Music Review: Ed Sheeran "You Need Me, I Don't Need You"

Ed Sheeran

You Need Me, I Don’t Need You

Album: +

Year: 2011

           Ed Sheeran vents his frustration at a record label in the critical  “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You.”

           A clean guitar interwoven with a stark bass open the single, setting a minimalist tone. The air conditioning hums in the hotel room, creating a mechanical harmony as he tunes his guitar for the evening’s show. Perhaps there’s a way he could integrate the hum into his music. Months ago, he was at a label and it didn’t go well at all. When he left, they wished him well. He shook their hands, walked out the door with lyrics already in his head about the experience. Each song he writes reflects something personal inside of him. He respects other singer-songwriters who are trying to make their way like him. He wouldn’t ever tear them down for his own gain. His mentor at the label would ask him where he would like to take his music and what he would like about. No matter how he answered, it wasn’t possible to do. They wouldn’t let him be himself. Each morning, he would walk in and hope it would be the day his mentor would feed him the spiel about how he it was great having there but he was sorry, it just wasn’t working out. He’s involved in each aspect of his music: writing the lyrics, music, production, and the image he wants to be project. Instead, he was being told he wasn’t putting in the effort and to focus on the big picture. (“Now I'm in town, break it down/Thinkin' of making a new sound/Playing a different show every night in front of a new crowd/That's you now, ciao/Seems that life is great now/See me loose, focus, as I sing to you loud/And I can't, no, I won't hush/I say the words that make you blush/I gonna sing this now/See I'm true, my songs are where my heart is/I'm like glue, I stick to other artists/I'm not you, now that would be disastrous/So let me sing and do my thing/And move to greener pastures/See, I'm real, I do it all, it's all me/I'm not fake, don't ever call me lazy/I won't stay put/Give me a chance to be free/Suffolk sadly seems to sort of suffocate me.”)

          In the chorus, his former label was in trouble. Their marquee artists were no longer the latest trend. They had a few hit singles from a couple people but nothing that resulted in major sales. The only thing keeping them running was the older artists they still had on the label that were out touring. They had to have someone new and modern like him that would take off, generating income for their company. However, he still has other options available to him. (“Cause' you need me, man, I don't need you/You need me, man, I don't need you/You need me, man, I don't need you/Until, You need me, man, I don't need you/You need me, man, I don't need you/You need me, man, I don't need you/You need me, man, I don't need you/Until you need me.”)

           They scrapped his songs and set him up with another songwriter. They told his writing was abstract, too entrenched in metaphors and people wouldn’t buy it. His mentor, who he once admired for writing some great songs, he saw in a different light.  The lyrics weren’t his. They were written by a committee with some small input from him. His music is good, he knows it. At his shows, the response is usually positive. He may have some beers. But he knows his limits. He doesn’t want to google himself one day and pictures of him being carried out of clubs. He also doesn’t want to be a trend, a famewhore, with stories swirling about him everywhere. He enjoys performing. It relaxes him. (“ See, I write my own tune/And I write my own verse/Don't need another wordsmith, to make my tune sell/Call yourself a singer-writer/You're just bluffing/Your names on the credits/You didn't write nothing/I sing fast/I know that all my shit’s cool/I will blast/And I didn't go to Brit school/I came fast with the way I act, right/I can't last if I'm smoking on a crack pipe/I won't be a product of my genre/My mind will always be stronger than my songs are/Never believe the bullshit that the fake guys feed to ya/Always read the stories that you hear in Wikipedia/And musically I'm demonstrating/When I perform live, feels like I am meditating/Times at The Enterprise when some fella filmed me/A young singer-writer like Gabriella Cilmi.”)

            The chorus is sung again.

             He wants to be known. He wants to see his name on Wembley Field. He wants to meet his idol, Damien Rice.  He has his family supporting him.  He’s done interviews with some local papers. They’ve been hyping him as the next big thing. Despite the press, he’s still sleeping on his best friend’s couch, scrambling for change in the laundry to get some food.  He’s been working towards his moment ever since he was a kid, perfecting his rock star hairstyle in the mirror. He won’t invent a generic last name for himself and he’ll be featured in other people’s songs. Rappers will wonder who he is and copying his style into their songs. He releases his music independently, selling it at his shows to make money and get the attention of a major record label A& R person. He comes from a good family and sings in the church choir. Whatever success he has had, it hasn’t changed him. On the internet, he’s posted videos on Myspace and Youtube. With each day, the views keep climbing. The promotion is part of it, along with recording and touring. The excited press will find someone new to eventually. (“With the lyrics I'll be aiming it right/I won't stop till' my names in lights/At stadium heights/With Damien Rice, on red carpets/Now I'm on Arabian nights/Because I'm young, and I know my brothers' gonna give me advice/Long nighter, short height and I've gone hyper/Never be anything but a singer-songwriter/The game’s over but now I'm on a new level/Watch how I step on the track without a loop pedal/People think that I'm bound to blow up/I've done around about a thousand shows/But I haven't got a house plus I live on the couch/So you can be the lyrics when I'm singing them out (Wow)/From day one, I've been prepared/With vo5 wax for my ginger hair/So now I'm back to the sofa giving a dose of what the future holds/Cause it's another day/Plus I'll keep my last name forever keep the genre pretty basic/Gonna be breaking into other people's tunes when I chase it/And replace it with the elephant in the room with a facelift/Into another rapper’s shoes using new laces/Selling cds from my rucksack aiming for the papers/Selling cds from my rucksack aiming for majors/Nationwide til' we're just jack, soon as I get the bus back/Clean cut kid without a razor for the moustache/I hit back when the pen hurts me/I'm still a choir boy in a Fenchurch tee/I'm still the same as a year ago/But more people hear me though/According to the Myspace and Youtube videos/I'm always doing shows, if I'm not I'm in the studio/Truly broke, never growing up call me *Ruffio/Melody music maker/Reading all the papers/They say I'm up and coming like I'm fucking in an elevator.”)

                 The chorus is sung twice to end the single.

                Sheeran’s composed, frank, vocals are explanatory, giving his side the story, hoping others could learn from what happened to him. It’s made him more determined to do things on his own and on his terms.

               The single was originally released in 2011 in theU.K. Since then, he has had success in theU.K., crossed over into theUnited States, written a hit song for One Direction (“Little Things”) and is currently touring with superstar, Taylor Swift.  Those accomplishments alone back up his lyrics.

           The unconfined “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You” is absolutely right, summing up a negative experience most young people go through either at their first job or at an internship.