Love-gone-bad songs
If you look at the topic broadly, probably more than half of popular songs are about heartbreak or love gone bad. But I was thinking about a particular sort of heartbreak – the lover who was never sincere, the one who was always fooling you right from the start, and you were the fool. I can think of three such songs that remind me of each other although they’re quite different musically:
The lyrics tell you right at the beginning:
Here the disillusionment takes a tiny bit longer. I love the biting quality Thompson puts into his voice:
And of course there are the Bee Gees, kings of the broken heart. They’re not quite as bitter, but still – when the singer wakes up, she’s gone, and he didn’t see it coming and doesn’t have a clue why. Maybe you can tell him:
This isn’t exactly about the same theme. But hey, I love it, and it’s close enough:
Back to the Bee Gees – as songwriters, anyway. The great Dionne Warwick here:
I’ve always found the saddest songs to be about the love of a good woman for a worthless man.
I know of one sad song, where it’s not obvious which one is wronging the other, possibly both.
Well, at least in Norwegian Wood, the guy gets back at her by burning her house down.
20+ years ago as I was going through my divorce, I was especially down while driving in to work and this song came on the radio. The lyrics seemed to perfectly encapsulate how I was feeling toward my ex — “You’re awful– I love you!” but did it in a comedic manner that brightened my mood, at least for that work shift. And the song still holds a place in my heart as a result, despite it not really being a song I’d listen to normally, much less on repeat or anything —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XH3oMNKApI
Yes it’s a great genre. My favorites are Feel a While lot Better by the Byrds, and Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke The sneaky one that goes way back to early 60s is Red Rubber Ball by the Cyrkle. Upbeat joyful sounding song about a guy really pissed at his ex girl friend.
And let’s not forget the man taken in by the beautiful but faithless girl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFch8vH81ks
This song has spawned countless videos of couples ballroom dancing to it. It is a great song for that sort of dancing.
In the never-was-sincere category, Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘For Lovin’ Me’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRdo5XjEj0w
and Tom Russell, El Llano Estacado
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bz-PxB_4iA
Physicsguy…Red Rubber Ball, by The Cyrkle:
A college girl I’d had a crush on for some time, with varying degrees of reciprocated interest, moved to California. A few days late, that song came on the radio.
It helped.
Today I listened to Black Pegasus responding to the immortal Joan Jett:
–“Rapper FIRST time REACTION to Joan Jett & the Blackhearts – I Hate Myself for Loving You!!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWeeRABzPw
BP is a rapper and went in to the reaction biz knowing very little about rock. He usually doesn’t even know what decade a rock song is from. But he dug Joan Jett.
What we humans will do to keep a love gone bad….
“You see it all around you:
Good loving gone bad,
And usually it’s too late when you
Realize what you had.”
Emmylou Harris, Easy From Now On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZcXqA_I2w
On the other side of the male-female fence, here’s the Kingston Trio singing about a poor guy traveling on business, worried about what his gal Sue is up to while he is gone.
My parents played it when I was a kid and I loved the catchiness, though I had no idea what the song was about.
So it seems that our narrator comes home early from a business trip and hides in the closet. I get it now. 🙂
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Well, Bobby’s in the living room, holding hands with Sue.
Nickie’s at that big front door, ’bout to come on through.
Well, I’m here in the closet. Oh, Lord, what shall I do?
We’re worried now but we won’t be worried long.
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song.
I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long.
–The Kingston Trio, “Worried Man – In Color!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVivHNhf638
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It’s fun to see the Kingston boys in color.
Fun Fact: Hollywood put a pilot together for a sitcom starring the zany life of the Kingston Trio years before the Monkees.
But it was a pilot that went nowhere.
File under: “Take another little piece of my heart now, baby…”
I didnt know the context
https://youtu.be/EbDKN0dk54M?si=-zCP1RxApfACO9iJ
Back in the day rock groups (particularly The Beatles) were frequently accused of incorporating drug references into their lyrics. This was the take on Norwegian Wood by some. That was supposedly code for a type of marijuana. Hence at the end of the song, the guy simply lit up a joint (so, I lit a fire. Isn’t it good..) and made the best of it.
I’m probably a couple of years older than Neo but I bet she remembers these accusations. Some were probably true, but Puff the Magic Dragon??? Come. On.
Though the song was variously recorded, I believe Paul Simon wrote “Red Rubber Ball.”
I think highly of Richard Thompson as a songwriter, but even when he’s singing other people’s material, I absolutely adore his voice.
I dont know if its on topic, but i like the song
https://youtu.be/vzBOG-QW3_E?si=_laEn21ly3Sv8g0h
Because of the film and diane lane
Yes paul simon was on that song somewhere
I never tire of Norwegian Wood, but if you mention that you need to include 4th Time Around
This was the take on Norwegian Wood by some. That was supposedly code for a type of marijuana…
chazzand:
Perhaps.
My favorite: “Norwegian Wood” was a pun for “Knowing She Would.”
Isn’t it good … knowing she would.
John did like puns. He published a book of miscellany titled “A Spaniard in the Works” for the phrase “a spanner in the works.”
Of course it might have been a specific detail he heard on a one-night stand.
John had a great ear for words. Hence the titles he picked up from Ringo like “A Hard Day’s Night.”
I never tire of Norwegian Wood, but if you mention that you need to include 4th Time Around
avi:
Oh, don’t tease. 🙂
“4th Time Around” is one of Dylan’s great song parodies, pitch perfect for “Norwegian Wood.” You’ve got to hear it to get it.
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I stood there and hummed
I tapped on her drum and asked her how come
And she buttoned her boot
And straightened her suit
Then she said, “Don’t get cute”
So I forced my hands in my pockets
And felt with my thumbs
And gallantly handed her
My very last piece of gum
–Bob Dylan, “Fourth Time Around”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYo3cn_Qp4
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Dylan is always up to something.
No disrespect to Dionne Warwick, but here’s Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” song. No small part of Zep’s appeal was to burned guys:
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Well, it’s been ten years or maybe more since I first set eyes on you
The best years of my life gone by, here I am alone and blue
Some people cry and some people die by the wicked ways of love
But I’ll just keep on rollin’ along with the grace of the Lord above
People talkin all around ’bout the way you left me flat
I don’t care what the people say, I know where their jive is at
One thing I do have on my mind if you can clarify, please do
It’s the way you call me another guy’s name
When I try to make love to you, yeah
–Led Zeppelin, “Heartbreaker”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5O4073zCKA
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Withering.