Don't Go Away

I adore "Don't Go Away". It was the single that should have been but never was. The song is superb in so many ways. I do think it's one of Ulf's best works. Right up there with STL. I like the lyrics, they contain a common theme of losing a love. But, the DGA lyrics push it a bit further with a pinch of egoism.

I find that this egoism begins in two little lines:

"Two wrongs don't make a right. You're gonna regret it when you're looking back on your life."

First off, these two lines imply that a wrong has been committed in the relationship by the first person and the other wrong implied in the "two wrongs don't make a right" line would be for person #2 to break up with person #1 for this mistake. We're never told what wrong person #1 has committed but it's grave enough for them to be dumped because of it. (Yes, we're never told what the wrong is, but maybe the line "fell for temptation. It didn't mean a thing" gives a clue.) So, here's where the egoism comes in. Person #1 has done something very wrong, yet they're turing the whole situation around and saying, "Yes, I have done wrong but if YOU leave, you'll regret it." Ouch.

And that's not all the egoism evidence:

"Wanna be more than a picture hanging on the wall?
Something to remind me of how it all went wrong?
Do you want to be more than a number encoded in a book?
Holding something special, so take another look."

[Note: Acer25 mentioned that I quoted the third line incorrectly. It should be "... a number forgotten in a book", not encoded in a book. Thanks for that find Acer25!]

After person #1 berates person #2 for wanting to leave when #1 screwed up in the first place, person #1 continues the tirade by asking if #2 wants to be a nobody. It could be said in another way: "If you leave, you'll be just a picture, a number, a memory, a nothing. You've got me and I'm 'something special'. Don't be so stupid to give that up." Hrm.

"Make the most of this love I'm giving. Better take another look at my face." "Take a look, take a look. Take another look on your way."

Yeah. If a guy started saying things like this to get me to stay with him, I'd be walking out the door even faster.

Lest the Ulf fans go crazy on me, just because the lyrics imply egoism, it doesn't mean this characteristic automatically applies to the person or people who wrote the song. Jonas makes this same attribution error with Cecilia. Jonas falsely attributes the characteristics of the guy in the song Cecilia to the songwriters of the song itself, Simon and Garfunkel.

"Simon and Garfunkel had a little problem. It was something about their hearts. You used to break them and make them go down on their knees, on and on again."

Well, Cecilia was not interested in breaking the hearts of the songwriters, she was interested in breaking the heart of the guy in the song.

"Oh Cecilia, you're breaking my heart. You're shaking my confidence daily. Oh Cecilia, I'm down on my knees, I'm begging you please to come home."

Sometimes the song is autobiographical, as in Ravine, and sometimes it's not.