Since my last post, I’ve been trying to sort my head out. A lot is happening in my life right now – a lot of transitioning, growing and expectations; mainly from others around me, but also of what I expect of myself. Sometimes it can all get a bit too much, so what I like to do is dim the lights, sit back and listen to my records.
Unfortunately, my record collection has wavered over the last few weeks. I find myself so enthralled in the idea of finding undiscovered albums and songs that match the quality of classics like ‘Pet Sounds’ by The Beach Boys, ‘Rubber Soul’ by The Beatles, ‘Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina’ by The Left Banke… but alas, it seemed as if my expedition through the sixties was beginning to take its toll on me.
Finding new songs and artists is made easier by Youtube’s recommendation system. One click on a familiar video will bring various thumbnails on the sidebar of videos that are of a similar taste, in a sense. Personally, it has done wonders for me and makes me wonder how the system is so accurate.
The other day I stumbled across a little gem of a song (using the recommendation system) called, ‘Always You‘. Now, baroque rock holds a special place in my heart, and hearing this song was like love at first sight; it was right up my alley!
To give you a little insight to the feelings I had at the time, I was completely taken aback by the first 16 seconds of the song which featured long, soft, crying violins. After this, a trumpet starts to accompany the violins, but contrasts perfectly with the tone, keeping a soft sort-of eloquence to it. It is then that the vocals kick in, and pretty much every other instrument, so it hit me pretty hard – we’re no longer being introduced to the setting, but riding it in such a short amount of time.
A little background behind the song… It was performed in 1967 (one of the good years) by a band called The Sundowners. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard their name before because they’re practically unheard of, to the extent where their wikipedia page only consists of one paragraph, which also pretends it’s the band’s entire biography. Kinda sad really, but anyway, they only released one album in 1968, which had the song in it. Due to the 1 year gap between the song and the album, it’s no surprise that it seems completely out of its element, with the other songs, not being terrible, but completely undeserving to be accompanying the band’s only mildly successful single.
This is honestly one of the greatest songs I’ve heard in a long time. The progression, the orchestration, the lyrics, the pace, the lyrics, the tone, the lyrics…
I’m sorry, did I mention the lyrics?
They’re very simple lyrics and easy to interpret. It’s basically about a man/woman who feels so attached to their lover/friend that everything else becomes irrelevant and non-threatening.
Verse 1:
“In a world so full of people who
All have nothing to say
In a world where it’s almost the rule
To be hateful, ungrateful and cruel” So, the first verse basically cements the character’s view of the world, that everything is full of people who don’t say anything meaningful, in a world that somewhat, in a sense, dictates how people should be feeling, which is “hateful, ungrateful and cruel”. This is a pretty common and easy thing for people to relate to. I, myself, find that society is only regurgitating the same tripe that I just cannot be bothered to deal with in any enthusiastic way. I also believe that our world is cruel and hateful, and still has a long way to go, but the verse basically just releases that constant undercover of irritation and despair we have of the mainstream and public policy. And before I go on, I’d just like to say that the format doesn’t follow the traditional format, since the chorus is never the same and changes a little, but we’ll still refer to it as the chorus (I’ll just number them to reduce confusion). Chorus 1: “I don’t think I’d make it I couldn’t take it Ah, but there’s always you Thank God there’s you” Isn’t it refreshing to see the word ‘God’ being used in a song. Nowadays it’s controversial, which really does bother me. The chorus just shows how dependent the character is on his/her partner, showing possible suicidal elements, similar to ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys. I’m not going to analyse all of it. I will say that I made a video with the song in the background. It basically just features (mainly Disney) cartoon characters from film and television that I thought of when listening to the song. I don’t know why they popped into my head; maybe my reliance on these characters (when I was little) was so strong or something. Until next time… Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wIku8tbPxU
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