Ĭave invokes the concept of duende, a heightened emotion usually tied to deep longing, which he thinks is essential to a resonant love song. If you know Cave’s work, it’s not surprising that he needs a love song to be multi-layered and to have a bit of darkness at its core. Back in 1999, songwriter Nick Cave gave a lecture that examined the nature of love songs and, more importantly, why we need them.
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