We here at the Ideological Cuddle hope that each one of you is enjoying your Valentine's Weekend. Hopefully, the last post brought some love and warmth into each of your lives with the warm sounds of Coltrane's tenor or Miles' muted trumpet. Today, we switch gears to present the other side of Valentine's Day...
What happens when love goes wrong? What happens when love dies? What happens when we can't find love? What happens when we start thinking that we never will? Perfect... we have songs for that. Too often, songwriters get celebrated for their ability to write lyrics that would accompany a first wedding dance or provide the soundtrack to falling in love. Today, we'll celebrate those who have the uncanny ability to provide the soundtrack to our darker, loveless days - the days when all we can do is cry, wallow, mope, and feel sorry for ourselves. Of course, sometimes, we just want to spit venom at the cause of our misery and curse them in unimaginable ways. We've got that covered as well. For the lovelorn, the love-lost, those who will celebrate tomorrow solo... click on the songs below my comments, courtesy of Lala.com.
(UPDATE - You may have to click the link below the boxes... don't know if all of the songs loaded appropriately)
Elvis Costello
The possibilities here are many and varied, as no one writes a better bitter, overly-verbose, and scathing song of lost love. Many of his best songs are aimed at not only the offending woman's emotions, but her intellect as well (or lack thereof).
His masterpiece, King of America is littered with songs of loss. "Brilliant Mistake" teeters the line between first-person narrative and third-person omniscient observer - just like Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue". He alternates between "I" and "he" frequently. There doesn't seem to be much in this man's life that was the right choice - everything seems to be a "Brilliant Mistake", including his prospective love interest - of whom Costello famously notes:
"She said that she was working for the ABC News/
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use".
"Indoor Fireworks", later on the King of America LP gives a snapshot of a love that is hanging by a thread. The opening lines give all the evidence one needs:
"We play these parlor games, we play at make-believe/
When we get to the part where I say that I'm going to leave/
Everybody loves a happy ending but we don't even try/
We go straight past pretending, to the part where everybody loves to cry"
Lastly from King of America is "Poisoned Rose" - this one's pretty self-explanatory, except that, toward the end of the song, the narrator admits that he just can't get himself to throw away the poisoned rose - he knows how bad this love affair is for him, but he can't give it up.
Costello's great torch song, "Almost Blue" sounds like something Sinatra should have recorded for his epic Only the Lonely album, and I think that's exactly what Elvis had in mind when he wrote it. A song of longing the lengths of which Costello would never quite reach again, it's enough to make a grown man cry.
We can't discuss Elvis Costello's contributions to the broken-hearted genre without including two last fuck you songs aimed toward women who have wronged him. "I Hope You're Happy Now" exists in many versions besides the "official" version which was released on Blood and Chocolate in 1986 - there are multiple demo versions in multiple tempos, each giving a slightly different bent to the song, but the lyrics stay the same. The singer's relationship with the target of his venom has ended, she's moved on, but he's clearly bitter. Speaking of his ex's new love:
"He's a fine figure of a man and handsome, too/
With his eyes upon the secret places he'd like to undo"
and
"He knows what you want and what you don't allow/
And I hope that you're happy now"
and triumphantly,
"I hope that you're happy now like you're supposed to be/
And I know that this will hurt you more than it hurts me"
But Costello can't leave this relationship alone without getting in a few low blows. First, a dig at the new love interest's "tiny manhood" :
"Like a matador with his pork sword while we all die of laughter"
And finally :
"I knew then what I know now, I never loved you, anyhow"
Last, "Uncomplicated". The sound of the song is as vicious as the lyrics - basically a three minute swipe at how "Uncomplicated" or vapid the ex seems to be. He's clearly angry from the first lines:
"Blood and Chocolate, I hope you're satisfied what you have done/
You think it's over now, but we've only just begun"
It gets meaner from there...
