Me Myself I

Album: Me Myself I (1980)
Charted: 21
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Songfacts®:

  • Most songs about being alone are filled with despair, but in this song, Joan Armatrading celebrates her solitude, exulting in all the wonderful things she can do by herself.

    In a 2015 Songfacts interview with Armatrading, she told us about this introvert anthem. "I'm very comfortable being on my own," she said. "I think quite a lot of people have a problem with being on their own, and I think it's quite a healthy thing to enjoy being by yourself. That's really what I was saying: sometimes being on your own is quite an empowering thing.

    There are people who seem to need the company of others to feel like a person, but that's not the case with me. I think it's quite important to be self-aware and self-confident and to appreciate yourself - that's quite important. One of things I like about that song is that a lot of people say to me that it's helped them get to a stage that's a good place to be."
  • The renown jazz musician Marcus Miller played bass on this track. The album was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who had a hit with the original version of "I Want Candy," which he co-wrote and recorded as The Strangeloves.
  • This song was released the year before MTV went on the air, but British artists like Armatrading often made videos to promote their songs, since various shows in Europe played them. In the video for this song, Armatrading is, appropriately, by herself, although sometimes sharing the screen with clones, as we see her playing chess against herself and riding in a car as her own passenger.
  • In 1999, a film called Me Myself I, starring Rachel Griffiths, was released, with this song on the soundtrack.
  • In 2018, Armatrading released a song called "I Like It When We're Together" where she sings:

    I'm not built to be alone, you know
    I get anxious when I'm on my own


    Is she sending mixed messages? In a 2018 interview with Armatrading, she told Songfacts: "You will notice in 'Me Myself I,' I do say, 'I want to have a girlfriend and a boy for laughs,' because I don't want to be completely on my own. Most people don't. What would be the point of being on this planet? It's not to go to buildings or to sit under trees and be isolated, it's to be with people. That's why we're here."

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