Heartbreaks
A songwriter's seam of gold
I’m not sure if anyone ever did any definitive research into the data, however I think it’s safe to assume that every songwriter from anywhere, from any time, at any point in their career wrote much more than one heartbreak. In fact a significant percentage of their work probably fell somehow into this genre, which has many sub-genres, that depend upon the flavour and phase of the breakup, including…
It’s over (‘Last Goodbye’ by Jeff Buckley)
Sorry (‘Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word’ by Elton John and Bernie Taupin)
Sad, rejected and I want you back (‘Stay’ by Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko)
Bitter, depressed (‘Back to Black’ by Amy Winehouse)
Angry and vengeful (‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morissette; ‘Picture to Burn’ by Taylor Swift; & ‘Smile’ by Lily Allen)
In the thick of it, quietly heartbroken (‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ by Bill Withers)
This is not part of the plan, I don’t understand? I love you… (‘Nights in White Satin’ by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues)
I’m still in love (‘I'm Still in Love with You’ by Al Green)
Heartbroken, yet thankful to be moving on (‘Maggie May’ by Rod Stewart)
Can we fix it? It’s doubtful (‘Suspicious Minds’ by Mark James, made famous by Elvis Presley)
I can’t live with you, or without you (‘With or without you’ by Bono / U2 — NB this is also definitely a love song)
So over it and f**k you (‘Since U Been Gone’ by Kelly Clarkson)
Over it and reflective (‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor; & ‘Faith’ by George Michael)
I’ll never be over U, ever (‘Nothing Compares 2 U" by Prince, made even more famous by Sinéad O'Connor)
Poetically philosophical and goodbye (‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’ by Bob Dylan)
And many more…
There are quite literally thousands of heartbreaks, and obviously it’s because it’s one of the most universally common experiences. We all get it. There may only be one other genre whose repertoire is bigger than heartbreaks, and that’s love songs.
My personal favourite is the iconic ‘Ain’t no sunshine’ by Bill Withers. It quite simply simple genius. There’s nothing complex about the arrangement, the chords, the melody, or the words, they are all basic. However to combine them the way Bill Withers does in this beyond melancholic, never gonna be over her heartbreak, is the work of a master craftsman, who created this masterpiece just by painfully revealing his most private emotions. For many of us his experiential honesty resonates deeply.
And of course there is the confessional intrigue side of heartbreaks. So many in the spotlight celebrity singer-songwriters who split with their partners (often but not always also singer-songwriters and/or famous) then mined the rich seams of their emotional turmoil in search of precious lyrical golden nuggets. So beware any of you out their contemplating dating a songwriter, your future breakup could become the stuff of legend. There’s far too many examples to mention, however just a few to make the point:
‘Layla’ by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon (about Clapton’s love for his now ex-wife Pattie Boyd, who at the time of writing Layla was still the wife of one of his close friends, the Beatle George Harrison)
‘You’re so vain’ by Carly Simon (a composite about at least three of her ex-lovers, one confirmed as being Warren Beatty featured in verse two)
‘Becky’s So Hot’ by Fletcher et al. (it’s not about her ex-girlfriend, YouTuber Shannon Beveridge, it’s about Shannon’s current girlfriend who really is called Becky, and she’s a wrestler… it’s complicated… almost as complicated as the seemingly ever-expanding acronym LBGTQA+ and its list of associated personal pronouns… the song has recently been hotly debated, because social media now adds a new strand to the dynamic between songwriters, their muses, and their fans, territory that is not yet totally explored and charted in terms of privacy, online crowd shaming, and cyberbullying etc)
‘Dreams’ by Stevie Nicks (about her Fleetwood Mac bandmate and ex-lover Lindsey Buckingham)
‘Dear John’ by Taylor Swift (about her brief relationship with John Mayer)
‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ by Taylor Swift (allegedly yet another one about Harry Stiles)
‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, ‘The Winner Takes It All’, ‘One of Us’ and ‘When All Is Said and Done’ all by ABBA, all about the band-members’ divorces from one another.
