Photo titled "The students at the Imperial Military Academy doing sword drill" by Abdullah Frères, c. 1890
"I'll come running," is a real statement of devotion, and it appeals to the romantic in me. I'm very fond of two different expressions of this feeling, one from a female artist in 1965 and one from a male artist in 1975. The thing that is so interesting in the contrast of these two songs is how the gender roles play out.
In 1965, Lulu was 17. She'd had a minor hit with a cover of "Shout", and she released an album called Something to Shout About. Part of the album was recorded with her first group, the Luvvers, but ,"I'll Come Running" is not one of those songs - it was recorded with a group of studio musicians, including Jimmy Page on crunchy rhythm guitar. Page's guitar riff sets the stage, and Lulu growls a half-hearted apology over the top of it in her famously husky voice. She told some lies, and she's sorry she made you cry, but if you stop being a baby about and give her a call, she'll come running over and give you some of her "loving". There's something decidedly masculine about the whole package here, from Page's in-your-face guitar to Lulu's aggressive delivery and unsympathetic lyric. It's surprisingly unsentimental, considering the title, but it's a favorite of mine nonetheless. I especially like Page's solo - he only gets a couple bars, but he really makes the most of it.
Brian Eno recorded his "I'll Come Running" in 1975 for his third album Another Green World. By this time, Eno was becoming progressively more interested in instrumental and particularly ambient music (which he was in the process of inventing). Another Green World's instrumentals don't hold my interset, but I love the album's vocal tracks that are influenced by his new approach. The piano-and-treated-guitar arrangement of "I'll Come Running" is the best on the record, with a nice lyric about retiring to a room somewhere to wait for the return of true love. There is something so passive about the sentiment and so delicate about the arrangement, that it is much more in line with traditional femininity. Unlike the teen-aged Lulu, Eno is definitely messing with gender in a very conscious way. I'll admit that the repeated chorus and layered vocals at the end of the song really distill for me what it means to say, "I'll come running." And Robert Fripp's guitar solo is as good as Jimmy Page's counterpart, but with a very restrained, soaring feel to it that adds to the song's poignancy.
I think I may have to disqualify Lulu on a technicality here, though. Doing a little supplemental research just now, I found out that her song may have originally been called "I'll Come Running Over". I'm not sure why its title is listed as "I'll Come Running" on my Girl Group Sounds box set, but I think this little issue is enough to push it over the top for Eno.
Winner: BRIAN ENO
"I'll Come Running" by Brian Eno
"I'll Come Running" by Lulu
5 comments:
What a brilliant idea and a lovely comparison to have thought up. However, if I may be so bold, I found it lacking one further component, and I wish, if I may, to make redress.
It may well be that one of music's as-yet best-kept secrets is that, once upon a time, long, long ago, Neil Diamond wasn't that terrible to listen to. And on his misfortunately-titled 1966 debut album The Feel Of Neil (shudder), the ersatz Mr Diamond had, before either Eno or Lulu, his own I'll Come Running tune which, despite my affinity for both of the later tracks (particularly Eno's), I might well have to rank well above either. It is (in its original mono state, mind, before the studio made a bastardised hackjob false stereo version which is, I think, now more prevalent) a rather simple, straightforward tune of devotion and love, without pretence or pomp, and with a fantastically lush, yet light, orchestral underscore to the entire affair.
Wherever one might stand on Neil's later accomplishments (or whatever other epithets one might have for them...), I think that if one is considering songs of this title that his own contribution ought be included as quite able to stand on its own.
Correction: I was mistake in dates just a bit. I had thought that the Lulu song had been of 1967, not 1965, and so I am incorrect is stating that Diamond's track preceded it as well as Eno's. But a matter I rescind only in chronology, not superiority.
Thanks for bringing up Neil Diamond. I haven't heard his "I'll Come Running", primarily because his albums on Bang Records are not currently in print. I've heard rumors that a comprehensive collection of Neil's songs from this era might be in the works, which I hope is true.
Coincidentally enough, I have been listening to a lot of Diamond's early-70s stuff, and I think I'll post something about it soon. There's nothing wrong with liking Neil Diamond!
If you're interested, look for a Roy Loney record called Full Grown Head (from I believe 1999) and you will find an absolutely rockin' killer version of this song, with a very Kink's like guitar solo that turns the song into something completely different.
Thanks for the Roy Loney tip!
At first I was confused by the idea that one of the Groovies would cover an Eno tune, but then I realized you were referring to the Lulu track. A more Kinks-like version of that track could be based on the version recorded by the Mad Hatters (which I've heard on Pebbles #12).
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