Throwback Thursday: Voices Carry by ‘Til Tuesday

On a recent trip to a nearby town, my wife and I hit several antique/junk stores. With the resurgence of vinyl as an acceptable medium for music, many such establishments have large sections devoted to used albums.  I spent a fair amount of time flipping through album covers, not really looking for anything in particular, but enjoying various trips down memory lane.  When I came across the album Voices Carry by ‘Til Tuesday, an inexplicable urge came over me and I knew that it had to become part of my collection.

‘Til Tuesday’s popular songs on Spotify. Can you say one-hit wonder?

Inexplicable, I say, because I was not huge fan of the band. In fact, other than this song, I knew absolutely nothing about them. It was the mid-80’s and music had changed.  The popular bands of my high school days were fading from the forefront and the term ‘classic rock’ had arisen, neatly packaging “my” music and pushing it aside to make way for the new wave.  At the time, most new music did not set well with me and I found a certain comfort in the old familiar tunes.

But through some long-forgotten avenue, this band’s one and only hit song came into my consciousness, the title song from the album: “Voices Carry.”

Written by ‘Til Tuesday’s lead singer, Aimee Mann, the song is the lament of the “other woman.”  A point that is hinted at throughout the song’s entirety with words like “hush, hush” – and made crystal clear near the end with three words: “she might overhear.”  With that, the song’s meaning comes into focus rendering subsequent listens heart-wrenching.

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The emotional descriptions of an oppressive, if not abusive, relationship and Ms. Mann’s anguished vocals give rise to the suspicion that first-hand experience played a key role in the song’s development as well as its delivery – making the point even more powerful.

I try so hard not to get upset
because I know all the trouble I’ll get
oh, he tells me tears are something to hide
and something to fear

“Voices Carry’s” unique perspective and eerie-yet-catchy strains and refrains etched the song in my brain.  I couldn’t forget it, nor did I want to.  Part of the hook is this glimpse into such a messed-up relationship and the malevolent forces that hold folks, and women in particular it seems, in them.

When the digital age reached the point where downloads overtook physical media, allowing the consumer to purchase a song for about a buck, I sought out this song and kept it with me.  Still do.  Weeks may go by without a playback, but when it decides to wander from its residence in the back of my mind and visit my conscious, I find the urge too great to ignore and give it a listen – often several.

That’s the way it is with music.  A song can grab you in ways you don’t understand and can’t explain.  A song I first heard over thirty years ago, during a time when I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to music, resonated in me and amazed me to the point that I couldn’t let it go.  It has weaved in and out of my everyday world over the second half of my life and reminds me with each listen how I felt the first time I heard it – the first time I caught an inkling of its meaning.

So now, after three decades, I find myself standing in an antique store, holding the cover of Til Tuesday’s biggest-selling album in my hands, not caring a bit what shape the vinyl itself is in.  The cover: smooth to the touch, with that unmistakable smell of cardboard, and the familiar cover image that epitomizes the decade of the ’80s.  A tangible representation of the intangible fascination this song has held over me.

Maybe that’s why I had to own it.

Here’s the Song on Spotify.

Listen. Enjoy.

Bonus Tracks.

• Aimee Mann successfully continued her career as a musician, and still performs today.  “Voices Carry” is still her biggest seller
• Though well-known today, I didn’t catch for years that as the song fades, she sings the line “I wish…he would…let me talk.”
• She dropped the song from her set list for a number of years, but has recently begun performing it again.  Perhaps in light of the recent growing awareness of the plight of women at the hands of power-wielding  men, she recognizes the song’s renewed significance.
• The video for the song was quite popular, although I never saw it until recently.  Though it focuses on an abusive relationship, it paints a different picture from my interpretation.  Actually glad I missed it.
• MTV named Til Tuesday “Best New Band” in 1985.
• In the last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed listening to another of their songs: “Coming Up Close.”

Aimee Mann singing “Voices Carry” in June of this year:

 

 

And here’s the original official video for “Voice Carry”