‘Easy on Me’ by Adele (written for her son, the song explains her breakup with his father, Simon Konecki)
‘River’ and ‘My Old Man’ by Joni Mitchell, from her legendary ‘Blue’ album (These two songs are allegedly about Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash wrote ‘Letter to Cactus Tree’ about Mitchell which references her alleged affair with Leonard Cohen. Neil Young wrote ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ for his friend Graham Nash after Mitchell, having just accepted his marriage proposal, then broke up with him by telegram.)
Much has been written about all the songs and songwriters herein mentioned. Their private lives and those of the (ex)partners have been exposed, pawed over and scrutinised. Many writers of such confessional heartbreaks have been subjected to accusations in court (usually unsuccessfully) of illegally defaming their muses. The music of these heartbreaks has been repeatedly analysed and dissected. Their lyrics too. There’s not a hell of a lot more I could add, apart from maybe my own personal take on a musical analysis of a heartbreak or two (and perhaps at some point I’ll get to that).
What I will say is that if I had to make a top ten list of my own favourite heartbreaks, well, for sure you’d all know nine of them, they’re all hall of famers. However one of them I’m almost sure most people have never heard of, yet I’d put in my top three. The lyrics are genius, the earthy observations within them are spot on. The music is perfect. The performance is totally on the money, flawless and captivating.
In fact this classic heartbreak, which was first released in April 2004, has hardly any online footprint. There’s one (quite sketchy) live performance of it on YouTube. The lyrics and chords are hardly listed on any relevant platforms (and what I found, relating to guitar chords, was inaccurate and probably the work of a bot). There are no reviews that I can find. And I could not find it on Spotify.
I knew about the song because its writer did an impromptu one-nighter at a music venue I worked in years ago in Brighton. We booked so many acts into this little fifty-seater basement club/bar, there was some kind of music or comedy event there every night of the week, all year round, and quite often we took last minute bookings if someone interesting came along into town. There was this Australian guy doing a whistle-stop tour of small venues around the UK. I had no idea who he was, but his face (in the promo photo) looked familiar. I’d spent quite a bit of time in Australia some years before, so I decided to mention it to a friend of mine (a musician who had also been living in Sydney). I showed him the photo. He nearly fell off his chair. “That’s Tim Rogers!!!”
Still none the wiser, I said “Who?”
“It’s the lead-singer and main songwriter from You Am I.”
Even though the last time I was in Australia I’d spent maybe six months in Sydney, I was still none the wiser, but apparently during the mid-nineties they were almost as well known in Australia as Vegemite, and up there with INXS and Michael Hutchence in terms of Australian rock legend status.
So why on earth was this Aussie household name looking for gigs in tiny venues in England? That’s a whole other story. The night I saw him perform solo on our tiny stage with an acoustic guitar was a folk-rock night to remember. He cried. So did many in the audience. And, I, not known for outward displays of emotion, welled-up. His presence was spellbinding.
I spoke with him briefly afterwards and somehow later found myself fan-like clutching his most recent CD-album, Spit Polish. Later that’s where I found and came bewitched by ‘Some Fella’s Heartbreaker’. In a future post perhaps I’ll delve into the detail of why for me this song is so great. For sure that would include dissecting the witty lyric in terms of Australia’s deep and authentic continuation of an Irish folk music story-telling heritage. There would be something about the sparse yet ingenious recording production, in particular the tremolo bass part. And then there’s that haunting Locrianesque tune, and those shape-shifting chord changes (it’s in a major key, isn’t it, yet it constatntly seems to lean … just what is going on?
For now here’s this perfect three-minute song in all it’s glory and simplicity.
Please note: I have another infotainment channel on Substack, called Unleashed & Unlimited, where I post podcasts, articles and content unrelated to music.🖋🎥🎙