Sara Bareilles - Love Song

Lyrics

Head underwater
And they tell me
To breathe easy
for a while
Breathing gets harder,
even I know that
Made room for me;
it’s too soon to see
If I’m happy in your hands
Unusually hard to hold on to

Sara Bareilles has been given some pretty shoddy advice when it comes to swimming, as her instructor has told her to breathe whilst underwater. Perhaps the instructor in question is under the orders of the local mob-boss to make sure she sleeps with the fishes but in a more suicidal way than the old concrete shoes trick. You have to give the boss credit for originality here if this is the case.

Naturally Sara begins to struggle with the whole inhaling water lark in spite of the fact that she knows humans can’t breathe underwater. Why do it then is all I ask? Although, she may be drowning she suddenly turns her attentions to matters with her relationship, where she is having problems with space. This could entail she wants her boyfriend and her to move into a bigger flat or perhaps she’s having “personal space” issues. Maybe if the record deal comes off good she could move somewhere big and up market like Mayfair. However, not before she insults her boyfriend for having small girlish hands.

Blank stares at
blank pages
No easy way to say this
You mean well, but you make this
hard on me

Sara now decides to blame a song and her management for not writing a song she should be writing, which as a singer songwriter is rather a self defeating attitude flaw. I can’t imagine even the kindliest manager will see this as valid excuse for not provided the allocated number of songs in her contract. In which case, she may have to forget about that new flat in Chelsea, and start planning for a different career path.

I’m not gonna write you a love song
’cause you asked for it
’cause you need one,
you see
I’m not gonna write you
a love song
’cause you tell me it’s
Make or break in this
Or you’re on your way
I’m not gonna write you to
stay
If all you have is leavin’,
Imma need a better reason
To write you
a love song today, today, yea

Uh oh! I don’t think Sara has read her contract thoroughly enough, (ah these prima donnas and their “art”) as she is refusing to write a love song, which they must have agreed to make in her deal. She really is defiant on this matter and repeatedly refuses to do as she’s told. Now I don’t know much about litigation but she could easily have her deal terminated forthwith if she doesn’t honour the contract.

Then to make matters even worse for her - probably as security escort her out of the building - she insists they’re going to need a better reason than this for her to write a love song. I suppose it doesn’t really matter now anyway.

I learned the hard way
That they all say
Things you want to hear
And my heavy heart sinks
deep down under you and
Your twisted words,
Your help just hurts
You are not what I thought you were
Hello to high
and dry

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the “sticks and stones” analogy, however Sara in deference to years of inherited wisdom suggests otherwise. She claims that through her own life experience (She can’t be more than 5 or 6 years my senior, at the most) she has learned more than collective and historical wisdom, which smacks a bit of naivety. Perhaps it was the abuse being screamed at her by her production team as she did the opposite of what they told her to do.

I have to admit in spite of feeling sorry for herself, she does seem something of a rapscallion what with her rebellion from the record company and then slamming an ancient analogy to bits. What next? Is she going to knock a policeman’s helmet off with a slingshot, or perhaps flour bomb the mayor’s parade?

Convince me
to please you
Made me think that I need this too
I’m trying to let you
hear me as I am
Promise me
that you’ll leave the light on
To help me see
with daylight,
my guide,
gone
’cause I believe there’s a way
you can love me
Because I say
I won’t write you a love song
’cause you asked for it
’cause you need one,
you see

I have to admit Sara’s boyfriend seems a bit of a dick if he’s trying to mess with her mind by leaving her in the dark a lot for a joke. So much so she has to get him to promise not to switch the lights off, and presumably lock her in the room whilst roaring with maniacal glee.

As you can imagine Sara finds this behaviour a bit hard to swallow in the relationship, and immediately question her lover’s integrity. She claims this is why she didn’t write the love song, although she could be up to her old tricks again and making up naughty fibs. Who’s to say really?

If your heart is nowhere in it
I don’t want it for a minute
Babe, I’ll walk the seven seas
when I believe that
There’s a reason to
Write you
a love song today (today)yea
yea yea yea

Unfortunately I think her boyfriend has messed with her head a bit too much as she now seems to think she can walk on water. Worse still she’s planning to attempt a round the world ocean crossing on foot!? However, should she succeed (which in itself would be quite a bonus) she will write a love song. Still that being said if I was a record producer and I had some new signing claiming she has to walk the seven seas before she can write the love song which is in the contract I would hastily show her the door and just start up a new manufactured boy band instead.

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Introduction

Hello, welcome to version 2 of Video Killed The Radio Star, a site where we dissect various lyrics from a plethora of songs. Some are bad, others are even worse. More Information »