This week’s installment of Lyrics, Weakly is another request, a now (mercifully) mostly forgotten top-40 song from 1962, “That’s Tough (That’s Life)” by one-hit wonder Gabriel & the Angels.
How obscure is this band? They’re so obscure that, despite having had a hit (the song under discussion here), they don’t even have a Wikipedia page, and as far as i can tell their one hit has been released on CD on all of two compilations, one of which was released only in the United Kingdom and the other went out of print really, really quickly. Just for fun, though, here’s the b-side to “That’s Tough (That’s Life)”, a fun little song called “I Don’t Wanna Twist No More”, in which the singer laments that there is no physical contact when one performs the twist. (And to think that some people thought the twist needed to be banned, when in fact it was helping enforce community moral standards.)
Anyway, there’s very little information about the band or the song anywhere. I found one claim that the band was formed by members of the Five Sharps, but if you listen to their recording of “Stormy Weather” (warning: the sound quality is poor—it’s from an old 78 rpm record), it doesn’t sound even remotely like Gabriel & the Angels. Also, i managed to find an online resumé for Richard Kellis, where he lists being the leader, arranger, and performer in Gabriel & his Angels, and there’s no mention of the Five Sharps anywhere on it, so that makes me even more skeptical of the claim. (And yes, this means that David B is willing to commit stalkery in researching these songs. That’s right—Lyrics, Weakly, going the extra mile for you!)
I also found a couple pages on the web that claim that Gabriel & the Angels are “frequently confused” with another band called Gabriel’s Angels (who also don’t have a Wikipedia page). However, I was unable to find any evidence for this confusion aside from those two pages, so maybe it’s just that the authors of those pages frequently confuse those two bands.
In other news, Gabriel & the Angels have occasionally been confused with Led Zeppelin. Well, that is, they have been at least once, in the preceding sentence.
Anyway—since i don’t have anything more of substance to say in the introduction (assuming that what you’ve just read could be called “of substance”), let’s move directly to the music. This song has an interesting but relatively straightforward structure, with a brief introduction, then three verse-then-chorus pairs followed by a bit of vamping as the song fades out at the end. There’s a bit of call and response to add some interest, with a male lead singer and female background singers (at least i think they’re female, not men singing falsetto). The background vocals are in parentheses in what follows, just to make it easier to follow.
When things go wrong this always happens to me
And I never get no answers or sympathy
They just say
(Oh oh that’s tough)
Rough, Gabriel—so allow me to be the first to offer sympathy. No answers, though, i’m afraid.
So, putting on my sympathetic hat, what sort of things happen to you?
One time in school I failed in history
Said to the teacher “Why’d this happen to me?”
Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! I mean, i teach for a living (though not history), and so i know why people fail classes: Generally, it’s because they have a very low level of aptitude for the subject, or they don’t apply themselves to the class enough to merit a passing score (or, quite often, both).
Oh, wait—i’m supposed to be sympathetic. Sorry—i’ll try better next time.
It couldn’t be my fault the test was too rough
Or maybe i won’t.
Come on, Gabriel, just accept that you biffed the test and move on. Or, if you like, i could provide you with a makeup exam.
She said
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
Well, okay, i’ll give you that that’s a pretty heartless response on her part. Now, it’s completely understandable if you’ve pulled this sort of line in the past, but i’ll give you the benefit of the doubt (remember, i’m being—well, trying to be—sympathetic here) and assume that she was just being a bit overly vicious.
Ah! And so we come to the chorus.
What’s tough?
Presumably in reaction to the end of the first verse. It’s a silly question to ask—i mean, Gabriel himself is the one who outlined the situation that’s tough, so he’s the one who you’d expect to have the answer already, but fine, whatever. We’re transitioning from a verse to the chorus here, so a little bit of weirdness might be expected.
(Life)
Harsh, but a reasonable answer.
What’s life?
Wow—we’re getting pretty existential here. I wonder what sort of deep, philosophical answer the Angels are going to give in response to that question.
(A magazine)
Oh, wow.
Well, that was unexpected.
Well how much does it cost?
And i think that the part of my brain responsible for processing logical consistency in language just exploded.
Really, this is not the way a real conversation would go—not even remotely. Think about it: Someone’s feeling downhearted, and hears someone else say “That’s tough.” Then the downhearted dude, perhaps as a sarcastic retort, asks “What’s tough?” to which the answer comes “Life.” Well, yes, thinks the downhearted one, life is tough—but, perhaps after more detail, asks the question “What’s life?” which receives the answer “It’s a magazine.”
