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Bye Bye Love (The Cars song)

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"Bye Bye Love"
Song

"Bye Bye Love" is a song by the American Boston-based rock band The Cars. The song appears on the band's 1978 eponymous debut album. It was written by singer/songwriter/bandleader Ric Ocasek and sung by bassist Benjamin Orr. Although the song was not released as a single, it has received regular airplay since the album was released.[1][2]

The song was first performed, and recorded as a demo, some time in the mid-1970s when Ocasek and Orr were in the band Cap'n Swing. In this early version, the recurring keyboard theme between the verse lyrics was significantly different.

It was featured in a 2010 episode of Big Love, "The Sins of the Father". It was also featured in a scene of the 2011 film Super 8.

The song is an ode to Vincent van Gogh. "It's such a wavy midnight and you slip into insane" is a reference to Starry Night. Starry Night was painted during his stay at an asylum in Saint-Rémy where van Gogh lived from from May 1889 through May 1890. "It's an orangy sky" is a reference to Olive Grove: Orange Sky. "Always it's some other guy" is a reference to Sien Hoomik, a pregnant prostitute and mother of a child born out of wedlock, with whom van Gogh had a romantic relationship. "Lullaby" is a reference to the La Berceuse painting series of Augustine Roulin. "Bye bye love" is a reference to van Gogh's suicide. van Gogh also had "blue eyes," "mass confusion," and was intensely "illustrious," which were all referenced in the lyrics of this song.

References

  1. ^ Monger, James Christopher. "The Lace - Benjamin Orr". Allmusic. Retrieved February 19, 2011.
  2. ^ Prato, Greg. "The Cars (Deluxe Edition) - The Cars". Allmusic. Retrieved February 19, 2011.

External links

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