Hello
Dialophiles! Tonight, the Dial pulls a fascinating album track from our vast
musical archives. Join us as we put on our music scholar caps, and
psychologically dissect a song which details the great lengths to which one
woman has gone in an extraordinary effort to erase the pain from a nasty
breakup. Ladies and Gentlemen… Miss Sheryl Crow and “It Don’t Hurt”.
“It don't hurt like it did… I can sing my song again”
Following an unspecified romantic heartbreak (the details of which are left the imagination of the listener), Sheryl’s character turns to home renovation, tearing down wallpaper and replacing carpet, in order to occupy her time and attempt to remove the memories of her absent lover.
“I don't dream 'cuz I don't sleep… the moon is hanging like your hat…
“It don't hurt like it did… I can sing my song again”
Following an unspecified romantic heartbreak (the details of which are left the imagination of the listener), Sheryl’s character turns to home renovation, tearing down wallpaper and replacing carpet, in order to occupy her time and attempt to remove the memories of her absent lover.
“I don't dream 'cuz I don't sleep… the moon is hanging like your hat…
The sun comes up, well I don't see…
curtains tied up like a bat”
Despite the earlier sprucing up of her home, Crow’s narrator begins to suffer from insomnia, as thoughts of her failed romance keep her awake. Her curtains are kept closed, isolating her from the light of the outside world.
“The electric man looks good today… Maybe not, well I'm trying hard…
Despite the earlier sprucing up of her home, Crow’s narrator begins to suffer from insomnia, as thoughts of her failed romance keep her awake. Her curtains are kept closed, isolating her from the light of the outside world.
“The electric man looks good today… Maybe not, well I'm trying hard…
Trying hard to feel that way… The
electric man's a good place to start”
Following a half-hearted attempt to seduce an electrician, (or perhaps administer self-pleasure via a battery operated device… it’s open to interpretation), our heartbroken girl removes paintings created by her former partner (including a portrait of herself), and attempts to deal with her own growing claustrophobia by building an addition onto the home… “all cuz the house was feeling small”.
After each failed attempt to mask her pain, she declares that she can sing her song again, putting forth a brave face, even though she knows that she still hurts.
Eventually, her internal turmoil reaches a tipping point, when she admits that nothing she has done so far has erased the longing felt for her former love. So, she packs her bags and moves out entirely, and in one glorious, and very final *F. U.*, she bulldozes the house into oblivion. It is only then that she arrives at the painful realization that…
“It don’t hurt… like it did… it hurts worse… who do I kid?”
A few seconds later, the tempo increases and the music explodes into a long guitar passage, which echoes Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”, as both songs possess similar rhythms and the vocal refrain “whoo-hooo… whoo-hooo”. This seems to suggest that she is now willingly “falling” into madness, given the weight of her last emotional admission.
The song concludes with a static, disruptive tone that overwhelms the music entirely. As the only thing keeping her on a comparatively even keel this whole time was this very song she was singing, the tone represents her ultimate loss of sanity. Now only the tone remains, and that too, eventually fades to nothingness.
Now, I don’t typically care for “woe is me” breakup songs, but Sheryl’s track is much different. Far from a clichéd slow, melodramatic weeper, “It Don’t Hurt” is intelligent and raw and as a result, possesses a maturity that most breakup songs do not. Additionally, the country-styled alt-folk instrumentation conceals the song's bleak storyline, hiding a song of emotional torture in a comfortable and catchy mid tempo rocker.
Featured on Crow’s 1999 Best Rock Album Grammy winner “The Globe Sessions”, which spawned the U.S. hit singles “My Favorite Mistake”, and “Anything But Down”, “It Don’t Hurt” was never issued as a single but remains a favorite both in Sheryl’s concert repertoire, and here at the Radio Dial... and with good reason!
Following a half-hearted attempt to seduce an electrician, (or perhaps administer self-pleasure via a battery operated device… it’s open to interpretation), our heartbroken girl removes paintings created by her former partner (including a portrait of herself), and attempts to deal with her own growing claustrophobia by building an addition onto the home… “all cuz the house was feeling small”.
After each failed attempt to mask her pain, she declares that she can sing her song again, putting forth a brave face, even though she knows that she still hurts.
Eventually, her internal turmoil reaches a tipping point, when she admits that nothing she has done so far has erased the longing felt for her former love. So, she packs her bags and moves out entirely, and in one glorious, and very final *F. U.*, she bulldozes the house into oblivion. It is only then that she arrives at the painful realization that…
“It don’t hurt… like it did… it hurts worse… who do I kid?”
A few seconds later, the tempo increases and the music explodes into a long guitar passage, which echoes Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”, as both songs possess similar rhythms and the vocal refrain “whoo-hooo… whoo-hooo”. This seems to suggest that she is now willingly “falling” into madness, given the weight of her last emotional admission.
The song concludes with a static, disruptive tone that overwhelms the music entirely. As the only thing keeping her on a comparatively even keel this whole time was this very song she was singing, the tone represents her ultimate loss of sanity. Now only the tone remains, and that too, eventually fades to nothingness.
Now, I don’t typically care for “woe is me” breakup songs, but Sheryl’s track is much different. Far from a clichéd slow, melodramatic weeper, “It Don’t Hurt” is intelligent and raw and as a result, possesses a maturity that most breakup songs do not. Additionally, the country-styled alt-folk instrumentation conceals the song's bleak storyline, hiding a song of emotional torture in a comfortable and catchy mid tempo rocker.
Featured on Crow’s 1999 Best Rock Album Grammy winner “The Globe Sessions”, which spawned the U.S. hit singles “My Favorite Mistake”, and “Anything But Down”, “It Don’t Hurt” was never issued as a single but remains a favorite both in Sheryl’s concert repertoire, and here at the Radio Dial... and with good reason!
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