I'll Never Learn - the Shangri-Las
Before she left New York for LA, only a handful of Essra Mohawk's songs were recorded by producer "Shadow" Morton, the best of which, "I'll Never Learn" surfaced as the B-Side of a very ordinary flop: "The Sweet Sound of Summer" by the Shangri-Las of 1966 was their last song to scrape into the US chart at number 123.
Both Sandy/Essra and the Shangri-Las lead singer Mary Weiss were born in 1948 and both died at the age of 75, Weiss just over a month ago, on January 19th. "I'll never Learn" shows both of them off at their very best. Astonishingly, at the time of recording, Mohawk was 18 and Weiss a long-in-the-tooth 17 (she was a mere 15 at the time of their classic US Number One, "Leader of the Pack"!)
The Shangri-Las were two sets of sisters: Mary, her older sister Betty, Marguerite "Marge" Ganser and Mary Ann Ganser who were identical twins (see https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/2017/12/21/girl-groups-weeks-no-5-the-shangri-las ). In three years, 1964 - 1966, they released two classic albums and twelve singles of which nine are solid gold classics, if you count B-Sides, specifically this and the wonderful "Train from Kansas City" (see https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/2019/01/16/the-train-from-kansas-city-the-shangri-las ). Mary is pictured above flanked by the Ganser twins (sister Betty absent on maternity leave!)
No doubt keen to emulate the Beatles by deploying a string quartet (that is two violins, a viola and a cello) on a pop song, as McCartney had with "Yesterday" just months before, Morton adds only an acoustic guitar, lightly-applied drums, a flicker of castanets, gasping breaths and a faintly audible murmuring from the rest of the girls when they are not echoing Mary's "sleepless" "crying" to produce a min-masterpiece.
No-one does unsentimental pathos better than Mary Weiss, her yearning voice, beautifully counterpointed against the brooding cello, before slipping into the restless tossing and turning "Take Five" rhythm with the strings providing an anxious backdrop. Mohawk's lyrics are the poetry of desperation and loneliness, of depression and regret. What will she never learn? Not to trust anyone? Not to accept that her lover's not coming back?
Seventeen or not, this is not so much an expression of teenage angst as a classic, classical even, portrait of a young woman alone with her soul. Not exactly singalong but worth "shadowing" the words to appreciate their true power.
"Sit here thinkin',
thinkin’ bout the happy times we used to have -
now they're gone forever,
I still have to wait for their return.
No, I'll never learn, I’ll never learn.
My eyes they burn from sleepless (sleepless) nights cryin' (cryin')
Here I am in a dream,
walking through a purple mist,
double flow and clouds of blue
waiting to be kissed, to be loved by you.
There's a fog coming through the fog machine and prayin'
that now she's got somewhere beneath the fog to be in
and the fog takes the shape of love
and it's real, and it's true, and it’s you...
but I wake up
sit here, thinkin’,
thinkin' ’bout the happy times we used to have -
know they're gone forever -
I still have to wait for their return.
No, I'll never learn, I'll never learn.
My eyes they burn from sleepless cryin’.
Here I am in a dream immersed in a liquid sea of love.
Shivering rainbow bubbles surf the sky above,
a looking glass that reflects the past.
Time will see me all around like pillows upside down,
caress my heart, caress my soul, surround my limbs.
you'd laugh and laugh and hold my body fast
But I wake up,
sit here, thinkin’,
thinkin' ’bout the happy times we used to have,
know they're gone forever -
I still have to wait for their return.
No, I'll never learn, I'll never learn.
My eyes they burn from sleepless cryin’,
sleepless cryin’.
(Help!)."
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