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Love
Stinks! OK, no more
Mr. Nice Guy. Love may be a many splendored thing, but we've all been royally screwed
by that little bastard, Cupid. Sometimes love stinks, and there's some great music to
accompany that, too. The J.Geils
Band may have said it most succinctly, but the CD's below dedicate their entire
being to the dark side of romance. Alone on Valentine's Day? Load that revolver,
and listen one of these.
 Patsy
Cline is here for one reason: one of my coworkers said she
was the artist most commonly found on the stereo at the scene of female suicides.
Whether this is a reliable statistic or an urban legend, it speaks to the tragic
power of Patsy Cline's full-throated voice. "She's Got You," in particular,
is an unparalleled song of abject loneliness and hopelessness - the song most
likely
to be playing when the trigger is pulled, the pills are swallowed, or the razor
blade performs its dark magic. Heartaches (1985) includes "She's
Got You" plus
a handful of Patsy's most famous songs - many of which give voice to the romantically
unhinged ("Crazy," "I Fall to Pieces"). As compact discs
go, Heartaches
is pretty skimpy - just 12 songs- and in some ways it's just one of innumerable budget collections. But, it's built around the theme of lost love, so
it gets extra points for
effort. Plus, it serves our thesis well: sometimes love is deadly.
Long out-of-print, Heartaches is now available as an MP3 download. In the alternative, look for Patsy Cline Sings Songs of Love (1995) or True Love: A Standards Collection (2000). |
essential songs
Crazy (1961)
Heartaches (1962)
I Fall to Pieces (1961)
She's Got You (1962)
Sweet Dreams (1963)
Walkin' After Midnight (1957)
[top of page] |
 In
1970, Eric
Clapton was at the lowest point in his life, strung out
on smack and hopelessly in love with another man's wife (Beatle George Harrison's
then-spouse, Patti). At that crossroads, he recorded the two-LP set Layla
& Other Assorted Love Songs with a group of his friends under
the moniker of Derek
And The Dominos. The title song alone is worth the price - a howling plea
for requitement featuring the guitar interplay of Clapton and Duane
Allman followed by an amazing piano denouement from Bobby Whitlock. But, the rock
and blues that fill out the record further reveal Clapton's state of mind. "Why
Does Love Got To Be So Sad" says it all, but "Bell Bottom Blues," "Any
Day,"
"Have You Ever Loved A Woman," and "Nobody Knows You When You're
Down And Out" speak volumes, too. Clapton eventually cleaned up, got
the girl, and found God, resulting in another career highlight with 461
Ocean Boulevard (1974). (Patti and Eric later divorced, by the way.) But,
as is often the case, heartbreak made for better art than happiness, and Layla
stands as his crowning achievement. |
essential songs
Anyday (1970)
Bell Bottom Blues (1970)
I Looked Away (1970)
Keep on Growing (1970)
Layla (1970)
Little Wing (1970)
Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad? (1970)
[top of page]
|
 Why
does love go wrong? Usually, someone's got their hand in the cookie jar, metaphorically
speaking. Country crooner nonpareil Ray
Price cut an album all about it with The
Other Woman (1965). Country music, of course, makes cheating (along with
drinking) out to be something of a national pastime - so much so that both John
Anderson and Moe Bandy have recorded
cheating songs about cheating
songs ("She Just Started Liking Cheatin' Songs" and "I
Just Started Hating Cheatin' Songs Today," respectively). But, The
Other Woman raised the cheating song to high art. Price implores his
unfaithful lover, "Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me?" Then,
he explores the high price love exacts
on songs such as "Just Call Me Lonesome,"
and "Unwanted, Unloved." Also included is Price's definitive version
of Willie Nelson's magnum opus, "Funny How Time Slips Away." It's
a fitting end to Price's story - a sentimentally jaundiced look askance at an
old love affair.
(Though The
Other Woman was reissued on CD by Koch, it is now out-of-print and fetches
high prices on the collectors' market.) |
essential songs
Born to Lose (1965)
Don't You Ever Get Tired (Of Hurting Me) (1965)
Funny How Time Slips Away (1965)
The Other Woman (In My Life) (1965)
Rose-Colored Glasses (1965)
This Cold War With You (1965)
[top of page] |
 Shoot
Out The Lights is essentially the anatomy of a divorce - that of Richard
and Linda Thompson, who wrote and sang this modern masterpiece. The couple
have claimed later that such is not the case - the songs, they assert, were
written long before their
breakup. But, listen to it - you can practically hear the dishes breaking!
Or, as Rolling Stone pointed out when naming Shoot
Out The Lights one of their 500
Greatest Albums of All Time, the catchiest
song is called "Wall Of Death." Other titles bear marginally
sweeter sentiments like "Don't
Renege On Our Love," but
the real testimony is the anger, fear, and desperation of "Walking
On A Wire,"
or the horrible foreboding woven through the fearsome title track. Ain't love
grand? |
essential songs
Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed (1982)
Don't Renege On Our Love (1982)
Just The Motion (1982)
Shoot Out The Lights (1982)
Walking On A Wire (1982)
[top of page]
|
 I
had to include at least one item of local interest in my Valentine's
Day section
(Austin, Texas, being my hometown), and none is more (perversely) appropriate
than Songs
Of Forbidden Love. It's a tribute of sorts to the "cheating song" by
the Wandering
Eyes, a loose aggregation of Austin roots rock stalwarts, with
lead vocals shared by Ted Roddy, Dale Watson, Rosie Flores, Kelly Willis, and
others. Helmed
by Asleep At The Wheel drummer David Sanger, Songs
Of Forbidden Love consists mainly of country classics ("When She Does
Me Right, She Does You Wrong"), with a few non-country classics tossed
in ("Me
And Mrs. Jones). Ultimately, the CD makes betraying your lover sound fun and
oh-so-very tempting. Incidentally, Songs
Of Forbidden Love is dedicated to Mel Street, singer of such cheatin' anthems
as "Lovin' On Backstreets" and "Forbidden Angels" (both of
which are covered here) and who, somewhat predictably, committed suicide in 1978. |
essential songs
Forbidden Angel (Jason Roberts, 1998)
Hell Yes, I Cheated (Ted Roddy, 1998)
In Some Room Above The Street (Rosie Flores, 1998)
It's A Cheatin' Situation (Kelly Willis, 1998)
Lovin' On Backstreets (Dale Watson, 1998)
Me And Mr. Jones (Kelly Willis, 1998)
[top of page] |
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