My wife and I were listening to this song in the car the other day and I remarked that it was a lovely metaphor. Slow dancing in a burning room… what a neat way to describe a relationship that is clearly ending despite either party wanting to accept that fact.
We started kicking around other songs that use metaphor effectively, and I decided to dedicate this week to five of them. This is what happens when you’re married to an English teacher.
Simon & Garfunkel recorded together for just six years, releasing only five albums, but they made a major impact on popular music both through their sound and through the classic songs Paul Simon wrote for them to perform.
A couple of years after their (second) breakup, Paul Simon would start his solo career in earnest, but Garfunkel would remain a presence in his music in one way or another for more than a decade.
Simon & Garfunkel’s fifth and final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water, was released in 1970 and became the duo’s best-selling record as well as a Grammy Album of the Year winner. It was a massive critical and commercial success, topping the charts in 10 countries and selling more than 25 million copies worldwide.
And it was recorded and released as the lifelong friends saw their partnership collapse.
Tom Petty was really churning out albums in the late 70s and early 80s. His next album came out just a year after Hard Promises.
1982’s Long After Dark is the fifth straight Petty album to tread the same ground — short, muscular songs in what had become the Heartbreakers’ signature sound (I’ll borrow AllMusic.com’s The Byrds-meet-The Stones description again).
Tom Petty followed up his breakthrough, Damn the Torpedoes, two years later with 1981’s Hard Promises.
This album is best known for its role in a feud Petty waged against the recording industry. MCA Records wanted to charge $9.98 for the record, a dollar more than the usual price thanks to Petty’s star status. Petty fought the increase and delayed the album’s release. Eventually the studio relented and skipped the price hike.
