Category Archives: 1970s songs

The best 500 songs from the 1970s. Meanings, lyrics and interpretations from your favorite seventies artists. Fleetwood, The Eagles, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Queen and all your favorite 70s artists ranked.

1970s songs, infatuation

#182 Never Going Back Again- Fleetwood Mac

Leave a comment

She broke down and let me in/
Made me see where I’ve been.

“Never Going Back Again” is a Lindsay Buckingham song from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Some of his work on that album is quite contentious due to his fallout with Stevie Nicks. However, the lyrics in this song are playful and optimistic about a new love. He is hopeful he will not repeat the same mistakes that have damaged his past relationships. He’s “never going back again”.

Never Going Back Again meaning
Fleetwood

All that guitar work is Lindsay on one guitar. It is ridiculous. It sounds like there are several being used, or some sort of overdub, but no. The girls provide some slight harmonies for the song and those sound nice, but they are used sparsely.

This song is a big contrast to the other songs on the album that are highly produced, dark and with contentious lyrics about breakups and dreary commentaries on love (in the best way!).

Never Going Back Again Lyrics

She broke down and let me in.
Made me see where I’ve been.

Been down one time,
Been down two times,
I’m never going back again.

You don’t know what it means to win.
Come down and see me again.

Been down one time,
Been down two times,
I’m never going back again.

written by Lindsay Buckingham

1970s songs, songs about exes

#177 If You See Her Say Hello- Bob Dylan

Leave a comment

She might think that I’ve forgotten her/
Don’t tell her it isn’t so.

Bob Dylan is one of the biggest hard-asses of all-time. In “If You See Her, Say Hello” we see a different side of him. He seems regretful of a lost love—though he never comes right out and says that. He speaks of this woman quite tenderly, and we can tell that he misses her.  Compare this with other songs about women in which is downright scornful like Just Like A Woman, You’re A Big Girl Now or It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.

If You See Her Say Hello Meaning
Dylan

In “If You See Her, Say Hello” he is speaking with a friend that he and his ex had in common. He says to say “hello” to her and to look me up, but don’t make it seem like I am too eager. Dylan was prideful. We all are.

This is from Dylan’s album Blood on the Tracks, which may be his best album. There are several different versions of this song you can check out, all of them good. The one from The Bootleg Series might be the best as it is a little faster paced and more striped down, but the album version is great too. Dylan’s voice sounds good here, and the mandolin is mixed in to make the song feel more solemn.

If You See Her Say Hello Lyrics

If you see her, say hello
She might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring
Is livin’ there, I hear
Say for me that I’m all right
Though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her
Don’t tell her it isn’t so

We had a falling-out
Like lovers often will
And to think of how she left that night
It still brings me a chill
And though our separation
It pierced me to the heart
She still lives inside of me
We’ve never been apart

If you get close to her
Kiss her once for me
I always have respected her
For doin’ what she did and gettin’ free
Oh, whatever makes her happy
I won’t stand in the way
Though the bitter taste still lingers on
From the night I tried to make her stay

I see a lot of people
As I make the rounds
And I hear her name here and there
As I go from town to town
And I’ve never gotten used to it
I’ve just learned to turn it off
Either I’m too sensitive
Or else I’m gettin’ soft

Sundown, yellow moon
I replay the past
I know every scene by heart
They all went by so fast
If she’s passin’ back this way
I’m not that hard to find
Tell her she can look me up
If she’s got the time

written by Bob Dylan

1970s songs, new love

#173 The First Time I Saw Your Face- Roberta Flack

Leave a comment

The first time ever I kissed your mouth/
I felt the earth move in my hand/

“The First Time I Saw Your Face” has an amazing history. It was written in 1957 as a folk song. It sounded good, but very different from Roberta Flack’s version. It was not popular. In 1972 Flack covered the song, blew the song away and made this song a huge success. It is one of the best performances by a female vocalist of all-time.

The First Time Ever Saw Your Face Meaning
Roberta flack

The style of her vocal sounds undoubtedly hers, but she has more in common with female singers from the late 60s than with what was going on in the early 70s. Aspiring female singers study this vocal performance. Note her pace. It is slow, but due to her delivery we are awaiting to hear what she says next. She does one minor vocal run—even though we sense the power of her voice and her obvious ability to do more. And she minimizes vibrato; she uses it tastefully and sparely.

The production is interesting. The loudest instrument is the bass, but overall, most of the instruments are quiet. This puts a lot of emphasis on Flack’s voice. This is the right choice when you have that voice! The use of piano and strings are very well done.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face Lyrics

The first time ever I saw your face,
I thought the sun rose in your eyes,
And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the endless skies.

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand.
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command my love.

And the first time ever I lay with you,
I felt your heart so close to mine.
And I knew our joy would fill the earth,
And last till the end of time my love.

The first time ever I saw your face
Your face, your face

written by Ewan Mccoll