Objective Breakup Songs

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Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Sunday, 13 May 2012 23:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

By objective, you mean analytical rather than weepy or accusatory?

Yes, I think so.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 14 May 2012 00:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

Knowing Me Knowing You is kind of the classic of this category, no?

Ari (whenuweremine), Monday, 14 May 2012 02:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Reels - I Don't Love You Anymore?

Afghan Whigs - What Jail Is Like, lol

┗|∵|┓ (sic), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Tom Rush and Ani diFranco songs are what I'm looking for, thanks.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 14 May 2012 03:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

ABBA too.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 14 May 2012 04:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hope you're not in the midst of an objective breakup.

clemenza, Monday, 14 May 2012 11:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

"She's Leaving", OMD

Euler, Monday, 14 May 2012 11:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

"One Less Set of Footsteps", Jim Croce

Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Monday, 14 May 2012 13:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Wire--I Should Have Known Better

kornrulez6969, Monday, 14 May 2012 17:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Eagles-Already Gone

One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Monday, 14 May 2012 17:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

Tame Impala's "It Is Not Meant To Be", kinda

caulk the wagon and float it, Monday, 14 May 2012 18:52 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hope you're not in the midst of an objective breakup.

Not in the midst, no, which makes it easier to start being objective.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 03:44 (1 year ago) Permalink

This pretty much owns the thread

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 04:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oops didn't remember the "Better call the calling off off" part. It's still a breakup song though, even if they decide to get back together ;-)

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 04:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Yardbirds - Knowing That I'm Losing You

and yes, this predates (and walks all over) the similar Led Zep tune, and is a stellar OBS.

also:
Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Bright Eyes feat. Emmylou Harris - "Landlocked Blues"
Chicago (!) - "Call On Me"
Feist - Let It Die
Rilo Kiley - "More Adventurous" ("with every broken heart we should become more adventurous"), and, well, "Breakin' Up"
The Byrds - "The World Turns All Around Her"

Lee626, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 08:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh and I know nobody here likes this band, but this is a great song:

I once knew a girl in the years of my youth
with eyes like the summer, all beauty and truth
but in the morning I fled, left a note and it read
"someday you will be loved"

I cannot pretend that I felt any regret
because each broken heart will eventually mend
and as the blood runs red down the needle and thread
someday you will be loved

you'll be loved, you'll be loved, like you never have known
and the memories of me will seem more like bad dreams
just a series of blurs like I never occurred
someday you will be loved

you may feel alone when you're falling asleep
and every time tears roll down your cheek
but I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
and someday you will be loved

you'll be loved, you'll be loved, like you never have known
and the memories of me will seem more like bad dreams
just a series of blurs like I never occurred
someday you will be loved

Lee626, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 08:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is an obvious but good one.

I actually didn't know that unreleased Yardbirds tune! Listening now, it just sounds like a demo for "Tangerine" to me. Maybe I need to give it some more listens.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

That was from their very last recording session, one of five new songs that may have been intended for a new album that never got made before the band broke up. The other four new songs were included on Cumular Limit released about 10 years ago, and "Knowing That I'm Losing You" was slated for inclusion too but apparently Jimmy Page threatened legal action and it was removed just before it was issued, but not before a few early demo copies slipped out. Keith Relf wrote the lyrics, including the "measuring a summer's day" verse that was the only lyric retained for "Tangerine", but wasn't given a songwriting credit. (Cumular Limit also includes a live take of "Dazed and Confused" which Page probably didn't want released either, but since the song was (properly) credited to Jake Holmes he couldn't wield any legal power to get that one removed).

Lee626, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 20:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

Keep 'em comin'!

I could use a playlist full of these right about now

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 09:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Billy Currington and Death Cab songs are not exactly what I'm looking for. Tbh, they seem more callous than objective/analytical to me. "Love Will Tear Us Apart", on the other hand, is completely OTM.

(Thanks for the Yardbirds info btw! I've heard a Yardbirds version of "Dazed and Confused". Maybe it's the one you're referring to.)

EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 18 May 2012 17:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Feist is harsh but very apt.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 18 May 2012 18:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

how is the billy currington song even remotely callous

of family bonds and individual triumph. Narrated by Tim Allen, (zachlyon), Friday, 18 May 2012 18:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, you're right. "Callous" was the wrong word. I'll try to sort out what I was thinking.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 18 May 2012 18:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

(Thanks for the Yardbirds info btw! I've heard a Yardbirds version of "Dazed and Confused". Maybe it's the one you're referring to.)

ah....

"Dazed and Confused", here still with the original lyrics intact, a breakup song but not an objective breakup song.

and the original version of the song, that so blew Page & Co. away when he opened a New York show for the Yardbirds in early 1967 that they bought this album the next day so they could learn to play it themselves:

"Love Will Tear Us Apart", on the other hand, is completely OTM

yeah that was the second song I thought of here, after "We Just Disagree" whose equanimity is unsurpassed amongst breakup songs.

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

how is the billy currington song even remotely callous

or the Death Cab song? "Callous" means "insensitive; indifferent; unsympathetic"; I hear the opposite of all of those in the lyrics

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, you're right. "Callous" was the wrong word. I'll try to sort out what I was thinking.

oops, that's why it's good to read the entire thread before posting....

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 18:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

So those songs are objective breakup songs and completely right for the thread, then. I guess that in my head, I was thinking of songs that are more analytical about the relationship and breakup than those ones seem to be to me.

I know Jake Holmes' "Dazed and Confused" really well. I might prefer it to the Led Zeppelin version, which is saying something. That Yardbirds version is really good.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 18 May 2012 20:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

That entire JH album is spectacular, btw

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 20:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

Something off Joni Mitchell's Blue, not sure which song fits best ("A Case of You"? Almost, but not quite). Likewise Dylan's Blood On The Tracks. "Tangled Up In Blue"?

Lee626, Friday, 18 May 2012 20:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

The Good Life's Album of the Year is filled with these, but "Inmates" is the most obvious example. It's essentially a nine-minute rebuttal to every breakup song Tim Kasher has ever written.

Evan R, Friday, 18 May 2012 21:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

Would Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend" work?

LeRooLeRoo, Friday, 18 May 2012 21:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

nothing objective about "call your girlfriend" that song is just robyn enacting a sexy agenda

So those songs are objective breakup songs and completely right for the thread, then. I guess that in my head, I was thinking of songs that are more analytical about the relationship and breakup than those ones seem to be to me.

they'd sound more analytical if ian curtis were singing them like a robot

of family bonds and individual triumph. Narrated by Tim Allen, (zachlyon), Saturday, 19 May 2012 00:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

I think Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone" might qualify.

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 19 May 2012 01:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

Maybe not...how about Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Neither One of Us"?

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 19 May 2012 01:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Joe Jackson's "Breaking Us In Two"

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

Stevie Wonder, "It Ain't No Use"

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

they'd sound more analytical if ian curtis were singing them like a robot

Ha, maybe.

EveningStar (Sund4r), Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

speaking of joni... "i had a king" is perfect for this thread i think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=LcGvR1OumjM&gl=US

cock chirea, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

ouch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en&v=LcGvR1OumjM

cock chirea, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Lee626, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah it's about a car, but an ex dedicated this one to me, and it stuck. Especially the stormy weather line, since we ran together during the Great Flood of '93.

pplains, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

God, Johnny Lang. That guy's gotta be 28 by now, amirite?

pplains, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

hahaha, holy shit. He's 31.

pplains, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

Prefab Sprout - "When Love Breaks Down"
Nick Drake - "Place To Be"
Harry Nilsson - "Together"
Ambrosia - "How Much I Feel" (yacht-rock classic!)
Fleetwood Mac - "Silver Springs"
Bonnie Raitt - "I Can't Make You Love Me"

Lee626, Saturday, 19 May 2012 02:39 (1 year ago) Permalink


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