Sunday, February 15, 2015

I Want You

THC was going to post this for Valentines Day but decided it would be a little too intense, scaring off a lot of potential valentines and you'd be advised to be extremely wary about any who chose to stick around.  Deranged and obsessive, the scariest love song you will ever hear.  Composed by Elvis Costello.  Sung, or performed if you will, by Fiona Apple (one of the Youtube comments accurately describes her as "like Sissy Spacek in Carrie"; check out the look at 6:53) with Elvis on guitar and Steve Naive on keyboards . . .  there's a strange chill hanging in the air.
Oh my baby, baby, I love you more than I can tell
I don't think I can live without you and I know that I never will
Oh my baby, baby, I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than I love you, everything else is a waste of breath

I want you, you've had your fun, you don't get well no more
I want you, your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful, darling, you might fall

I want you, I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you, you said, "Young man, I do believe you're dying"
I want you, if you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
I want you, you can look in my eyes and you can count the ways

I want you, did you mean to tell me but seem to forget?
I want you, since when were you so generous and inarticulate?
I want you, it's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for

I want you, it's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you, he tossed some tattered compliment your way
I want you and you were fool enough to love it when he said, "I want you"

I want you, the truth can't hurt you, it's just like the dark
It scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark
I want you, go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop
I want you, I'm afraid I won't know where to stop

I want you, I'm not ashamed to say, "I cried for you"
I want you, I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you, I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you, I might as well be useless for all it means to you

I want you, did you call his name out as he held you down?
I want you, oh no, my darling, not with that clown, I want you
I want you, you've had your fun, you don't get well no more

I want you
I want you

I want you, every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you, I'm going to say it once again 'til I instill it
I am goin', goin' feel this way until you kill it

I want you
I want you
I want you

1 comment:

  1. I really like this song, especially the angry woman version. I think the opposition between the introduction & the main song is about the deceptions that love poetry plays on lovers. So the song is about realism--about shamelessly saying how ugly the ugly truth is. But of course it beautifies the ugly truth! It gives vengeance to traduced lovers & that not only takes sides in lovers' quarrels, but also adds art to jealousy. This is really weird: You would think this is an experience silly people need to have, vicariously, so they're not so silly about love. But would they at all care? But people who would care & to whom this speaks are likely to be made worse by it: It puts a lot of work into evoking their worst mood & making it impossible to abandon it without abandoning themselves or the part of themselves that's now glorified by Costello & Miss Fiona Apple.

    By the way, I didn't think it was creepy--I thought it was desperate, if bitter, rather than threatening. Also, endearing in a way--there's not only helplessness but a genuine caring about someone, noticing things which only love gives people eyes to notice, even if they'd prefer being blind...

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