"After the Love Has Gone" by Earth Wind & Fire

Song 27:

"After the Love Has Gone" by Earth, Wind & Fire

Peak: 2

Year: 1979

Year end position: 38

Alphabetical Songs by Artist: 1/11

Chronological Songs by Artist: 9/11

Video?: No

Wikipedia?:  Yes:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Love_Has_Gone

Spotify?:  Yes

Lyrics:  http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/earthwindandfire/afterthelovehasgone.html

We continue our tour down the "After" songs today with the 4th of the 6.  So far, we've had a song that about finally ending up with someone, a time to party, and someone hitting on a woman late at night.  Today's song is a departure from all of those in that this is a break up song of sorts.  The more I listen to it, I'm not sure that it is exactly a break up song.  If it is, it is a break up song with a very, very small hint of optimism.

This is also the 1st song we've had from one of my favorite acts.  As with a lot of these acts, there were times in my life when I went through a period of time where I was really into them.  There definitely was a time in college when I was big into Earth Wind & Fire.  I think the draw was how funky most of their songs were, and I am a big fan of funky songs.  This song is not part of that genre, but it still wound up becoming their 2nd biggest hit, peaking at #2.

Earth Wind and Fire qualify for my Hall of Fame, since they had 11 top 20 songs.  I was looking for a comparison between them and other Hall of Fame acts, and the most comparable acts were either Christina Aguilera or Bobby Vee.  All three acts had between 10-12 songs hit the top 20 over a 8-10 year span, and the weighted average of their top 20 hits was somewhat similar (Christina Aguilera = 7.58, Earth Wind and Fire = 8.00, Bobby Vee = 8.40).  These acts don't seem to have all that much in common, since none of their careers overlapped at all, but if you just go by the numbers they were pretty close.

The first few times I listened to this song, it seemed pretty straightforward as a breakup song.  The more I listen to it, the more I think it's harder to pin down.  The first verse is clearly about how great the relationship was going.  It's all smooth sailing at this point.  Then the chorus comes in, and everything changes.  You don't know what it is, but the first line of the chorus is "Something happened along the way".  That's pretty ominous.  Around the middle of the chorus, the relationship has totally gone sour.  That's the first mention of "After the love has gone".  That's where the singer is now.  The second verse starts off optimistically with "Love was so strong for so long", but quickly dives back into melancholy a few lines later with "Till sadness was all we shared".  That line is immediately followed by my favorite line in the whole song: "We were scared".  The beauty of this line is that it isn't sung at all.  It's spoken in kind of a half-whisper.  I love it because it seems like it's all just a song until the emotion is too much that the singer has to break out of song mode and just emote on this one line.  I especially like it when songs do this.  It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it's usually outstanding.  It's a moment for the singer to just break down and connect with the audience.

So it seems like all hope is lost.  The love has mysteriously left the relationship.  It is right at that point in the relationship that this song seems to be written.  The singer doesn't know what is going to happen.  He still seems confused by the state of things.  The chorus keeps repeating with the lines "Can love that's lost be found?"  I think the point of the song is that things are at a point where the relationship seems over, but they aren't 100% sure.  There may be a slight chance to rekindle the fire.  I will admit that it doesn't seem optimistic, but it's something.  I think it's that line that keeps the song from being a complete downer.

I think this song is pretty universal, which probably accounts for why it hit #2 and won Earth Wind & Fire a Grammy award for Best R&B Vocal by a Group or Duo and a nomination for Record of the Year (It lost to "What a Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers).  I think everyone has probably gone through a breakup at some point in their lives, and there always seems to be a point when things seem over when you aren't really sure what happened or if it is really over.  I think that's where this song lives.