"Put a Little Love Away" lyrics

[Mike Blakesley]

We haven't had a lyrics question for a while so here's one I've wondered about.

In the chorus of "Put a Little Love Away," what is the line that comes after "Everybody needs a penny for a rainy day...put a little love away."

I know the line ends with "... a cloudy night" but what comes before that? I've always been stumped by this one. It sounds like...

Even on a cloudy night
People on a cloudy night
Keep it on a cloudy night

Is it one of those or something else?

 

[Harry]

Uhh...something else.

It's:

Keep another thought in mind
Someone's got to leave
Somebody's got to stay behind
Put a little love away

The lyrics printed in the Japanese CD release list that first line as:

Keep a thought in mind

but I clearly here "another".

Harry
...wondering if Mike B. is slapping himself in the head yet, online...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

[sound of slapping head] Wow, I never thought it would be that!

I've gotten in the habit of never looking at the Japanese lyric sheets, after the whole "bitches and queens" thing on PAIS TROPICAL. Whenever I hear "After Midnight," my mind repeats "bitches and queens" to me instead of "peaches and cream," thanks to that damn lyric sheet.

[Leaving to listen to P.A.L.L.A. again right now]

 

[Chris Martin]

I'm not at home at the moment, but I recall something like "Keep a loving thought in mind, Someone's got to leave, Somebody's got to stay behind, Keep a loving thought in mind..."

 

[Harry]

I'm not at home at the moment, but I recall something like "Keep a loving thought in mind, Someone's got to leave, Somebody's got to stay behind, Keep a loving thought in mind..."

Ooh - maybe Chris is onto something. "Loving" makes more sense than "another", doesn't it?

[edit - but now that I listen again, I stand by my original "another thought" theory.]

Harry

 

[JMK]

No, it's "another." The song is reprinted in some Lambert/Potter songbooks.

 

[Harry]

Thanks Jeff. Somehow I knew you'd have the answer.

Harry

 

[JMK]

Funny, but that lyric was always crystal clear to me. The two on "Love Music" that always gave me fits were the first verse of the title tune, where I wondered for years what the %$^? they were singing on the "when the good in us all we don't mention" line. I still think Bonnie fluffed and/or changed the lyric there and is singing "when the good in us all is unmentioned," but the mix is such that it's hard to tell. The other one was on "Hey Look at the Sun" where that strangely accented "magnetism" really threw me for a loop. It was one of my sisters who finally figured it out one day when we heard it on the radio and I begged her to use her deciphering skills.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Now listening again, it sounds as clear as a Bell (Record) to me.

This reminds me of "Lost In Paradise." For decades I thought it was "My little grasshopper at play," but eventually found out (from Paula W., I think) that it's really "grasshopper airplane," and now I can't imagine why I ever heard it wrong in the first place.

 

[Dave]

Other versions of Put A Little Love Away have been recorded by The Four Tops on their Keeper Of The Castle record (...Lay me down, all the others been pushed around... ...Black, Yellow, Red, Orange, White or Brown... ...Tend the garden that you seeded, be a friend when a friend is needed and you won't have to look the other way... and after a long time searching I found the album Maureen McGovern sang it on, too...

The Tops should've had a hit with it, or at least it should've gone on their CD, The Best Of The ABC Years, but fortunately their version of Love Music was included on the set... (And was a hit, as well...)

Some Perry Como-sounding male singer even did a version of it, too... I heard it on the radio, years ago, but neither the Artist, nor even the song was identified...



Dave

 

[Dave]

...It's "another"... ...The song is reprinted in some Lambert/Potter songbooks...

Would you by chance HAVE ANY? I didn't know they even exist...



Dave