Love Ain’t What You Get

Lyrics

He loved her much
He shared her room
but he brought along a grudge
And somehow sang their sweet song out of tune

He never knew
And never guessed
That sometimes she’d want more
Than a half-time kiss and a closing-time caress
What can you give if love ain’t what you get?
What can you give if love ain’t what you get?

So she packed her bags and left
She promised to write
And kind letters come now and then
But he’s still howling at the moon tonight

Far away
Her love is spent
And she’s in his darkest dreams
With pretty girls and many handsome men

And he’s in bars
Drinking best
Yeah, he’ll have the same again
Of whatever makes you harder than the rest
What can you give if love ain’t what you get?
What can you give if love ain’t what you get?

And hear him singing now
“Oh my love, I’ll beg and steal and borrow
Oh my love, if you’ll come back tomorrow”

Song Description

“Love Ain’t What You Get”… was the fourth attempt to write a lyric for this song, which was originally composed at the time of “Swimming Against the Stream”. It is about a couple of friends of mine in London.

It was the last track to be recorded for ‘Bringing Rosa Home’ because it was originally a completely different song. Richard and I had gone off that original song but we had a some kind of structure already on tape (drums? bass?) So I wrote a new lyric (based on a couple I knew)and we recorded on top of what we had. We then thought that the middle 8 came too soon and also fell in love with the catchy coda (Oh my love….) which we thought should be the chorus. So we set about trying to edit it and move bits around (or at least Leif Mases the mixing producer did) but to our great frustration it didn’t seem to work. Steve Skaith

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