This is Tommy Roe, superstar rock n' roll artist of the early 60's, with his song, "Everybody". Now let's take a look at the lyrical content:
Everybody, everybody, everybody's had a broken heart now
Whoa, hold on a second. I'm having a flashback of my own... to the earliest days of my blog...
http://ericspopmusicreviews.blogspot.ca/2013/10/thisflashback-friday-were-taking-it.html
Once I listened to this song, I near-instantly drew parallels to a great jam of the 70's I covered in the first month of my blog: "Everybody Plays the Fool" by The Main Ingredient. This has sort of the same message, but a strikingly different approach as well.
"Everybody Plays the Fool" played the topic of heartbreak sympathetically and earnestly: acknowledging that yes, in fact, love sometimes sucks for everyone, and it's okay to feel sad, because others have felt the same way. This song, on the other hand... does not do that. Not only is the song oddly upbeat, especially for its subject matter, but it also adds in this lyric:
One time or other everybody listen to me, you lose somebody you love
But that's no reason for you to break down and cry
Stop crying! Everybody goes through this in their lives! You're no special snowflake!
He doesn't actually even give a reason why you shouldn't cry, it's just "hey, stop being a whiny bitch". Not quite as vulgar, but you get the gist.
And while I do appreciate the upbeat tone of the song, it plays out too optimistically for me at the same time. I much prefer The Main Ingredient's realistic assessment of heartbreak to this. This song seems almost detached from reality. What were some of his other songs? "Your Grandma's Dead, But Get Over It"?
I don't know. For me, I'll be sticking with the heartbreak songs that depict actual heartbreak. Sorry, Tommy Roe. You just need a little more soul, in more ways than one.
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