Listening Blog #19 – “When You Were Mine” – Cyndi Lauper (1985)

Instrumentation: Vocals (Lauper), Synthesized instrumentation – drumbeats, “piano”, guitar/s, bass

Form: Strophic – as a popular song, the verses repeat both musically (the same melodic line) and lyrically (the verses beginning with “When you were mine”, and the chorus beginning with “I know”).

Origin: This song was originally recorded by Prince, and was covered by Cyndi Lauper in 1985. The lyrics were originally written from the point of view of a man talking about his female lover cheating on him with another man. However, Lauper decided not to change the song’s lyrics in her version, creating the suggestion of the song being from a woman’s perspective of being in love with another woman. The two songs actually sound surprisingly similar: Prince’s falsetto creates a more delicate sound, while Lauper’s ‘girlish’ sound lies within the same range.

Lyrics: Even though Lauper does not change Prince’s original pronouns, she nevertheless makes a strong statement with them, much like Midler’s cover of “Beast of Burden.” By shifting the song’s focus from a heterosexual man-woman relationship to a homo/bisexual woman-woman-man relationship, Lauper challenges her listener’s conceptions of sexuality and sexual identity, especially as it relates to women. Lauper possesses close ties to the gay community: Lauper’s sister, whom she considered to be her role model, ‘came out’ as a lesbian in the 1990s, and Lauper has performed at many gay-pride events around the world. This close connection to the LGBTQ community undoubtedly influenced Lauper’s views and her approach to this song.

Timbre: As discussed earlier, Lauper sings in her trademark unique, distinctly ‘girlish’ tone: this adds a sense of hyper-femininity to her music. On the one hand, one could argue that this ‘girly’ sound acts as a cop-out marketing device, by portraying Lauper as a “harmless” girl instead of a woman, and therefore stereotyping and minimalizing her as a person and musician. Yet at the same time, one could also read her ‘girlishness’ as a celebration of girlhood, and a chance to provide a positive role model to adolescent girls, facilitating the difficult transition from girlhood to womanhood.

Personal Response: Lauper’s music has always straddled the border of ‘fun’ and ‘annoying’ in my book – I think because of her propensity to squeak and sound slightly whiny. I found this song slightly enjoyable musically, if not exceptional, but I found her loyalty to the original lyrics to be really interesting. I’m amazed at how, by staying true to the original lyrics, Lauper is able to communicate more than if she had changed them to include the typical pronouns.