Tag Archives: you

#940: John Lennon – Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)

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In 1974, an advertisement was made to promote the release of John Lennon’s forthcoming album, Walls and Bridges. His former bandmate but good friend Ringo Starr provided the voiceover, and two of Lennon’s new tracks were previewed. One being ‘Whatever Gets You thru the Night’, his first number one in the US, and today’s song, ‘Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)’. Decades later, I came across the latter through seeing the advert on YouTube, and that small clip left me wanting to hear the whole thing. So, I guess that commercial fulfilled its job.

‘Nobody Loves You’ encapsulates Lennon’s feelings and cynical takes he had garnered during his “Lost Weekend” period, a time when he was separated from Yoko Ono and spending his days drinking and getting high with his buddies in Los Angeles. He was ultimately depressed and lonely, but also let down by the critical and public reception of his then-latest music. He had given the world hope with the Beatles. He’d been at the forefront spreading the message of peace and love. He’d laid his soul bare countless times in previous albums. But the indifference in return at the time left he feeling cheated and disillusioned with the music industry. Probably why he decided to retire for a bit not so long after.

Lennon said that the track was one that Frank Sinatra could have sung. Listening to it, you can kind of see why. The tense strings and the smoky-nightclub-esque horn section provide the music this grand cinematic feel, and its crawling tempo lend a feel that the best of those iconic crooners could belt out a note to. Though funnily in a way, Lennon doesn’t go the ‘My Way’ route and instead sings the lyrics in a hushed and rather casual manner. The restraint makes it all the more harder when, after a sweet slide-guitar solo, the music rises with tempo and urgency and Lennon lets everything out on the “Well, I get up in the morning” section. That doesn’t last too long though. The music returns to that of the verses, and after the now quite chilling line “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground”, Lennon sends us off with some happy-go-lucky whistling. To think, had he not come back with a new record in 1980, this could have been his last original song on an album. It’s not a song to feel happy to when you’re listening, but it’s certainly relatable. Not in the way that we could see it from Lennon’s point of view as an almighty mega-rich superstar. But it ultimately distils a sense of loneliness and cynicism that all of us feel from time to time.

#905: Good Shoes – Never Meant to Hurt You

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Here’s another track by Good Shoes, one that like countless others throughout this series I got to know just by watching MTV2 in the morning. I’ve given something of a backstory as to how I came know the band’s music in the previous post I did concerning them, which greatly decreases the amount of words I’d have to write on here. Also allows me to talk more about the song. I’m by no means a professional, but I’ll try my best.

The track is the tale of a relationship where a girl is infatuated with the man she’s with while he just doesn’t feel the same. The narrator’s remorseful about the way things ended, wishing that things had been different, and trying to maintain the fact that with all that happened no harm was ever meant to be caused. It’s a sad subject. But together with the cutesy stop-motion music video and its general catchiness and urgent melodies, the melancholy tends to float under the radar a little. You can definitely sense a tinge of sadness though. That changes however when after that final instrumental break, the song ends with a joyous repetition of the title.

One thing I’ve noticed about Good Shoes is that there’s barely any bass in their songs, and as a result their tracks can sound very light and easy on the ears, and it also lets those little guitar licks stick out more too. That certain style suits this track perfectly, especially during those instrumental breaks that separates the choruses and verses. I also like singer Rhys Jones’ vocals on this. He pronounces and enunciates words in ways which I don’t think I’ve heard before. He’s not the greatest singer by any means, but there’s a lot of feeling behind it. That’s all you want really. Below’s the album version, which isn’t any different from the video above except that it has the word ‘fuck’ in it.

#792: They Might Be Giants – Madam, I Challenge You to a Duel

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Back in 2015, They Might Be Giants revived their iconic Dial-A-Song system, but delivered it in a very different way. Starting from the first week of January, the group released one new song every week. When they were done, the majority of the 52 songs were released on three albums: 2015’s Glean, Why?, and the following year’s Phone Power.

‘Madam’ was the second song in that 52-week run. It was an exciting time for a They Might Be Giants fan. I vaguely remember listening to the track on the day of its initial release thinking it was okay. It wasn’t until I gave Glean a full listen some time later that I truly appreciated it. Here’s a song in which John Flansburgh, who takes on this viewpoint of a very formal person, challenges a lady to a duel which you’re not really meant to do as a person of a high status. The band have always been good at building narrators up one way and then suddenly switching the narrative to make them look like terrible people.

