mykicks:

69 Love Songs: Day 9

The Magnetic Fields - “Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits”

If you knew how I long
For you now that you’re gone
You’d grow wings and fly
Home to me
Home tonight
And in the morning sun…

“LD Beghtol writes:

Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits is a tribute to Nayland Blake as much as to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Also premiered at the art gallery rooftop concert in summer 1998 [discussed on the page for The Book of Love] before recording really commenced. Nayland is famous for his bunny imagery, which Stephin Merritt was rather taken with at that time. I think it’s the saddest song Stephin has ever written, actually… all that death.

Allegedly, Blake’s use of the character of a bunny rabbit in his artwork began as a way of discussing the stereotype of homosexual male promiscuity [source]. See his [oversized bunny costume] and [Heavenly Bunny Suit].”

markn:

Benny Goodman - Bach Goes To Town

mykicks:

69 Love Songs: Day 8

The Magnetic Fields - “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side”

The day is beautiful and so are you
My car is ugly, but then I’m ugly too - I know you’d
never give me a second glance but when the weather’s
nice all the other guys don’t stand a chance

“A beauty and the beast song, from the perspective of the beast.

‘The Lower East Side is the epicenter of songwriting history in the 20th Century,’ says Stephin Merritt in the 69 Love Songs booklet. Which is why he lives and works there. Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, many Tin Pan Alley writers, and (more recently) John Zorn have all come from the Lower East Side, an area of Manhattan that was popular with many immigrant populations, especially Jewish radicals, early in the century.

The song has been covered by Norwegian duo, the Kings of Convenience, though their version is not in general release.”