So I wanted to talk a little bit about Valentine’s Day songs
Last year at this same time I just printed the lyrics to what I called my favorite Valentine’s Day song, the aptly titled “Valentine’s Day.” Written and performed by ABC, it ends–
If you gave me a [dollar] for the moments I missed
And I got dancing lessons for all the lips I should kiss
I’d be a millionaire
I’d be your Fred Astaire
–so you can tell it’s really just a favorite song for people who don’t have a Valentine on Valentine’s day. I thought about just running the lyrics to “Never, Never” by the Assembly but this year I wanna see if I can’t go at least a little bit deeper. These are not necessarily my favorite Valentine’s Day or love songs, just a few that occured to me this morning.
I’ve been “lucky” in at least one way: I know lots of people have had songs or even artists ruined for them because they associate them with a lost love. But I can only think one case where I stopped listening to an album because of such an association. And that had more to do with the fact that my musical tastes were changing. Let’s just say I used to really like George Michael’s “Faith” album…
I’ve always been a sucker for the yearning song, and if you’re talking yearing, you’re talking Roy Orbison. Add kd lang on a remake duet of his song. “Crying,” and well, it meant a lot to me at one time.
Of course, if you’re talking songs for the lovelorn you have to add a whole other category for Frank Sinatra. My favorite might be a semi-obscure little number with lyrics by Johnny Mercer called “Empty Tables.” The record of this is one of only two or three that Sinatra made with only a piano for accompaniment.
From the definition of substance in music to a few-hits wonder of the ’80s: Curiosity Killed the Cat had a song called Down To Earth. In my first play there’s an unseen scene (if you follow me) where the heroine goes on her first date with a new man in her life. If that scene had been in the play, this would have been the soundtrack.
And now a song that also has a Sinatra connection, Cole Porter’s “Night & Day.” But I’m thinking specifically of the U2 performance that’s on the Red Hot & Blue charity compilation. I’ve heard it called a novelty, and I know some purists or snobs (call them what you will)who don’t like it at all. But I say it’s one of Bono’s best performances, one I can almost never listen to without feeling wrung out.
This next one is a twofer. I used to make a lot of mix tapes for people, and by people I mean women, and by women I mean one woman in particular. If you know who I’m talking about, you do, and if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. But in all that time possibly the greatest (musical) discovery I ever made is this: After the last chord of the Bangles “Following,” the opening of Icehouse’s “Man of Colors” falls so naturally you almost wouldn’t know a new song has started.
It occurs to me that very soon I’ll be coming up on not having had a long-term relationship in 10 years. And even that one was only a few months–to find one that lasted years you have to go back even further.
Veering (semi) off topic for a second, I’m bothered by what David Mamet said in that piece about Arthur Miller to which I linked yesterday. Are Keitha & Annabel just telling an audience what they already know? And the deeper question: Am I a bad dramatist?
