Saturday Whatever Lyrics: Nick Lowe --- I Trained Her To Love Me

Not every Saturday Whatever Lyrics will be bitterly cynical, but this one is. It's a track off of Nick Lowe's fantastic new album, At My Age. It's as pure a 33 minutes of pop tunes you'll ever find. He crafts terrific tight little pop tunes, whose lyrics undercut the lightness of the pop with the bitterness of the wordcraft. Nothing off of the new album is up on YouTube, but Nick Lowe has a presence thanks to his long career. Above is an old performance of Cruel to be Kind, which could be seen as a partner piece to today's song. The young guy who thought Cruel to be Kind was a good idea grew old to be the fella who wrote I Trained Her To Love Me (courtesy NPR, you can hear the song, here)

On top of that, his voice is getting craggy, and weariness seeps into every line reading. That's a positive, not a negative as far as I'm concerned.

It's a short album, a solid album, and this track is a good example.

Couldn't find any lyrics on the 'net so the transcription below is my own, if there are any mistakes, I'll happily correct them

I Trained Her To Love Me

Do you see the way she lights up,
When I walk in the room
That's good
And the skip in her step
When we're both out walking in the neighborhood
This one's almost done
Now to watch her fall apart

I trained her to love me
So I could go ahead and break her heart

If you think it's depraved
And I should be ashamed
So what.

I'm only paying back womankind
For all the grief I got
I've got the latest believing
Forever I'll be true

I trained her to love
Now excuse me, I've got work to do

I trained her to love me
And I'm gonna start working on another after this
And when I get that one in a state of bliss
Betray her, with a kiss

Well one time, one cut-up rough
told me I only do this cause I can
Hmmmmmmmmm
And I'm bound to wind up one lonely twisted old man
But look out,
Here comes a prime contenda
for my agenda
If ever there was one
And I'm gonna train her to love me
Until it's time to do what must be done
Train her to love me

And I'm gonna start working on another after this
And when I get that one in a state of bliss
Betray with her a kiss

And I'm gonna start working on another after this
And when I get that one in a state of bliss
Betray with her a kiss
I trained her to love me
To late to stop now