Things are said one by one/
Before you know it’s all gone.

Todd Rundgren is no longer in love and he is trying to lessen the hurt while breaking up with his girlfriend. Things have changed but can we still be friends? Notice how he never says things are over or specifically makes a clear statement like “it is over between us”, he simply says it isn’t working out can we still be friends. It is kind of a cop-out line, and you wonder if Rundgren has any intention of remaining friends or if this is just a line to lessen the pain of a breakup. I think it is the latter.

Rundgren’s “Can We Still Be Friends” works because it sounds sad. Rundgren is capturing the sound of the sadness that occurs at the end of a relationship. He sounds defeated. Weary. He is a bit philosophical. And at the same time we never get the impression this was a great love, but it still hurts to end it. The sound is driven by the synthesizer: He mostly uses different settings on the synthesizer for different parts of the song, which is not something you hear often. Great background vocals too.

Can We Still Be Friends? Lyrics

We can’t play this game anymore, but
Can we still be friends?
Things just can’t go on like before, but
Can we still be friends?

We had something to learn
Now it’s time for the wheel to turn
Things are said one by one
Before you know it’s all gone

Let’s admit we made a mistake, but
Can we still be friends?
Heartbreak’s never easy to take, but
Can we still be friends?

It’s a strange sad affair
Sometimes seems like we just don’t care
Don’t waste time feeling hurt
We’ve been through hell together

La la la la, la la la la
Can we still be friends?
Can we still get together sometime?
We awoke from our dream

Things are not always what they seem
Memories linger on
It’s like a sweet sad old song

Songwriters: Todd Rundgren