Love The One You're With

Cover version of the month #89

The Isley Brothers cover Stephen Stills

The thing I love about my cover version of the month feature is that I regularly discover new things about a song I love. The chorus of Stephen Stills Love The One You're With was inspired by his friend Billy Preston. Apparently it was something he regularly said. I guess it's easy to imagine people saying that in the free swinging 60's!

If you can't be with the one you love

Honey, love the one you're with 

A constant driving acoustic guitar is at the heart of the song, allowing vocals, choir, beats and additional instruments to come in over the top at various times.

The choir lifts the chorus, while the organ (played by Stills) could easily have been played by Preston who inspired the song. The do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do section enhances the catchiness of the song.

Like so many of the great songs from that period, the lyrics are remarkably simple and therefor relatable.

Down, confused, baby, the imagery of the rose in a fisted glove and the eagle flies with the dove, love, sad, crying, good times, waiting for something to do, heartache, joy, girl, boy ...

Stephen Stills makes songwriting seem so easy. Maybe others just overly complicate the art!

The Isley Brothers add on additional 40 seconds to the original, but they remain pretty true to it. The harmonies on the chorus are glorious.

Taken from their magnificent 1971 album Givin It Back that also has brilliant covers of Neil Young's Ohio merged with Jimi Hendrix' Machine Gun, a 10-minute plus version of Dylan's Lay Lady Lay and James Taylor's Fire and Rain. It's well worth checking out and I'm positive that I'll feature one of these songs in the future. 

The Stephen Stills original and The Isley Brothers cover version are added to my Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify which also features all of the songs below. Search for the title or CLICK HERE

Previous covers of the month

1. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 

2. Going Back To My Roots

3. Nirvana play The Vaselines

4. Slip Inside This House

5. Top 10 covers by Teenage Fanclub

6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart

7. Time For Livin' 

8. Sound and Vision 

9. All Along The Watchtower

10. I Am The Walrus 

11. Guiding Star

12. You’ll Never Walk Alone

13. Hurt

14. This Guy's In Love With You

15. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine

16. California Soul

18. Wonder wall 

19. Dancing In The Dark

20. Always On My Mind

21. Ceremony

22. Heroes

23. Different Drum

24. Wild Horses

25. Respect

26. Mr Tambourine Man

27. I Heard It Through The Grapevine

28. Superstar

29. Twist and Shout

30. Purple Rain

31. Baker Street

32. Not Fade Away

33. Stop Your Sobbing

34. I Don't Want To Grow Up

35. Serious Drugs

36. Dancing With Myself

37. How Does It Feel To Feel?

38. Love Buzz

39. ABBA-esque
40. Jumpin' Jack Flash

41. Discoland

42. Varshons 2 by The Lemonheads

43. The Langley Schools Music Project
44. Witchi Tai To
45. Our Lips Are Sealed
46. Sunshine Of Your Love
47. Here Comes The Sun
48. I Think We're Alone Now
49. Don't Let Me Down 
50. It's Oh So Quiet
51. Alcoholiday 
52. Summer Holiday
53. Who Do You Think You Are?
54. Head On
55. Nothing Compares 2 U

56. Hey Jude

57. Seven Days Too Long

58. L.O.V.E Love

59. Into Your Arms

60. Heart Of Glass

61. Take Me To The River

62. We Can Work It Out 

63. Talking In My Sleep

64. Lola

65. Lost In Music

66. My Little Red Book

67. Isn't It A Pity

68. Walk On By

69. Walk Away Renee

70. Tainted Love

71. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

72. Listen The Snow Is Falling

73. Mrs Robinson

74. He's Gonna Step On You Again

75. In My Life

76. Caravan Of Love

77. The Only Way Is Up

78. Dancin' Round & Round

79. With A Little Help From My Friends

80. Killing Me Softly

81. Ain't No Mountain High Enough

82. Drop

83. Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

84. Sympathy For The Devil

85. I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor

86. Love Will Tear Us Apart

87. Indian Rope Man + bonus Strawberry Fields Forever + This Wheels On Fire

88. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

10 great love songs

Happy Valentine's Day.

Here are 10 of my favourite love songs.

My Love Is Your Love (Forever) - The Isley Brothers

Flows superbly, gorgeous strings. 'Now girl, now that I found you, come closer girl, I wanna put my arms around you.

Only With You - The Beach Boys

Does it get any more beautiful than this?

'I wanna spend this life with you, only with you, yes it's true, all I wanna do, is spend my life with you.'

Don't Let Me Down - The Beatles

Lennon is so hopelessly in love that he says four words rather than three. Incredible middle-eight 'I'm in love for the first time, don't you know it's gonna last, it's a love that last forever, it's a love that has no past'.

I'm Thinking Of You - Sister Sledge

Disco heaven, this was sublime when Chic played it at Wickerman last summer.

'Without love, there's no reason to live, without you, what would I do with the love I give?'

'I'm thinking of you and the things you do to me, that make me love you, now I'm living in ecstasy'.

Mellow Doubt - Teenage Fanclub

I listened to this a lot before I proposed to Lynn.

'There is no choice, in what I must do, nothing is greater, than to be with you'

I Love Every Little Thing About You - Stevie Wonder

Stevie has written some inspirational love songs. Has he ever sounded so head over heels?

'I'm here to say, I love you every day, and I just wanna tell the world I love you so…'

Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating In My Space - Spiritualized

From the truly exceptional album of the same name. J Spaceman is on a different level with this gorgeous lysergic lullaby.

I will love you till I die and I will love you all the time,

So please put your sweet hand in mine, 

We'll float in space and drift in time

I'm Sticking With You - Velvet Underground

Childlike vocals by Moe Tucker. The section when Lou Reed comes in is just stunning, flows superbly.

I'll do anything for you, anything you want me to, 

I'll do anything for you, woah-oh I'm sticking with you

Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

Can you hear me calling, out your name,

You know I'm falling and I don't know what to say

Something's happening, happening to me

My friend's say I'm acting peculiarly 

Divine. 

Baby, I Love You - The Ronettes

Simple, heartfelt and soulful. This was our first wedding dance. Spector at his very best.

Have I ever told you

How good it feels to hold you

It isn't easy to explain