Thursday, April 2, 2009

Songs on Repeat: Love Ain't Far

As much as I hate to admit it, I am a secret Motown junkie. I adore the Supremes, I am a sucker for the Temptations, and Martha Reeves is one of my personal heroes.

I attribute this mild obsession to something akin to Stockholm syndrome — back in the day, I rode an hour-and-a-half-long bus to high school every morning, and my bus driver, Socks (who is another story entirely), insisted on playing our local "oldies" station, Sunny 104.5, over the bus radio. At full volume. For the entire ride. After months of attempting to fight the powers that be (earmuffs, headphones, and various pleas to turn down the music proved futile), I gave in. I can pretty much sing the entire Sunny 104.5 repertoire from memory now, which is kind of pathetic.

Thus, when I found a song called "You Can't Hurry Love" by a Swedish band called the Concretes, I went in expecting some indie cover of the Supremes' hit. I couldn't have been farther from the truth.



There is no reason, really, why I should enjoy this song as much as I do. It has about three lyrics, it's over in two minutes, and it's mildly repetitive. But it's catchy as hell, man, and as far as my repeat songs go, that's usually all that matters.

Of course, now that I've spent several paragraphs waffling about my minor Motown obsession, I feel I should include a video of The Supremes' seminal "You Can't Hurry Love" as well.

2 comments:

  1. My Motown love stems strictly from listening to the The Big Chill album non-stop on road trips with my family as a child. I know that whole album by heart and it's fantastic. Listened to it the whole time when I visited Lake Chautauqua with some friends two summers ago, that was also fantastic.

    Never be ashamed of loving yourself some of the best music of the 20th century.

    Also: that Concretes video is AWESOME.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You win! I'm finally into that Concretes song.

    But ... nothing beats that Supremes song for me. It might be my favorite Motown goodie.

    ReplyDelete