Song Lyric Sunday – “Bye Bye Love”

Did you really think I’d pass up the opportunity to share a Cars song, sung by Benjamin Orr, and right on point for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme: Break? Just as my other Song Lyric Sunday pick is my favorite in Poco’s ouevre, Bye Bye Love is my hands-down favorite Cars song. Written, as are all Cars songs, by Ric Ocasek, this is not your Everly Brothers’ Bye Bye Love. For a special treat, even if only for me and sweetpurplejune, I’ll be giving you two BBL videos. The first is circa 1978 when the Cars were just starting out, garnering national and intenational attention*. The second, a 1995 performance, features Benjamin Orr and his band, some seven years after the Cars’ breakup. Enjoy:

“Bye Bye Love”

I can’t feel this way much longer
Expecting to survive
With all these hidden innuendoes
Just waiting to arrive

It’s such a wavy midnight
And you slip into insane
Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you’re playin’

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Involving all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye goo’ bye love
bye bye love
Bye bye love

Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin’ all my energies
Until you visited

With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense

It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye loveWriter/s: RIC OCASEK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

*Edited 3/23/2019 to note that the first selected video is no longer available.

“Just A Little Bit Of Magic” in Song Lyric Sunday

It’s Sunday and time for one of my favorite prompts/challenges: Helen Vadahti’s Song Lyric Sunday! This week’s theme is “break”. The first thought in my mind was “break up song,” but that’s just too gloomy for the lovely day here in New England. That must be why Poco’s peppy “Pickin’ Up The Pieces” permeated my pate. (OK, I won’t do that again.) Richie Furay created some great songs for Poco. Written fresh off the 1968 breakup of Furay’s prior band, Buffalo Springfield, “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” is rumored to be a reference to that breakup. This is off their 1969 debut album of the same name. In my opinion, it’s one of the best and is my favorite. Lyrics are posted after the video, if you want to sing along.

“Pickin’ Up The Pieces”

Well there’s just a little bit of magic
In the country music we’re singin’
So let’s begin
We’re bringin’ you back down home where the folks are happy
Sittin’ pickin’ and a-grinnin’
Casually, you and me
We’ll Pick Up The Pieces, uh-huh

Somebody yelled out at me
Country music and company kind of makes it
On a Sunday afternoon
Picnic lunches of yesterday
Should still have a place in your heart today
Think it over
‘Cause we’ll all be goin’ home so soon

[Repeat first verse]

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/poco/pickinupthepieces.html

On the 33rd Anniversary of Live Aid 7/13/1985: Benjamin Orr’s Voice

The Cars performed four songs at Live Aid. I’m showcasing each individually, partly because ABC didn’t cut to their performance until several seconds after they actually started playing. But really, I wanted to showcase Benjamin Orr’s performance first. Of course.

The crazy thing about ABC’s sloppy treatment of the Cars’ first song, “You Might Think” is that the song’s video had previously won MTV’s first Moonman awarded for Video of the Year (1984), in addition to having won five award at Billboard’s 1984 Video Music Awards. After you watch the Live Aid performance, you can see the award-winning video here.