Soundtracked

Tender

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This week's theme: The Precious Few

"Tender" by Blur...no long, crazy stories today or sad love letters or anything like that. Just a song.

Even though it was written in the aftermath of the relationship between singer Damon Albarn and Elastica's Justine Frischmann, I don't consider this a breakup song. I've been in love too many times before, and I don't think this has ever come up before, during, or after any experiences I've had. I guess I don't have any opinion of it in that respect.

The lyrics are very simple, if not self-effacing: "Tender is my heart; I'm screwing up my life." I've been there...but haven't we all thought that of ourselves at least once before? Perhaps the one line I can most relate to is "Hiding from the sun, waiting for the night to come."...I didn't sleep very well last night and although nights like that are fewer and farther between technically that's not even supposed to happen. And I still have mornings when I wake up and can't wait for anything else but bedtime again. But none of this is groundbreaking poetry.

I will say that I didn't care for this song when I first heard it. I thought it was too long, too mellow, too...blah. It was on Blur: The Best Of  , and I only got the cd because I wanted "Song 2"  . It was one of those record club buys..."Get 12 CDs for $1" or somethin', and then purchase four more over three years at their gaudy prices and outrageous shipping fees. Columbia House or BMG or whatever. And I probably never paid for anything since from them, like most everyone else...which is why these companies and their business models don't exist anymore.

"Tender" was the song I'd skip over...I didn't even listen to the whole album all that much until a Caribbean Cruise, actually. But then I couldn't stop listening to it, even though I brought tons of other music to vacation to. Something must've clicked. Maybe it was the whole relaxation vibe; I dunno. Ever see one of those videos on YouTube where a person stitches together ten straight hours of the same thing over and over, like a crackling fireplace or an oscillating fan? I'm convinced someone could do something like that here with this song, eliminate the pauses like the beginning or end, and I'd put that on. It's the perfect song for something like that. I wouldn't get sick of it. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, repeat. I could handle that all day long...and there aren't many tunes at all out there I could say that about.

Sometimes, all you need is the message...no bombast or preening or physical/verbal hi-jinks. Just the song. Even the gospel chorus in the original version of the video can be a bit much. "Love's the greatest thing that we have." What more is there for anyone to want at the most basic level?

"I'm waiting for that feeling,
waiting for that feeling to come."
Lyrics.  

I had to include this version only because it's pretty much a modern rock miracle...Albarn and Blur's guitarist Graham Coxon hadn't always gotten along well by this point, and Blur had always been compared to and competed against Oasis and Gallagher brother Noel, so for them to all put their feuding aside for a charity event was pretty stellar. And on the drums...Paul Weller of The Jam/Style Council. An epic lineup...of all the live versions circulating, this might be my favorite.