David Berthy Posts

Today’s post concerns the third and fourth tracks on the Impressions 1968 LP This Is My Country. First up is “I’m Loving Nothing.” Taken on its own, the title phrase does double duty by suggesting both that there is nothing to love, and, more penetratingly, that the narrator is “loving nothing.” The vocal performance is a Mayfield classic, and this is easily one of the most moving songs I know. There’s something perfect about how “I’m Loving Nothing” leads into the next track on the album, “Loves Happening,” where Mayfield dips his toe into the waters of hippiedom. The lyrics get a little slippery here—love is apparently happening in a place, “…where color speaks to flower girls, hippie beat, in a macro (or is it micro) world.” This may or may not be a solution to the existential dilemma explored in “I’m Loving Nothing,” but it doesn’t really matter, because “Loves Happening” sounds like Curtis Mayfield is singing while being backed by The Zombies—an irrefutable cure for just about any ill.

Loving Nothing/Loves Happpening