| Jim Steinman on You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' | |
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Posted by: |
Niklas 01:51 pm UTC 10/22/08 |
| Hi! This is form Music Week; 6/4/2005, p8-8, maybe "old" news... hm, who said Spector is strange? Subject: What is your favourite lyric?: some first thoughts Jim Steinman on You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' "I've given this a lot of thought but what I think is the single best lyric in the whole of recorded history is definitely You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. I don't even want to talk about the brilliance of the production, which is all about Phil Spector's genius, and all the other little details (like how many songs are there that start with no intro?). That's all amazing in itself. But what I find astounding about You've Lost That Lovin' Feeiin' is that, and I don't know if the writers Mann and Weill were aware of this - and it doesn't matter if they were or not –but the most extraordinary thing about the song is the opening line. It goes: "You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips. And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips." Now, what's brilliant there is the first line: "You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips". What does that mean? It means his eyes are open the whole time. This is a territory of total betrayal, immediately established and so effortlessly. All he's been doing is watching her, because his eyes are open. So there's an almost Pinter-esque lack of trust and suspicion and it's done so effortlessly that no-one even thinks about it. Then you take it a little further along: "Now there's welcome look in your eyes when I reach for you. And you're startin' to criticize little things I do. It makes me just feel like crying baby 'cause baby, something's beautiful's dying." Basically, I think it's a stalking song. I think he's killing her. I absolutely think it's one of the most brilliant lead-ups to a murder without mentioning it. That makes it brilliant because (1) it's a great record and (2) those lyrics are not at all normal pop lyrics. I always want to yell at people, "You never close your eyes any more when I kiss your lips" - how does he know that? It's because he's got his eyes open. She's in desperate trouble. Call 911! That's how that song affects me and that's how it sounds. The echo is so brilliant, it's like it was recorded in the chamber of a human heart. It’s the sound of a guy going mad." | |
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