The lyrics to the song "Love Music"

Harry

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As we've found with some other Sergio Mendes records, notably "Lost In Paradise", sometimes the lyrics are difficult to interpret. I was just looking to confirm what I was hearing in the song "Love Music" from the album of the same name. I think I know what most are, but would like to know what anyone else is hearing in the song.



I tried looking up the lyrics online, but no site seems to have this particular song, and the Japanese lyrics in the CD I have are surely wrong. This is the interpretation from the sheet music posted below by JMK. (Thanks!)

Love Music
(Lambert; Potter)

Look at us today
We ain't got nothing nice to say
We throw our hands up in the air
Expecting a miracle from somewhere

When to words we don't pay no attention
When the good in us all we don't mention

Chorus
We need more love music, we sure can use it
To turn the people on
We need more love music, the heart proves it
before the beat is gone

Up and down the street
No happy faces do we meet
And all the promises that we made
Are soon forgotten or mislaid

When the spirit in people is dying
That's the time to be twice as hard tryin'

(Back to chorus)

A little music never hurt no one
Got to be a song for every mother's son
A simple melody your heart can hum -(could be "soulful" melody)
Well, let me tell you where I'm coming from

(Chorus)
 
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There are a bunch of other cover versions where the lyric is more understandable, I think Sergio actually changed "don't mention" to "unmention" for some reason, kind of like he added "faces" to "new" in the lyric of Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing. The chorus is: We need more love music/*We sure can use it*/To turn the people on
 
Years ago I joked with Jon Skinner (is he still around?) that we sure as heck weren't in Marilyn & Alan Bergman territory anymore with this lyric. :)
 
Edited the above to JMK's suggestion. I'm not sure I hear "un-mention".
 
"my heart approves it" - I once had the lead sheet to this song, and that was the lyric on the lead sheet.
 
Thanks Trevor. Change made. We must be getting close.
 
I think it's "don't mention" but she kind of slurs the "don't" to leave the 't' sound off, so it comes out "don' mention."

I think they do sing "the heart approves it" or possibly "my heart approves it" but somewhere I saw the lyrics written as "the heart proves it." Either makes sense, I guess.

If you listen to the Four Tops version (which I think is the most popular version of the song), they sing "a soulful melody the whole world can hum." But they make a few other small changes too, such as "to turn the people right on" and such. Here is a video with the lyrics.



Yeah, Lambert and Potter are not going to win any awards with these lyrics but I like the heartfelt sentiments of the song. It's probably my favorite from the two Bell albums.
 
I think it's "don't mention" but she kind of slurs the "don't" to leave the 't' sound off, so it comes out "don' mention."

I think they do sing "the heart approves it" or possibly "my heart approves it" but somewhere I saw the lyrics written as "the heart proves it." Either makes sense, I guess.

If you listen to the Four Tops version (which I think is the most popular version of the song), they sing "a soulful melody the whole world can hum." But they make a few other small changes too, such as "to turn the people right on" and such. Here is a video with the lyrics.



Yeah, Lambert and Potter are not going to win any awards with these lyrics but I like the heartfelt sentiments of the song. It's probably my favorite from the two Bell albums.


Yep. This version is definitive for me by a landslide. Few singers who've walked the earth were as good as Levi Stubbs. They did eight albums on ABC records and "Catfish" and this one are my two favorites. Great stuff on both of them.

Ed
 
I always thought the words were "When the good in us all we don't mention."

This is the Four Tops' rendering. "Un-mention" makes no syntactical sense.

Ed
 
I couldn't find an old fake book version I have somewhere, but the guy below did a big arrangement and the lyric is clearly reprinted here:


Re: "no syntactical sense", I refer you only to Sergio's misuse of "I love you when the good times seems" in "Sometimes in Winter" LOL.
 
harry said:
A simple melody your heart can hum
Well, let me tell you where I'm coming from


Levi sings:

"A soulful melody the whole world can hum
How let me tell you where I'm comin' from"

Seems the Four Tops or Lambert/Potter changed it for the group.

Ed
 
L&P produced the album and wrote all the songs on it, but it's entirely possible that they group ad-libbed lyrics here and there. That happens all the time, if you look at an album's lyric sheet quite often the singer doesn't stick to the written words 100%.

I liked Lambert and Potter's music. I made a CD compilation of their stuff once, which I called "Love Music: The songs of Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter." It's still one of my favorite comps.
 
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