HUMAN LEAGUE - DON’T YOU WANT ME

Publicació: 27 de novembre de 1981

Llistes: EUA: #1 (3 setmanes)  Regne Unit: #1 (5 setmanes)

"Don't You Want Me" és una cançó de la banda britànica Human League. Va ser llançada com el quart senzill del seu tercer àlbum d'estudi "Dare". Al Regne Unit va ser un èxit monstruós i el primer número 1 per al segell Virgin de Richard Branson.  També va ser el single més venut de 1981 i el Christmas number One d'aquell any. Amb l'ajuda de MTV, que va començar a emitir l'1 d'agost de 1981, va obrir una mini invasió britànica als EUA. Hi havia molts programes de vídeos a Europa, així que quan MTV va començar es van veure obligats a reproduir vídeos de moltes bandes del Regne Unit, perquè aquesta era la major part del seu fons de catàleg.

La cançó parla del desafiament d'una relació amorosa. Una persona està lluitant amb la seva identitat i intenta trobar el seu lloc al món, i l'altra està qüestionant el seu amor per ella. La tornada es pregunta si l'altra persona encara la vol, preguntant "Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me, ohh?" (No em vols, nena? No em vols, ohh?) indicant que l’amor és incert i el futur de la seva relació no està clar. "Don't You Want Me" va sembla un melodrama de butxaca sobre la gelosia i la possessivitat i el rencor i la vulnerabilitat, potser les més humanes de les emocions.

La lletra de "Don't You Want Me" de Phil Oakey s'havia inspirat en una història fotogràfica d'una revista femenina i en A “Star Is Born”. Va escriure la cançó com un diàleg. El personatge d'Oakey és un home poderós, desanimat i desconsolat després de ser abandonat per una dona que va trobar treballant com a cambrera en una cocteleria. Susan Ann Sulley, que fins aleshores només havia fet de corista d'Oakey, va prendre el rol principal de la noia, que intenta decebre el noi però és evident que vol allunyar-se d'ell immediatament.

A la primera estrofa de "Don't You Want Me", Oakey sona sever i dominant, com si no pogués creure que aquesta noia tingués el valor de pensar que podria deixar-lo. "Success has been so easy for you” (L'èxit ha estat tan fàcil per a tu), canta, donant a entendre que potser no ha estat tan fàcil per a ell. Quan ell l'amenaça directament: “I can put you back down, too” (Jo també et puc tornar a fer caure), comencem a tenir la idea que està ferit, destrossat i impotent. La tornada ho confirma, la seva necessitat augmenta a cada síl·laba: “You’d better change it back or we will both! Be! Sorry!” (Serà millor que canviis o ho farem tots dos! Ho sento!) Comença sonant avorrit i acaba desesperat.

Pel que fa a Sulley, mai no surt del seu avorriment. Li diu a l'Oakey que ell no era responsable del seu èxit, que només era un instrument seu: “Even then, I knew I’d find a much better place, either with or without you” (Fins i tot llavors, sabia que trobaria un lloc molt millor, amb tu o sense tu). Diu que els seus cinc anys junts han estat "such good times” (molt bons temps) i sembla un acomiadament. El seu "I still love you” (Encara t'estimo) és totalment superficial, sona mecànic i no sembla gens sincer. La manca d'experiència de Sulley és part del que la fa genial; la facilitat amb que porta la conversa i la manera com esborra l'Oakey. Tot el que ell pot fer com a resposta és cantar la tornada un munt de vegades. Quan Sulley entra a la cançó, sembla com si s'estigués rient d’ell, de fet la cançó presenta un embolic de sentiments i explica el que passa quan s'inverteix una dinàmica de poder en una relació.

Les línies del teclat s'enfronten, reflectint la lluita entre els dos personatges. La cançó és sobria i elegant. Posa en primer pla els seus cantants i el drama que teixeixen, però no para de posar-los trampes. És simple, comercial i directa… pura màgia pop.

