You can find love songs just about anywhere without looking too hard. But it’s much more difficult to locate songs that talk about the realities of relationships, realities that might not be all that romantic.
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XTC offered some peppy music on their 1986 song “Earn Enough For Us”. But the lyrics detail the struggles of a young couple desperately trying to make ends meet.
“Enough” is Enough
Some forty years after its release, many fans and music critics consider Skylarking to be the career pinnacle for the British band XTC. The process of making it was anything but smooth, however, as the band clashed with producer Todd Rundgren.
The band hired Rundgren, in part, so that he could help them gain traction in America. But when they joined Rundgren in America to make the record, they found that he had plotted out the entire album based on tapes of the material they had passed along to him, right down to the sequencing.
Lead singer and chief songwriter Andy Partridge clashed with Rundgren time and again. During the recording of “Earn Enough For Us”, he also argued with Colin Moulding about the bass line the latter was playing. But out of that turmoil came power-pop perfection, aided by a killer guitar riff from Dave Gregory.
As for the topic, Partridge took inspiration from a job he had as a younger man, where he dealt with a horrible boss. “Earn Enough For Us” went on to become one of the band’s most beloved tracks, one that includes some relatable lyrics in the middle of a pristine, propulsive musical package.
Examining the Lyrics of “Earn Enough For Us”
“Earn Enough For Us” finds the narrator bemoaning the strength of his relationship, in large part because he’s not making enough money. “I’ve been praying I can keep you,” Partridge sings. “And to earn enough for us.”
He’s willing to endure all sorts of emotional suffering at the hands of his direct superior at work. “I can take humiliation,” he admits. “And hurtful comments from the boss.” Their attempts to move up in the world are thwarted by their lack of funds. “Found a house that won’t repair itself,” Partridge sings. “And a roof held together with holes.”
The narrator doesn’t believe that poverty should automatically equate to misery. “We shouldn’t be sadder than others like us,” he ponders. “Who have goals for the betterment of life.” Partridge ingeniously heads back into the main refrain with the line, “Glad you want to be my wife, but honest/I’ve been praying all the week through.”
Just when the pressure doesn’t seem like it can get any tighter, the couple finds out they’re going to be parents. “But the belt’s already right,” he worries. “I’ll get another job at night, but honest.” And then the chorus comes around again, which mimics the way one working day follows unrelentingly upon another.
Starting off the second side of Skylarking, “Earn Enough For Us” sends us hurtling into the nine-to-five routine without any brakes. The participants barely have enough time to complain about their lot in life, lest they miss out on an hour’s pay that they can’t afford to lose.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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