while so many memories of my youth are a distant blur, i remember like it was yesterday lying alone in the dark in that most dark of years, radio on, hearing for the first time the opening lines of this song
there's a light,and knowing, even at the tender age of twelve, exactly what those goddam bee gees meant.
a certain kind of light,
that's never shone on me
twenty years later, jimmy somerville would come outta left field with a reggae version of this same song that shouldn't work at all but is one of my favorite covers of all time.
if you know, you already know. if you don't, get shitfaced by whichever means you prefer, click on the link i've conveniently provided below, turn up the volume and listen twenty or thirty times until you've achieved the necessary level of enlightenment.
or maybe that's just the way i listen to music.
6 comments:
Ah, Jimmy Somerville. His version of "To Love Somebody" is on his greatest hits album...along with the definitive Somerville classic, "Smalltown Boy."
I never pictured you to be a big Bee Gees fan, but I'll run with it. I guess this song touched you in a way that "Stayin Alive" never did.
Unrequited love makes for a great song.
But, the songs that always spoke to me were ones of self-definition (naturally Smalltown Boy was perfect because it basically told the story of my life).
But, my favorite lyrics of all time are these lines (verse two if you're paying attention):
When I was a very small boy,
Very small boys talked to me
Now that we've grown up together
They're afraid of what they see
That's the price that we all pay
Our valued destiny comes to nothing
I can't tell you where we're going
I guess there was just no way of knowing. . .
Bonus points if you can instantly name the group and song and were around when it was first released (and I have a Boriak story on that one to boot).
Google it if you must...
noblesavage: actually, i've generally liked the bee gees more often than not during their long career, but i'm especially fond of this song.
and not because i was suffering from unrequited love when i first heard it, but because (a) i think it's a gorgeous song, and (b) those first 3 lines hit me so hard--this was when the depression was first coming home to roost, and that's exactly the way i felt (and, in many ways, still do).
as for the new order song you mention--did you know that its fourth line was originally "they're all taking drugs with me", but their handlers decided that was a little too strong?
Well, my good friend Jonathan played Banarama's "Moving On" endless when he was getting over unrequited love...I think it was helpful, but not entirely successful.
I would play "The Winner Takes It All" from Abba when getting over a certain Texan. I played that song more times than I care to remember.
As for the Bee Gees, "Too Much Heaven" is perhaps my favorite song because no straight man should be able to hit those notes.
And as for New Order, when I used to live up in Northern California, the modern rock station would do a countdown of the top modern rock songs and damn if True Faith was always the top song. It defined a sound and a message...at least it did for me and I think a lot of others.
Depression is a jealous partner. It hates to see you with anyone else. So perhaps unrequited love songs are best.
I did not know about the original version, but I like it a lot. It kinda fits in with the scene too.
i got nothing.
not in the mood to post mushy girl shit.
so...are you gonna talk about mary travers' death or what?
noblesavage: somehow it's not hard for me to picture you sitting erect and alone in the dark, tears streaming down your noble visage, listening over and over to "the winner takes it all."
judi: yeah, but after all the trouble i took in putting this post together, what did you think of the goddam song?
and you want mary travers, you say? i'll give you some mary travers--hell, i live to serve.
the damn song is lovely, mikey.
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