So I try not to feature the same label for two weeks in a row, but last week's post, although it featured a record on Preview, that record wasn't actually a song-poem, being something nearly unique - a vanity release from that label. I decided another Preview record wasn't a bad idea, and here it is:
It's always fun to see some poor grammar in a song-poem title. I mean, the labels could have corrected any of these, had they chosen to, but perhaps they feared (or actually ran into) song-poets who would complain that "you changed my song title". In this case, "You're Not Exactly What I Ask For" could have been saved with just a little "ed", and if the song-poet had "experience" just a little more ED in her life, mayhap she would have "know" that.
Anyway, if this was a true "first person" song - that is, if the song-poet was writing about her own life - let's hope she did not play her song for the object of her apparently limited affection. Because the point of the song is that she's pretty sure there is a guy out there that she'd MUCH rather be with, but it's clear to her now that's probably never going to happen, so she's going to settle. And she's going to hope she comes to love the big lug who has given her his life, love and laundry. And his house! God help him if the other guy "comes along". The song of a deeply ethically challanged, er, challange woman.
Barbara Foster is the performer, and I believe I understand correctly that this is the same singer who became better known as Bobbi Blake on MSR and who also pops up quite frequently a one of The Real Pros on Cinema.
I'll also note that this song seems to go on forever. Surely, at three and three quarter minutes long, it's in the upper five percent of song-poems in length.
Play:
The flip side is called "But I Need You Most of All", and I'll admit I am not quite processing what this song-poet was on about. Barbara Foster sings again, and musically, this is a bit of a continuation of the flip side - although I really like some of what the guitarist and the pianist do on this track.
Lyrically, though.... At first, I thought I'd caught on. She loves him just fine, but more than that, beyond her romantic connection with him, she needs him. Got it. But what to make of this?:
"I really, really do love you, but the love is still there"
Huh? That "but" doesn't seem like it fits with the rest of that lyric, and the remainder of that verse is about how she thought she'd fallen out of love, but hadn't. Maybe I'm just dense - well, I'm sure I'm dense, in plenty of ways, actually - but that verse seems to be grabbed at random from another song. Except that, as you'll hear, that section is the only part that has lyrics that might be considered a "verse". The rest of the song is essentially the same few words, rearranged a bit, repeated over and over. And over.
Play:
Incidentally, based on what's known about a few other songs from this period on Preview, it would appear this release is from 1976.
3 comments:
Thank you for posting this! The a-side lays out a dilemma as well as I've ever heard on a song-poem. Even it's not written in the King's English it's pretty expressive. The b-side is a bit less clearheaded...but the music and singing are good on both!
This reminded me of someone who made headlines 10-15 years ago. An author Lori Gottlieb wrote a book, "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough". Seems this song-poet was way ahead of her time.
I would really, really like to start the rumor that Barbara Foster later changed her name to Barbara Mandrell. I really, really would. Really. For Reals.
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