"Don't You Want Me" és l'última cançó de “Dare”, i Oakey va pensar que era només un farcit, la pitjor cançó de l'àlbum. (Quan Oakey parla de "Don't You Want Me" sembla que encara l'odia.) Però a l'executiu de Virgin, Simon Draper, li va encantar la cançó i va fer cas omís Oakey, exigint que es llances com el quart senzill de l’àlbum. Draper fins i tot va aprovar un costós vídeo musical del director irlandès Steve Barron. El clip té una mica de la iconografia de la vella escola de Hollywood i va ser perfecte per a MTV.

HUMAN LEAGUE - DON’T YOU WANT ME

Released: November 27, 1981

Charted:  US: #1 (3 wks)  UK: #1 (5 wks)

"Don't You Want Me" is a song by British band the Human League. It was released as the fourth single from their third studio album “Dare”. In the UK, this was a monster hit, and the first #1 for Richard Branson's Virgin label, and also was the best selling UK single of 1981 and that year's Christmas number one. With help from MTV, which launched on August 1, 1981, this opened a mini-British invasion of the USA. There were a lot of video shows in Europe, so when MTV went on the air, they were forced to play videos by many UK bands because that was most of their library.

The song is about a love relationship that is being challenged. One person is struggling with their identity and trying to find their place in the world, and the other is questioning their love for them. The chorus is questioning whether the other person still wants them, asking "Don't you want me, baby? Don't you want me, ohh?" indicating that their love is uncertain and the future of their relationship is unclear. "Don't You Want Me" was a pocket melodrama about jealousy and possessiveness and spite and vulnerability, perhaps the most human of emotions.

Phil Oakey’s “Don’t You Want Me” lyrics had been inspired by a photo story in a women’s magazine and by A Star Is Born. He wrote the song as a dialogue. Oakey's character is a powerful man, despondent and heartbroken after being abandoned by a woman he found working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. Susan Ann Sulley, who until then had only sung Oakey's accompaniment, took the lead role of the girl, who tries to disappoint the boy but clearly wants to get away from him immediately.

On the first verse of “Don’t You Want Me,” Oakey sounds stern and commanding — as if he can’t believe that this girl would have the nerve to think that she could move on from him. “Success has been so easy for you”, he sings, implying that maybe it hasn’t been so easy for him. When he straight-up threatens her — “I can put you back down, too” — we start to get the idea that he’s wounded and shattered and powerless. On the chorus, he confirms it, his need increasing with every syllable: “You’d better change it back or we will both! Be! Sorry!” He starts out sounding bored, and he winds up desperate. 

As for Sulley, she never gets out of his boredom. She tells Oakey that he was not responsible for her success, that he was just an instrument of his: “Even then, I knew I’d find a much better place, either with or without you”. She says that their five years together have been “such good times”, and it sounds like a dismissal. Her “I still love you” is totally perfunctory, a mechanical nothing that doesn’t come off the least bit sincere. Sulley’s lack of experience is part of what makes it great; it lends a conversational ease to the way she brushes Oakey off. All he can do in response is sing the chorus a bunch more times. When Sulley joins in, she sounds like she’s humoring him. The song presents a tangled mess of feeling, and it tells a story of what happens when a power dynamic is reversed.

The keyboard lines push up against each other, mirroring the struggle of the song’s two characters. The song is spare and elegant. It foregrounds its singers and the drama that they weave, but it keeps pulsing out hooks underneath them. It’s simple, commercial and direct... pure pop magic.

“Don’t You Want Me” is the last song on Dare, and Oakey thought it was just filler, the worst song on the album. (When Oakey talks about “Don’t You Want Me” now, it sounds like he still hates it.) But Virgin executive Simon Draper loved the song, and he overruled Oakey, demanding that the Human League release it as the fourth single from Dare. Draper even approved an expensive music video from the Irish director Steve Barron. The clip is a neat bit of old-school Hollywood iconography that draws attention, again and again, to layers of its own artificiality. It was perfect for MTV.