God only knows – I’ve noticed you
Written down like that it doesn’t look like much, but as sung by the writer, a devastating line. A six word story inside a lyric that feels like you’re accidentally overhearing one side of a private conversation. Stop eavesdropping, is how I feel. Walk away.
The voice of Mark […] is to cry.
@simoforever75,YouTube, 2022
“It’s You”, is a Talk Talk Deep Cut, aka an-album-track-many-fans-overlook, except for the few who say that it is their Favourite. Going by the above-mentioned YouTube comments section, the Favourite status is mostly down to the patented ‘Hollis Crying’ TM vocal.
When I’m listening to the studio version I like to imagine that somewhere there is video of the core Talk Talk Trio – Hollis Harris & Webb – playing it live for some bonkers Europop TV show. Just drums bass and vocal. That would have been truly revolutionary. Never happened.
Me, without the daydreams, I prefer the live versions of this tune to the super-synthy studio version, and there were many – It’s You made the setlist nearly every night of the Colour of Spring Tour. Not so much on the “It’s My Life” tour , which is odd, but whatever. Maybe it took them a while to figure this one out.
But once they figured it out, it went from Deep Cut to Live Staple.
Blessedly, in the live versions, the synths are way back in the mix, it’s bass forward, drums forward, dance forward. At some point Ian Curnow will bust out a slightly unhinged Atonal Jazz solo. At Salamanca, Hollis stops to listen to it, he is nodding – is it approval or is he just keeping time?
‘It’s You’ at Salamanca. Hollis hiding in plain sight, his hair twisting into wild shapes as he sings, you can’t see his face – but he can’t hide his voice and to hear it is to cry.
The only tiny catch is, with the live versions, you do miss out on the ultra-extended fade-out on the studio version. The extremely long outro is the evil twin of the extremely short intro; 0-60 in one beat. The overwhelming synths won’t wait. I do love a well-placed synth so I try to convince myself that my preference for the live version is not a diss of the synth-heavy studio version. But, truely, it is.
It’s youhttps://youtu.be/QTYw5M8Aqj4?si=FvkTrIkKF2n02m8Y
It’s you Live at Salamanca 1986 https://youtu.be/1PriN0TsZGI?si=N8hMaTN12hT37DGW