If You Don't Want My Love

Album: Bruised Orange (1978)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • John Prine was introduced to Phil Spector by L.A. Times writer Robert Hillburn and he was invited round to the producer's LA house. He recalled to Uncut how his visit produced this wounded country-blues song.

    "It was absolutely bonkers," Prine said, chuckling. "He's wearing a three-piece suit with two shoulder holsters, and he's got two bodyguards following him everywhere - a short guy and a big guy who looks like Chewbacca. He's just finished (Leonard Cohen album) Death of a Ladies' Man. Me and Phil was shooting pool, and he puts it on 11. It was so loud, the balls were vibrating across the table."

    The pair decided to fake a brawl in the kitchen in an attempt to freak out Prine's manager. "Phil started shooting his gun up in the air and I threw a chair against the refrigerator," he recalled. "My manager doesn't even blink. After a couple of hours of this foolishness, I grabbed my coat and called a cab. Phil's walking me to the door, and he walks by this piano. He sits down and hands me an electric guitar, and we wrote a song called If You Don't Want My Love. Took 30 minutes."
  • Prine recorded the song for his 1978 LP Bruised Orange. When he took the record over to Spector's house, the pair reconvened at the same piano and wrote half of "God Only Knows," which Prine completed nearly four decades later for his The Tree of Forgiveness album.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Intentionally Atrocious

Intentionally AtrociousSong Writing

A selection of songs made to be terrible - some clearly achieved that goal.

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Which Restaurants Are Most Mentioned In Song Lyrics?

Which Restaurants Are Most Mentioned In Song Lyrics?Song Writing

Katy Perry mentions McDonald's, Beyoncé calls out Red Lobster, and Supertramp shouts out Taco Bell - we found the 10 restaurants most often mentioned in songs.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.