Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

No political relevance, just some rather special music that I felt like blogging about tonight.

The Korgis were an underated band from the 80s. Their first hit "If I Had You" was credited to their frontman James Warren and Rachmaninoff. They could show a certain delicate wit, as in this lyric from their track "O Maxine":

"O Maxine,
Don't ever leave me
Though you make love in a matter-of-fact way
When you're not here I hardly know what to say"

But they are best remembered for their haunting song "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime".

One commentator on You-Tube wrote:

Despite the somewhat clunky first keyboard, amazing lack of material (1 verse, 1 chorus and acouple of bridges) this is one of the all-time heartwrenching pop songs, and I have no idea why. Try as I might, it also seems unarrangable (listen to Beck's shot and you'll see what I mean). Just a small, perfect moment.

Someone responded:

That is a very interesting remark; I love this song as well, and it's weaknesses are clear; as a composer of music i'm really wondering, just like you; my answer after some time is: (1) not everybody has this same appreciation of the song; (2) those who have, probably appreciate (by their musical upbringing, etc.) the harmonic structure of the song, with the repetition of unsolved chords and the few releases into solved chords - something like that?

Anyway, here it is from a re-release in the 90's:



And here it is from 2007 performed by Stackridge - again sung by Warren - with a young violinist performing the solo: