Yeah, yeah, we know: you all hate ballads, slow songs, love songs. But I bet you've slowdanced to more than one, used one or two to relax or calm you down, or just haven't turned off the radio or TV when a particularly good one came on. Go on: admit it. Me, I love slow songs, as those who read this journal and who know me will already be aware of. It's often the slow songs on an album that make it for me, which is not to say I don't like fast stuff, but I do have a real soft spot and preference for a well-written and played ballad.
In this new section I'll be taking a look at one single ballad, slow song, lovey-dovey, weepy, slushy ... call them what you will. It won't have to be a hit, though with the nature of slow songs many will be known and perhaps even famous. I'll be talking about the song and dissecting it a little, going on about the artiste, the usual thing. Hey, it's what I do!
The first one I'm choosing is this one, from a lady who has had more slow songs make the charts than, well, a lot of others. Although her music can be fiery, danceable and rhythmic, she's mostly known for her many many ballads, pretty much all of which have been hits and all of which I like. I could have chosen from a dozen or more, but something reminded me of this one and so it's the one I'm taking to open this section.
"Cuts both ways"
Gloria Estefan
1990
from the album of the same name
Rather surprised to find that, trawling down her singles discography on Wiki, this really marked the end of what I would term the "recognisable" singles for Gloria Estefan. Oh, she certainly had and continues to have hits, and indeed the single after this hit number one, but after that we don't really see any great chart performances for the lady. Nothing has made any appreciable impact on the charts after that and it's a long way from her heyday in the late eighties when singles like "Can't stay away from you", "Words get in the way" and "Anything for you" were hitting the top ten, some even number one. Sad really. But she can certainly boast an impressive array of hit singles, and as I say the lion's share (or should that be lioness?) of those were ballads.
As you can see from the above, this was the title track from her 1990 album, and was in fact the last single released from that album. It's also sort of the last track on it, the other three following it all being in her native Spanish. It's possible that her fall in popularity could be due to a year off the circuit when she was critically injured in a traffic accident, but she came back and continues to perform today.
The song opens on soft laidback acoustic guitar, shortly joined by a sort of fluty keyboard before Gloria's voice comes in and the guitar accompanies her solo, percussion slipping in on the second part of the first verse. Oddly enough it then takes an upswing for the bridge --- there's kind of no real chorus --- with latin rhythms, conga and a much more uptempo, almost salsa melody as Estefan's voice gets a bit harder and more determined as she sings
"I'm hurting you and it's hard I know/ To stay and fight for what we got" before on the final words of what I'm going to call the chorus, though it isn't, the rhythm and tempo slip right back down to how they were at the beginning, with a twisty little bass taking us back in while the acoustic guitar and keyboard pick up the original melody. The song goes on like this pretty much up to the end, repeating the same pattern. It then falls back to the opening and ends more or less as it began, with the acoustic taking it solo for a moment before the rest of the band brings the thing to a close.
You could call it a simple ballad and I guess it is: there's nothing terribly new or original going on here, but it is interesting in that it doesn't maintain the slow, measured pace you would expect from a ballad. The change for the "chorus" is jarring the first time you hear it, but then you get used to it and it couldn't really be any other way. It mirrors the two feelings expressed in the song, when in the verses she sings of the hopes and dreams of the couple but then in the chorus lays it on the line, telling her man how the world is and how they must accept it:
"Don't ask for more/ You'd be a fool/ Haven't we already broken every rule?"
The soft latin rhythms in the song are very typical of Estefan too, with the guitar when it gets going sounding quite Spanish and the percussion definitely latin-influenced, not surprising as she comes from Cuba. There's a sense of longing in the song, but a sense of pragmatism too, an understanding of how the world is and how things work, which in some ways makes this a more honest and realistic love song than many I could mention. Here it is, with the lyric in case you're interested.
It cuts both ways:
Our love is like a knife, it cuts both ways.
It's driven deep into my heart each time that I realise
How it cuts both ways.
Can't be together cannot live apart.
We're heading straight into a broken heart
But I can't stop
Cos I feel too much to let you go:
I'm hurting you and it's hard I know
To stay and fight for what we got,
Knowing it'll never be good enough.
Cos you and I are dangerous:
We want too much and life ain't that way.
Don't ask for more, you'd be a fool:
Haven't we already broken every rule?
It cuts both ways:
We're in too deep for sorry alibis.
Can't have regrets or even question why;
We can't say goodbye
Because it cuts both ways.
No more illusions of the love we made.
No sacrifice would ever be too great
If you would just stay.
Cos I feel too much to let you go:
I'm hurting you and it's hard I know
To stay and fight for what we got
Knowing it'll never be good enough.
Cos you and I are dangerous:
We want too much and life ain't that way.
Don't ask for more, don't be a fool:
Haven't we already broken every rule?
It cuts both ways:
Our love is like a knife, it cuts both ways.
It's driven deep into my heart each time
I see we're living a lie
And it cuts both ways...