Billy Bragg
As noted in one of our previous posts (available here) the politics of the sexes is a favorite topic of Mr. Bragg's. "Valentine's Day Is Over" is a resigned, cautionary song sung from the woman's perspective. Bragg turns the tables in a cautionary tale for any man who dares not treat his partner with the respect that she deserves . It even appears that the man in question has physically injured his love interest:
"If you want to talk about it, well, you know were the phone is/
Don't come 'round reminding me how brittle bone is/
God didn't make you an angel, the Devil made you a man/
That brutality and the economy are related now, I understand/
When will you realize that as above, so below, there is no love"
These lines are enough to make you weep and think about how easily we can hurt those that we love the most - emotionally or tragically, physically - and that, clearly, is Bragg's intent.
Somewhat heroically, the woman will not stand for this treatment. She's getting out, but not without making sure that her assailant has some perspective on his actions:
"Thank you for the things you bought me, thank you for the card/
Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard/
That love between two people must be based on understanding/
Until that's true you'll find your things all stacked out on the landing/
Surprise, surprise, Valentine's Day is over"
Proceed with caution:
Morrissey
Ah, the Mozzer. Nothing ever seems to go right in Morrissey's view of love. Almost every one of his songs is about losing love, how lonely he is, or why he's not good enough to be loved by anyone. A dissertation about this topic could likely net you a PhD in mope. Just a few examples:
Stalker Morrissey:
"The More You Ignore Me (The Closer I Get)"
Self-Loathing Morrissey:
"Let Me Kiss You" :
"Close your eyes and think of someone you physically admire/
And let me kiss you"
King of Mope Morrissey:
"I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris":
"I have decided I'm throwing my arms around Paris/
Because, only stone and steel accept my love"
Coming-To-Terms Morrissey:
"I Have Forgiven Jesus" :
"I have forgiven Jesus/
For all the desire he placed in me/
When there's nothing I can do with this desire"
Elliott Smith
It's really tough for me to discuss Elliott Smith, as I might miss him more than any other artist who has passed on. It would be easy to re-tread what everyone else has said about him and his music - tortured, forlorn, depressive, etc, etc, etc. I think that his music speaks for itself:
"Between the Bars"
"Pictures of Me"
"Pitseleh"
Bob Dylan
The originator of the fuck you song, Dylan's venom is a thing of historic beauty. Any songwriter who has come after him has taken a cue from him. His most famous anti-Valentine song:
"Positively 4th Street". He recounts all of the reasons that he will no longer give his love to this woman in 4 minutes. It's all angry and full of spite:
"You say I let you down, you know it's not like that/
If you're so hurt, why then don't you show it?/
You say you've lost your faith, but that's not where it's at/
You have no faith to lose, and you know it"
PJ Harvey
Time for the woman's perspective. Cut from the songwriting cloth of Bob Dylan, but with a sonic palette straight out of the punk/blues asthetic, Polly Jean is without peer in the pissed-off-woman school of anti-Valentine songs. Many are great, but I would never want to be the target of the spite of "Dry". OK, it doesn't get much more simple than this - PJ basically feels the need to tell her (assumedly) ex-lover, "You don't do it for me sexually any more". How does she do it? Yup, let him know that he doesn't get her wet. It doesn't get more crystal clear than "You leave me dry". Ouch.
Don't think that Polly Jean can't stalk you, either - witness, "Rid of Me":
"You're not rid of me, yeah, you're not rid of me/
I beg you, my darling, don't leave me, I'm hurting"
Then goes on to tell her lover that she'll tie him to her until he screams that he wishes he never met his new love. Double ouch (this time, Polly Jean's not just questioning your manhood, she may just cut it off).
Last, "Me Jane". A put down song for men everywhere. Two minutes of how men don't know how to deal with women and their menses (yup, you read that right).
"Tarzan, I'm bleeding, stop your fucking screaming" is far and away the best line (maybe of the past 20 years).
Here's a few more of our favorite anti-Valentine's Day songs:
Robyn Hitchcock - "I Used To Say I Love You"
Tom Waits - "Candy Apple Red"
Tom Waits - "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart"
The Afghan Whigs - "My Curse"
Aimee Mann - "It's Over"
Beck - "Guess I'm Doing Fine"
Camera Obscura - "I Don't Want To See You"
Drive-By Truckers - "Goddamn Lonely Love"
Until next time... if you're lonely, or alone for Valentine's Day, fuck it. Wallow in your sorrow... sometimes it feels good.
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