Now I ask you, what is the most reasonable response to this sort of thing? Maybe, at the mildest, asserting that it was a serious question, possibly walking away (with or without saying “Fine, if you don’t want to talk about it seriously, don’t bother”), possibly losing it and throwing a punch.
Certainly not, though, asking how much it costs.
(It costs twenty cents)
Just as an aside, consider that when Life ended publication as a monthly magazine in 2000, it cost $3.99 or $4.99, depending on whether it was a “special issue” or not. I checked, and 20¢ in 1962 was the equivalent of $1.14 in 2000, which means that the price of Life increased much faster than inflation.
Which i suppose is very true, no matter what definition of life you’re using.
But I only got a nickel (a nickel)
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
No, that’s not tough, it’s basic economics—if you don’t have the ability to pay for something, you can’t purchase it.
Of course, since we appear to be talking about a magazine here for some reason, you could always try hanging out in a doctor’s office or an auto repair establishment and see if they have one there. And even if you didn’t find a copy of Life, at the very least you’d be able to compare the editorial practices of Car & Driver and Redbook, which i’m sure would prove enlightening.
But in any event, that’s the end of the chorus, and so we move back into the meat of the song, Gabriel’s explanation of how things are so bad and why he needs more sympathy.
Then I was cheating and my girl saw me
She said that she was gonna set me free
So i’m assuming this is cheating in the romantic sense, not in the academic sense, ’cause otherwise you’d presumably be doing better in school (see verse one), at least for now.
I said “Don’t put me down now it’s you I love”
But she just said
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
This is bad? I mean, i’d have though this was a win-win. Clearly she doesn’t want to be with a cheater, and you don’t want to be with her, so you’re both happy with this, right, Gabriel?
No? Well, it takes all kinds, i suppose. Apparently you should have made your intentions toward your now-former girlfriend clearer, maybe by providing her with a tangible symbol of your commitment, or, you know, something radical like simply not cheating on her.
Oh—and i just realized i expressed no sympathy at all during that verse. Oh well, that’s tough.
And that brings us to the chorus again, which i’ll present here uninterrupted so that it can more easily completely blow your sense of logic.
What’s tough?
(Life)
What’s life?
(A magazine)
Well how much does it cost?
(It costs twenty cents)
But I only got a nickel (a nickel)
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
And now to the third verse, where we get to national politics. I suppose that if you handle this carefully enough, you could get sympathy on a national scale, so that’s not necessarily a bad move. Like i said, though, you’ve got to be careful—but i’m sure Gabriel has thought this through deeply enough that that won’t be a problem. So let’s follow along, shall we?
And then I got a call from Uncle Sam
Went into town to see the draft board man
You know, Gabriel, considering that the first (scattered!) organized protests against the Vietnam War occurred in 1963 and you’re singing this in 1962, and considering that public support for the war didn’t drop below 50% until 1968, i don’t think this was the right issue to bring up.
I thought if I told him of all my luck
But he just said
My guess? He said “Well kid, no wonder your number got drawn. Go see the psychiatrist, room 604.”
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
What’s tough?
(Life)
What’s life?
(A magazine)
Well how much does it cost?
(It costs twenty cents)
But I only got a nickel (a nickel)
(Oh oh well that’s tough)
True story: I didn’t know anything about this song while i was growing up, but on road trips every once in a while one of us kids would say that something was “tough”, and my parents would launch into this chorus, turning it into a song that never ends sort of thing—they’d get to the Oh oh well that’s tough and cycle back immediately to What’s tough, starting the whole insane cycle over again.
This experience probably explains something about my personality, but i don’t know what it is.
Anyway, then we get to the vamping, as this adventure in conversational rules fades to its end.
Is that all you’re gonna say to me?
(Well that’s tough)
Yes, Gabriel, yes it is.
Won’t anybody ever listen to me?
(Well that’s tough)
No, Gabriel, no we won’t.
You’re all against me all of you why don’t you say so now?
Okay—i’m against you, and i offer no sympathy about it.
And i have to say, after listening to you whine through this whole song, that felt nicely cathartic.
(Well that’s tough)
You know what’s really tough? Listening to this song the number of times i needed to to write up this post.
The difference is, i expect no sympathy. Pity, maybe, but certainly not sympathy.
Springerle
14 years ago
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