This is a majorly piano-led track by the group, which is a bit rare for them. I think that’s what got to me when I originally heard it in 2015. Flansburgh sings with a breathy, kind of deep tone to his voice, which he would employ a lot of times on older albums, but I guess aging would affect your vocal range. The song just sounds good, you know? It’s like a soundtrack to a quaint ball, or something. Out of 910 songs on This Might Be a Wiki, the track is rated #488 by TMBG fans. That more or less categorises it as one of the average They songs. A bit unfair, I would say. I enjoy it a lot.

#778: The Beatles – Love You To

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The Beatles’ Revolver is an album that I’ve admired for so long now, it’s hard to recall when I had that ‘eureka!’ moment where I suddenly enjoyed each of its fourteen songs or even how I felt when I listened to the album for the first time. I know that I did go through it initially in 2009/10 when I was on my Beatles discovery phase, but I don’t think it was an album that struck me as a special one on the first listen. Through subsequent listens each track slowly became a lot clearer in terms of rhythm and melody and all that good stuff, but I have the feeling that George Harrison’s second song on the album ‘Love You To’ was one that I had to get my head around.

When listening to Revolver for any new Beatles follower, ‘Love You To’ will stick out immediately. Well, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ too, but definitely ‘Love’ because the band aren’t playing as a group. It’s more George Harrison and a lot of Indian musicians with Paul McCartney on backing vocal and Ringo Starr on the tambourine. It’s a real trip, but it’s merely a sign of the musical headspace Harrison was in at the time. He had fallen in love with the sitar and the music of India in general, and wrote this song in order to showcase his new interests. Experimentation with LSD may also have played a part in his new influences. It’s a song in the key of C and I’m sure that’s the only chord the song stays on throughout. That is known as a drone, for anyone who may be getting into music theory or something.

The song is of the the existential/philosophical type judging by its lyrics. Harrison, who was only 22 going on 23 when he wrote it, goes on to sing about how time’s going too quickly, how life is short and how people can be quick to take advantage of you if they get the chance. But while this is all going on, he just wants to make love as much as he can with the time he has. I’ve sometimes wondered why the track is titled ‘Love You To’; the phrasing doesn’t make sense and even so, the phrase doesn’t appear in the lyrics. If it was called ‘Love to You’ it would be a different story. Though I’ve realised now that it may be a play on the words ‘Love Me Do’, the very first Beatles single out only four years earlier. So strange but commendable how much the group changed it that time.

#753: The Hives – A Little More for Little You

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Hi there, followers. If you read this whole post until the end you will see a picture of the album that this track can be found on. That will then take you to an Amazon link where you will be able to buy that record, should you feel compelled to do so. I’m going to try and update every post on here so this can be done. I’m not sure whether I should direct them to vinyls, CDs, or MP3 downloads. I mean who listens to CDs nowadays? Please, to anyone reading who would be potentially interested, comment below and tell me which format you would prefer me to link to. Want to try and make this blog more interactive, you know? Thanks for your time. Now onto the song.*

In 2005, ‘A Little More for Little You’ was released as a single from The Hives’ third album Tyrannosaurus Hives. By that time the record had been out for more than a year, and I remember seeing the video for ‘Walk Idiot Walk’ when it was making its first wave on the television and not liking the song very much. So when ‘Little More’ arrived, I was surprised at how catchy and melodic the song was in comparison. (I do like ‘Walk Idiot Walk’ a lot now. A post on that will be done in the far future). The video for ‘Little More’, seen above, was shown quite regularly on MTV2. I wasn’t sure if it was a live performance or a studio recording; further ‘investigation’ showed that it was a mix of both, the banter and audience is live while the song is not.

I always liked ‘Howlin” Pelle Almqvist’s vocals on here. He’s always loose and wild in his delivery and it shows a lot throughout. What also got me into the track at that younger age was the dynamic between the busy verses and the strident choruses. In the verses, one guitar plays on the downbeat while the other plays on the upbeat which creates this jerky rhythm before coming together and playing the same chords in unison when the chorus comes in. I don’t know what it’s about. I’ve always like it sound and always sang along but never thought to look out for its meaning. That goes for a lot of songs that I first saw on TV fifteen years ago which I still listen to now. I don’t see any problem with it, though.

It turns out that The Hives filmed another video for the song. Whether it was before or after the one above, I’m not sure, but the big difference is the audio used was the track as it was first released on the album. I guess, at some point, the band members thought the track didn’t sound as good and could be made a lot better so they re-recorded it. I have to say I do prefer the single version a lot more, though you can hear it for yourself.

*25/08/2020 – I changed my mind about this quite quickly. You’ll find no album cover down here, but you can buy the song from Amazon via a click on the song’s title in the post.**

**15/06/2024 – Forget that footnote too.