http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment...article/587675
UN-VALENTINES
Songs in the key of heartache
The (Anti-Valentine's) Anti-Hit List
The week's top 10 list and podcast.
Did yesterday not go well for you? Let musicians recommend tunes for the lovelorn
Feb 15, 2009 04:30 AM
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Sofi Papamarko
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Everyone loves to sing songs about love; saccharine sentiments are a dime a dozen on the radio. He saw her standing there. She'll never let him go. Together forever, we two. But all too often, lovey-dovey dreaminess screeches to a halt ... and then what? When seemingly endless love morphs into heartbreak, simmering resentment or just sheer boredom, a song is sometimes the only artefact left behind in the gory trail of passion's wake. Is it really better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? We asked a diverse group of musicians to tell us their favourite anti-love song or album. Here are their picks for music that gives love a bad name:
Jay Ferguson (Sloan):
"I'm Not In Love" by 10cc. A very cruel song lyrically that, in contrast, musically floats along on the softest of soft rock clouds. It doesn't seem that love ever existed within the song's situation. The singer is not angry or disillusioned or passionate one way or the other. It's even worse; he's completely indifferent. "I'd like to see you, but then again/That doesn't mean you mean that much to me." Savage.
Nancy Sinatra:
"You're Breakin' My Heart" by Harry Nilsson, because it says it all in one sentence.
José Contreras (By Divine Right):
"Good Morning Heartache" by Billie Holliday kept me company when I was a young, broken-hearted art student. You wake up and suddenly comes the realization, the doom, that you're back in this life, this world, without your lover. That's what the song is about; how the heartache keeps coming back every morning. "Good morning heartache/Here we go again." In a way, it's also the realization of being an adult. You're scarred now. You're broken. You're alone. Proceed.
Alison Goldfrapp:
P.J. Harvey did quite a good one. It was probably one of her early ones, I think, when she still had hairy legs and hairy armpits, but I can't remember (the name of) it. Martha Wainwright does one, doesn't she? "Bloody Mother F---ing A–hole," that's quite funny. Someone told me that it's about her dad. It's pretty cold. And it's very basic. And that's what I quite like about it.
Jill Barber:
I recently came across a classic anti-love song called "Who's Sorry Now?" by Connie Francis. It is a remorseless and deceptively sweet swear-off of a former lover. It is so delicious and clever that it actually inspired me to try writing my own anti-love song, called "Leaving You," which turned out to be the most upbeat song on (Chances), and the perfect antidote to all the unabashedly romantic songs I write.
Shad:
"I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt is a monster of a sad love song. I looked up the song credits on the internet a couple weeks ago (nerd) and it turns out it was written by an ex Pro-Bowl football player ... that's a bit of Pop Up Video info for you there. And I think the keys were played by Bruce Hornsby.
Laura Barrett:
"Sweet, Rich, Beautiful, Mine" by the Rheostatics. So cynical and abrasive, and sung by a couple of people who were romantically involved at the time!
A.C. Newman:
I think Gordon Lightfoot has written some of the best anti-love songs. Like "That's What You Get For Lovin' Me." But my favourite one is "I'm Not Saying" ... before Nico joined the Velvet Underground, she did a single, which was a cover of "I'm Not Sayin'." "I'm not sayin' I'll be true/But I'll try." I always thought it was brilliant. It sounds like a love song, but it's not.
Joel Plaskett:
My favourite anti-love song is "Change of Heart" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It's a great tune about love gone sour in a relationship that's been pushed to the breaking point. When he sings, "You never needed me/You only wanted me around/It gets me down" he channels some really wicked negative energy. So good that it makes me wanna break up just so I can listen to it and rock out legitimately.
Wanda Jackson:
Those kind of songs are on every album, aren't they? But I do have a favourite. Ray Charles, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. It's from the early `60s or late `50s. He was the first one to use orchestras and everything. And then with his blues and his piano ... it's just the greatest album. If I could only take one with me on the desert island, you know, I'd have this one.
un-valentines-songs in the key of heartache
