Music Review: Bruno Mars "When I Was Your Man"

Bruno Mars

When I Was Your Man

Album: Unorthodox Jukebox

Year: 2013

       Bruno Mars regrets taking his girlfriend for granted in the  repentant   “When I Was Your Man.”

    A sullen piano opens the single,  setting a glum tone. He rolls over in his bed, stretching out his arm on the left side. He thinks of how he would wrap his arm around his ex-girlfriend’s waist and kiss her back before returning to sleep. As he gets dressed for work, their song plays on the radio. He can’t bear to turn it off even though it pains to hear the lyrics and not have her embracing him, whispering to him. Some of friends keep in contact in with her. They tell him she’s doing all right. Her mother is still driving her crazy, though. She’d always been a resilient person. During their lean years together when they couldn’t afford anything, she had enough strength for the both of them and managed to keep them together. He wishes he didn’t have to hear about her life secondhand. (“Same bed but it feels just a little bit bigger now/Our song on the radio but it don't sound the same/When our friends talk about you, all it does is just tear me down/'Cause my heart breaks a little when I hear your name.”)

             In the chorus, he knows she had every right to leave him. She took care of him for years and he didn’t show her any appreciation for it. On her birthday and other holidays, she was lucky if he rememberd to buy a card. He figured they lived together and she knew he loved her. He hadn’t shown his affection much. He spent a lot of time with his friends and at his job. He could tell people how to make all his close friend’s favorite teams and the players on it, what they liked to eat and their favorite bars around town. He can’t even if she put mushrooms on her pizza or if she was allergic to them. She only wanted to spend time with him and he choose everything else over her. Now, she’s dating someone else. From what he’s heard, her new boyfriend is serious about her and planning to marrying her. (“It all just sounds like oh/
Mmm, too young, too dumb to realize/That I should have bought you flowers/And held your hand/
Should have gave you all my hours/When I had the chance/Take you to every party/'Cause all you wanted to do was dance/Now my baby's dancing/But she's dancing with another man.”)

       He wanted his way all the time. If she wanted to go somewhere, he’d veto it and pick a place. She would ask for help around the apartment and he would scream back at her that he’d worked all week. When she had family events, he wouldn’t go. However, when it was his turn, he would make sure she knew the date and time. About six months ago, she approached him and told him she was tired of being last in his life. She was leaving and there was nothing he could say or do to change her mind. He ruined a good relationship and a second chance is unlikely. (“My pride, my ego, my needs, and my selfish ways/Caused a good strong woman like you to walk out my life/Now I never, never get to clean up the mess I made, oh/And it haunts me every time I close my eyes.”)

          The chorus is sung again.

 
 
 In the bridge, he finally admits it was fault. However, he realizes he should’ve taken notice to her faraway glances and sad expression. He reasoned she was tired  from the stress at work. However, the strain of being the only one putting the effort into the relationship was hurting her. (“Although it hurts/I'll be the first to say that I was wrong/Oh, I know I'm probably much too late/To try and apologize for my mistakes/But I just want you to know.”)

        In the final chorus, it’s important to him that she is happy with her new boyfriend and he treats with the respect she deserves.. (“I hope he buys you flowers/I hope he holds your hand/Give you all his hours/When he has the chance/Take you to every party/'Cause I remember how much you loved to dance/Do all the things I should have done/When I was your man/Do all the things I should have done/When I was your man.”)

Mars’ contrite, harrowing vocals wail, gasping for air in between the endless crying. He made a terrible mistake and beats himself up over it. He will never meet anyone like her in his life again.

       With a sympathetic arrangement enabling his self-pity, the single falls deeper into the misery, unable to pull itself out.

The catatonic “When I Was Your Man” can barely function, let alone move.