1990s songs, heartbreak

#140 Unbreak My Heart- Toni Braxton

Don’t leave me here with these tears/
Come and kiss this pain away.

“Unbreak My Heart” by Toni Braxton is an epic breakup song that gets looked over in the “best of” lists because of its soft rock label. However, this Braxton and Warren combination might be the finest work of both of their careers.

We really feel like Braxton is singing about her own breakup; she has made the song her own. We feel the pain in her voice. She delivers a great performance and doesn’t go too overly-diva in the vocal runs department. She is pretty restrained. Which is good.

“Unbreak My Heart” is beautifully written and produced and it sounds great. A lot of that comes from the quality of the song. The song is well crafted and has a great melody and verse. Production makes some unique choices that help make the song like the nylon string guitar solo, and the hand-clapping (or is that snapping?) for the percussion in the first half of the song.

Unbreak My Heart Lyrics

Don’t leave me in all this pain
Don’t leave me out in the rain
Come back and bring back my smile
Come and take these tears away
I need your arms to hold me now
The nights are so unkind
Bring back those nights when I held you beside me

Un-break my heart
Say you’ll love me again
Undo this hurt you caused
When you walked out the door
And walked out of my life
Un-cry these tears
I cried so many nights
Un-break my heart
My heart

Take back that sad word goodbye
Bring back the joy to my life
Don’t leave me here with these tears
Come and kiss this pain away
I can’t forget the day you left
Time is so unkind
And life is so cruel without you here beside me

Un-break my heart
Say you’ll love me again
Undo this hurt you caused
When you walked out the door
And walked out of my life
Un-cry these tears
I cried so many nights
Un-break my heart

Don’t leave me in all this pain
Don’t leave me out in the rain
Bring back the nights when I held you beside me

Un-break my heart
Say you’ll love me again
Undo this hurt you caused
When you walked out the door
And walked out of my life
Un-cry these tears
I cried so many, many nights
Oh, un-break my

Un-break my heart, oh baby
Come back and say you love me
Un-break my heart, sweet darlin’
Without you I just can’t go on
Can’t go on

Say that you love me, say that you love me
Tell me you love me, un-break my
Say that you love me, say that you love me
Tell me you love me, un-break my

written by Dianne Warren

1970s songs, unrequited love

#139 Helplessly Hoping- CSNY

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Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams, he worries
Did he hear a goodbye?
Or even hello?

“Helplessly Hoping” is another song by Steven Stills about his (somewhat unrequited) love for Judy Collins. Suite Judy Blue Eyes is another great famous song about their relationship. In Helplessly Hoping, he sees himself as almost an afterthought to her—even though their lives seem to fit together quite well—at least in his mind. At one point he refers to himself as a harlequin to her—cheap entertainment. But in the chorus, he sees a life where they fit together perfectly.

Will she start to see things the way he does? The answer is no, as we can see in the above quote. While he is spending a lot of time and energy consoling her of her bad dreams, he is still not getting anything back from her. Did she ever say goodbye? Was there anything even there to begin with?

“Helplessly Hoping” is a classic Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song: the strength is in the songwriting and the harmonies. The guitar work is also quite good, but the harmonies are what really blow you away. Note that the whole song is sung in harmony. That is not a technique you hear often. The reason is that it is hard. This requires amazing discipline and also putting your ego aside a bit, as there is no true lead singer. CSN did this better than CSNY mainly due to the fact that Young’s voice was so distinctive that he would often sing lead.

Helplessly Hoping Lyrics

Helplessly hoping
Her harlequin hovers nearby,
Awaiting a word.
Gasping at glimpses
Of gentle true spirit
He runs, wishing he could fly.
Only to trip at the sound of good-bye.

Wordlessly watching,
He waits by the window
And wonders
At the empty place inside.
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams
He worries.
Did he hear a good-bye? Or even hello?

They are one person;
They are two alone.
They are three together;
They are four each other.

Stand by the stairway,
You’ll see something
Certain to tell you confusion has its cost.
Love isn’t lying
It’s loose in a lady who lingers,
Saying she is lost,
And choking on hello.

written by Stephen Stills

1970s songs, story songs

#138 The Weight- The Band

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To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one.
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone.

The Band’s “The Weight” is an unlikely hit. It isn’t really a hit, but it does get a lot of radio play on classic rock stations these days. The song is about someone named Fanny who sends the narrator around the town of Nazareth seemingly to run some errands. He is trying to help out his friend. The narrator meets several folks along the way—most of them usually have a minor favor to ask of him:

Take a load off Fanny
Take a load for free…

And it’s “off Fanny” not “off Anny”.

I mean, since he’s helping out Miss Fanny, would he mind feeding Chester’s dog? Pretty soon, what became an errand run becomes a whole affair of helping the whole town out. The moral of the story? Don’t do anything nice for anyone or people will look at you like a sucker and soon you’ll be doing things for everyone. No good deed goes unpunished.

The Band is unique in that they are able to make their songs sound about a hundred years older than they really are. The effect that has is that the songs feel like they are a greater part of our collective consciousness like “This Land is My Land” is. But that is just their unique sound.

Levon Helm has that unique voice that creates a lot of “The Weight’s” sound, but it is also the lazy pace of their music. You don’t picture any of the characters in a song by The Band ever in a hurry. They’re old-school. One of the more interesting aspects of their music is their loose harmonies. It sounds good, but some of the singers will start and stop words whenever in suits them. It helps create that lackadaisical vibe. The Band’s “The Weight” is a feel good song that almost all can enjoy.

The Weight Lyrics

I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead.
I just need some place where I can lay my head.
Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?
He just grinned and shook my hand, “no, ” was all he said.

Take a load off, Fanny.
Take a load for free,
Take a load off, Fanny.
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me.
(You put the load right on me).

I picked up my bag, I went lookin’ for a place to hide.
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin’ side by side.
I said, hey, Carmen, come on let’s go downtown.
She said, “I gotta go, but my friend can stick around”.

Take a load off, Fanny.
Take a load for free,
Take a load off, Fanny.
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me.
(You put the load right on me).

Go down, Miss Moses, there’s nothin’ you can say.
It’s just ol’ Luke and Luke’s waitin’ on the Judgment Day.
Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee.
He said, do me a favor, son, won’t you stay and keep Anna Lee company?

Take a load off, Fanny.
Take a load for free.
Take a load off, Fanny.
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me.
(You put the load right on me).

Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog.
He said, I will fix your rack, if you’ll take Jack, my dog.
I said, wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man.
He said, that’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can?

Yeah, take a load off, Fanny.
Take a load for free.
Take a load off, Fanny.
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me.
(You put the load right on me).

Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line.
My bag is sinkin’ low and I do believe it’s time.
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one.
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone.