Baby Is It Love?
(Or Is It the Dope?)
Sometimes it’s just hard to know…
Music by Michael Gould
Song Lyrics by Tom Lehrer
Rap lyrics by Michael Gould
THE PLAYERS
Michael Gould — keyboards, drum programming, vocals
Lauren Gould — vocals
Rachel Howard — vocals
Jimi Fischer — guitar
THE COMMENTARY
LYRICS
baby is it love?
is it love?)
i see flashing strobes
and mirrored globes
and stereo merry-go-rounds
(baby, is it love?
is it love?)
a choir sings
and a thousand strings
make luxuriant, prurient sounds
you're, like --- beautiful
this is real, this is right, this is it!
you're, like --- beautiful
this is it. or is it the…
vibrations flowing through my skin
my world is spinnin’, i’m grinnin’,
i can’t begin to tell you what i’m going through
i’m hungry for more
i’m feeling giddier than ever before
my mouth is dry, you’re my hydration
my libation, my elevation
my head is in the clouds, foggy,
groggy holding onto your name
your face, your body, surprise
my eyes are red 'cause i’m flying blind to find the words I’m feeling
i’m kneelin’, peel me offa the ceilin’,
you’re real ‘n i’m crazed. i’m amazed.
you're, like --- beautiful
this is real, this is right, this is it!
you're, like --- beautiful
this is it. But I have to admit
though you’re hugging me
and there’s sunset’s and rockets and thunder
something’s bugging me
and I think of tomorrow and wonder
some kind of magic has captured us
thrilled and enraptured us
but…
is this emotion devotion, as deep as the ocean
or what?
was that a tender caress
or only a grope?
baby, is it love?
or is it the dope?
Behind the Song
The year is 1979. I got a
call from Tom Lehrer, whom I had met and befriended...
… while at UC Santa Cruz; he was an adjunct professor, I was a student, and we shared a passion for songwriting. Following my senior recital in 1976, he had given me a lyric to set, a song called Thank Him for Me. Today he was calling to tell me he was sending me a lyric idea he had, which he invited me to set in a song.
I did. And played it with my band, including Jimi Fischer who plays on the song today. I never recorded it formally, nor refined it. So, in modern days when getting ready to do this album, I decided to apply my current sensibilities to the song, and that brought it to its current state, which is quite different from the original version (and in my opinion far better).
The song turned out considerably different from what I think Tom imagined when he wrote the lyric. His musical sensibility is derived from the musical theater world. But in 1979, the band I was in, Modoc, was a funk band. The biggest thing on the musical scene was disco. So for me, the first line of the song being “I see flashing strobes, and mirrored globes, and stereo merry-go-rounds” led me to want to put this in a disco setting. But if you read the lyric, it’s clearly imagined as a waltz, as a tongue-in-cheek love song, as only Tom Lehrer could write.
The original lyric saved the joke until last (I've now moved it up) and then I worried whether anyone would even get that it’s a joke. So, I knew the music had to have hooks, had to grab the listener even without the listener tuning in on the lyric. And then I thought, why not try writing a rap, a rap that continues the singer’s pining for his love in terms that simultaneously describe a marijuana high. Please forgive me. On my last album, in the song Vanilla Blues, I sing “I wouldn’t dare to rap.” I broke my own rule.
I have also written a waltz version of the song, which I've included on the album, with different commentary on this site. Check it out! Vive la difference.
Thank you to Lauren and Rachel for their vocals on the track. And thanks to Jimi for his amazing guitar playing (which is itself very funny) and for his astounding simple but effective suggestions to the mix. They made such a difference that he deserves (and receives) co-producer credits, for the song wouldn’t have been the same without him.
