69 Love Songs

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Professional reviews
69 Love Songs

Box set by The Magnetic Fields
Released	7 September 1999 (US) 29 May 2000 (UK)
Recorded	1999
Genre	Indie Pop / Various
Length	56:05 (Vol. 1} 59:52 (Vol. 2) 56:38 (Vol. 3) 172:35 (total)
Label	Merge (US) MRG166 (Vol. 1) MRG167 (Vol. 2) MRG168 (Vol. 3) MRG169 (box set) Circus (UK) CIR CD003 Domino (UK reissue) REWIGCD18
Producer(s)	Stephin Merritt
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A+) link The Guardian 2 Jun 2000 The Independent (favourable) 4 Jun 2000 Rolling Stone 14 Oct 1999 Salon.com link The Village Voice link
The Magnetic Fields chronology
Get Lost (1995)	69 Love Songs (1999)	i (2004)

69 Love Songs is a three-volume concept album by The Magnetic Fields. As its title suggests, it comprises 69 love songs, all written by the band's leader, Stephin Merritt. The album was released in 1999 in the U.S. (as a box set with Merritt interview booklet, and as individual volumes), and in 2000 in Europe and Australia (box set without booklet).

1 Concept
2 Performers
3 Genres and themes
4 Track listing
5 Live performances
6 Trivia
7 Further information
8 Notes
9 External links

[edit] Concept

The album was originally conceived as a grandiose musical revue. Stephin Merritt was sitting in a gay piano bar in Manhattan, listening to the pianist's interpretations of Stephen Sondheim songs, when he decided he ought to get into theatre music because he felt he had an aptitude for it. "I decided I'd write one hundred love songs as a way of introducing myself to the world. Then I realized how long that would be. So I settled on sixty-nine. I'd have a theatrical revue with four drag queens. And whoever the audience liked best at the end of the night would get paid." ^[1]

[edit] Performers

While Stephin Merritt usually sings all lead vocals on Magnetic Fields albums, he needed to provide a richer variety of approaches across the nearly three-hour length of the album. Thus Merritt shares lead vocals with fellow band member (and manager) Claudia Gonson, as well as three guest vocalists: LD Beghtol, Dudley Klute and Shirley Simms. The basic quartet of musicians in The Magnetic Fields is also supplemented on a few songs with accordion and keyboard by novelist Daniel Handler (who also writes under the pen name Lemony Snicket), and with electronic backing tracks by Chris Ewen.

[edit] Genres and themes

The variety of 69 Love Songs also derives from the many song genres that Merritt raids and filters through his own gay miserablist sensibility. Merritt has said "69 Love Songs is not remotely an album about love. It's an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love."^[2]. Some of the genres are obvious, as in the songs "Punk Love", "Love is Like Jazz", "World Love" and "Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget". Other songs indirectly reference some of Merritt's favourite artists, including Fleetwood Mac ("No One Will Ever Love You"), Cole Porter ("Zebra"), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark ("Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits"), The Jesus and Mary Chain ("When My Boy Walks Down the Street"), and Irving Berlin ("A Pretty Girl is Like...").

Several of the songs bend genders as well as genres. For example: a male vocal sings "He's going to be my wife" ("When My Boy Walks Down the Street"); female vocals sing "bring me back my girl" ("Acoustic Guitar") and "Should pretty boys in discos / distract you from your novel" ("Come Back from San Francisco"). Other common themes include place names (e.g. Washington, DC, Lower East Side, North Carolina, Paris, Venice), animals (e.g. bear, goldfish, jellyfish, rabbit, bat, dog, boa constrictor, cockroach), and -- in common with all Merritt's work -- dancing.

