"I Want You" by Elvis Costello.
(Around the time this was released I was getting over a broken heart and this song set my recovery back by months!!! It very sad and very dark, but it also hints at how terribly, terribly UNATTRACTIVE it is to obsessively mourn a lover who's moved on.... I've seen him do the song live... It's even more powerful.... BRRRRRRRRR!!!)
Goosebumps!
sample Lyric:
"It's the way he knows you now,
After only guessing.....
It's the thought of him undressing you
............ Or you undressing him....."
XX sf
Actually.... Fuck it, I'm a Music Journalist so here goes.... This is my day job!!!
"Elvis Costello's 'I Want You' from the "Blood And Chocolate" album is perhaps the most honest ode to unrequited, or lost, love that has ever been penned.
Over a sparse and almost desolate guitar line, (the chord combination actually mirrors the loneliness of the lyric) the writer lists the minutae of tiny memories that torment his thoughts as he misses his moved-on missus...
After an almost nursery rhyme preamble, Costello's words, (addressed directly to his ex-lover) articulately describe the break-up of his relationship and the cancerous memories that are all he has left. Despite these lyrical and almost poetic lines the writer at the end of each verse surrenders to his own honesty. "I Want You', he sings, and despite all that's gone before, you know that that's really all he needs to say. His loss has even made him inarticulate.
Like a small child picking at a scab he dissects the relationship in detail and imagines where his lover is now. He revels in self-pity, hatred and loathing as he picks apart their time together, knowing all the while that his obsessive brooding, like a child picking at an unhealed wound, will leave an even bigger scar... It's not comfortable listening...
The lyric alone is enough to guarantee this song classic status, but Costello doesn't stop there. Instead, as the song progresses and we uncover the poison in his poerty, the guitar line becomes louder and more dischordant, mirroring the turmoil in his soul. The time signature fractures and breaks, he can't even play now, and the music echoes the emptiness that he's desperate to express... (that's 'express' in EVERY sense of the word...)
And after that emotional creshendo he breaks down again and returns to the simple guitar hook he started with and the simple line, now whispered, as if he's ashamed of his feelings,"I Want You"....
It's really all he wants to say. And it's never been said better...
xx SF
(They PAY ME for this!!!!!)
Call Me When You're Sober, Evanescence
Thank goodness I'm not feeling any heartbreak right now. But when I do that song is "Tied to the Whipping Post" with Greg Allman singing it.
Missing You...By John Waite
Great opening line...
"Every time I think of you, I always catch my breath"
And yes, way back in the day, it was a heartbreak song...
Blue October Congratulations
The decisions we make dictate the life we have.
Follow your dreams, for those that do not will only try to discourage others.