Everly Brothers-Cathy's Clown (1960)

The Everly Brother's Cathy's Clown came out three years before I was born. I don't remember listening to it until about 1975 by which time it was 12 years old but I was still blown away by its freshness and power. The link above shows a pretty good performance of it but the sound is not as full as the studio version which can be heard via this Spotify link.

There are a number of features which make  this a classic track which confirms the place of the Everly Brothers in the Hall of Fame. Firstly there is the power of the drum riff which opens the track and drives it throughout. Then there is the incredible vocal performance with which Phil and Don take harmonies to new places. They were clearly a major influence on the Beatles. The harmonies used on so many of their early songs can be traced back to what the Everly Brothers were doing here. The Beatles harmonies were of course even better, check out There's A Place,  From Me To You or She Loves You if in any doubt...but that's another story. 

After the drumming and the vocals there is the minimal but truly inspired use of lead guitar. The light riff starting at 00:24, when they sing "I die each time..." is a beautiful additional touch. 

Lastly there is the lyrics and the way in which they convey a timeless romantic theme. That theme is the lover needing to free himself from the object of his love so as to save himself from losing his own identity and the respect of his peers and ultimately the lover herself once he is seen a weak clingy wimp and ceases to be the man she fell for in the first place. He has to stand tall to avoid being a clown. 

The theme can be heard in many other songs. In Led Zeppelin's Your Time is Gonna Come the woman is piously denounced for the humiliation of the singer. The Rolling Stones claim to have turned the tables in Under My Thumb while Dion gets round the problem with comical superhuman machismo in The Wanderer having been humiliated in Runaround Sue. In all these songs the woman is seen as having been mistreating the singer but its really just their own anxiety about loss of control that is being expressed. Cathy's Clown comes the closest of most of these songs to honestly expressing the lonely misery of the dilemma of how to avoid smothering and killing passion with devotion. 

Here are the full lyrics

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses, that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

I've got to stand tall, you know a man can't crawl
For when he knows you're telling lies
And he hears them passing by
He's not a man at all

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses, that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown

When you see me shed a tear
And you know that it's sincere
Don't you think it's kind of sad, that you're treating me so bad?
Or don't you even care?

Don't want your love any more
Don't want your kisses , that's for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown
That's Cathy's clown, that's Cathy's clown