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Volume 1

[All lead vocals by Stephin Merritt except as noted]

"Absolutely Cuckoo" – 1:34
"I Don't Believe in the Sun" – 4:16
"All My Little Words" – 2:46 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off" – 2:41
"Reno Dakota" – 1:05 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"I Don't Want to Get Over You" – 2:22
"Come Back from San Francisco" – 2:48 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" – 3:43 (vocal by Dudley Klutel)
"Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits" – 2:25
"The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be" – 1:11
"I Think I Need a New Heart" – 2:32
"The Book of Love" – 2:42
"Fido, Your Leash is Too Long" – 2:33
"How Fucking Romantic" – 0:58 (vocal by Dudley Klutel)
"The One You Really Love" – 2:53
"Punk Love" – 0:58
"Parades Go By" – 2:56
"Boa Constrictor" – 0:58 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"A Pretty Girl is Like..." – 1:50
"My Sentimental Melody" – 3:07 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" – 2:27
"Sweet-Lovin' Man" – 4:59 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"The Things We Did and Didn't Do" – 2:11

[edit] Volume 2

"Roses" – 0:27 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"Love is Like Jazz" – 2:56
"When My Boy Walks Down the Street" – 2:38
"Time Enough for Rocking When We're Old" – 2:03
"Very Funny" – 1:26 (vocal by Dudley Klute)
"Grand Canyon" – 2:28
"No One Will Ever Love You" – 3:14 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"If You Don't Cry" – 3:06 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"You're My Only Home" – 2:17
"(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy" – 2:18
"My Only Friend" – 2:01
"Promises of Eternity" – 3:46
"World Love" – 3:07
"Washington, D.C." – 1:53 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"Long-Forgotten Fairytale" – 3:37 (vocal by Dudley Klute)
"Kiss Me Like You Mean It" – 2:00 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"Papa Was a Rodeo" – 5:01
"Epitaph for My Heart" – 2:50
"Asleep and Dreaming" – 1:53
"The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing" – 2:46
"The Way You Say Good-Night" – 2:44 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" – 2:00
"I Shatter" – 3:09

[edit] Volume 3

"Underwear" – 2:49
"It's a Crime" – 3:54 (vocal by Dudley Klute)
"Busby Berkeley Dreams" – 3:36
"I'm Sorry I Love You" – 3:06 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"Acoustic Guitar" – 2:37 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure" – 3:10
"Love in the Shadows" – 2:54
"Bitter Tears" – 2:51 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget" – 1:55
"Yeah! Oh, Yeah!" – 2:19 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)
"Experimental Music Love" – 0:29
"Meaningless" – 2:08
"Love is Like a Bottle of Gin" – 1:46
"Queen of the Savages" – 2:12
"Blue You" – 3:03 (vocal by Dudley Klute)
"I Can't Touch You Anymore" – 3:05
"Two Kinds of People" – 1:10
"How to Say Goodbye" – 2:48
"The Night You Can't Remember" – 2:17
"For We Are the King of the Boudoir" – 1:14 (vocal by LD Beghtol)
"Strange Eyes" – 2:01 (vocal by Shirley Simms)
"Xylophone Track" – 2:47
"Zebra" – 2:15 (vocal by Claudia Gonson)

[edit] Live performances

69 Love Songs is The Magnetic Fields' most celebrated album to date, and songs from it regularly feature in their live performances. On seven occasions (five in the U.S., two in London) The Magnetic Fields performed all 69 love songs, in order, over two nights.

[edit] Trivia

The song "I Think I Need a New Heart", sans vocals, can be heard playing on a loop in a Cesar dog food commercial that aired originally in the summer of 2006.

A modified version of "Boa Constrictor", using la-la-la's instead of original lyrics, can be heard in an Ivory Soap commercial that also aired in the summer of 2006.

The song "Chicken With Its Head Cut Off" is featured in a commercial for the television network mtvU in which a girl rummages through a box of love notes.

[edit] Further information

There is a 69 Love Songs wiki site, which provides information and references for each song, plus links and details to relevant interviews, quotes, reviews and influences. Much of this entry is derived from that source.

LD Beghtol’s book 69 Love Songs, A Field Guide will be released by Continuum as part of their popular 33⅓ series on December 15, 2006. Beghtol was a guest vocalist on 69LS; his book is a lavishly illustrated tour through the triple CD, and includes a lexicon; oral accounts of the songs by fans, friends, foes and others; a devious crossword puzzle devised by Jon DeRosa (a longtime friend and collaborator of both Beghtol’s and TMF auteur, Stephin Merritt’s); and many other titbits, factoids and geeky fun. The intricately designed book features unpublished images by offical photographress Gail O’Hara (of chickfactor fame), band friend Miss Gretchen and New York photographer Robin Holland.