Independent Love Song Scarlet WEA Released: January 1995 Highest UK Chart Position: 12 Available on: Naked

"Hi, Kevin."

"Hullo Bill."

"What are you doing?"

"Not much. Just sitting around, listening to this record."

"Oh. Sounds Good. What's it about?"

"It's one of those power ballads —"

"What, like Meatloaf?"

"Yeah, except, y'know, good. Soaring female vocals, big pianos and the like."

"Hmm. A little too earnest for me. What is she singing about?"

"It's an independent love song."

"What the hell does that mean? Independent from what exactly?"

"Well, if you listen, Bill, you might understand. It's one of the early signs of the ladette in British culture, this is. Now it's fine that many men will look my way / And I'll let them take me home and let them show me the way / And sure I'll like a few but I'll leave the rest to play. See?"

"I see. And the chorus I'm gonna show you how to take me / Go down go down / And I'll show you how to turn me / Right on right on is her directing her lover in a not-very-veiled fashion."

"Right! You see, it's the woman telling the man that she's in charge of the relationship, that she might play around, but she'll always come back to him."

"Hmm."

"Hmm?"

"Y'know, Kevin, why does it have to be a man? Perhaps it's really a song about bisexuality. She's currently in a relationship with a woman. Perhaps it's her partner's first relationship, hence the guidance, and the warning that men will still be interested in the singer. And her in them. But for now, all she wants is her."

"Huh."

"You don't agree?"

"Just hadn't thought about it like that before."

"Well, it's just what I took from it. Anyway, Mike's waiting for us down the pub. We should get moving."

"Yeah."