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Joan Armatrading — Love and Affection
Album: Joan Armatrading
Avg rating:
7.7

Your rating:
Total ratings: 2941









Released: 1976
Length: 4:18
Plays (last 30 days): 2
I am not in love
But I'm open to persuasion
East or West
Where's the best
For romancing

With a friend
I can smile
But with a lover
I could hold my head back
I could really laugh
Really laugh

Thank you
You took me dancing
'Cross the floor
Cheek to cheek
But with a lover
I could really move
Really move
I could really dance
Really dance
Really dance
Really dance
I could really move
Really move
Really move
Really move

Now if I can feel the sun
In my eyes
And the rain on my face
Why can't I
Feel love

I can really love
Really love
Really love
Really love
Really love
Love love love love
Love love love love

Now I got all
The friends that I want
I may need more
But I shall just stick to those
That I have got
With friends I still feel
So insecure

Little darling I believe you could
Help me a lot
Just take my hand
And lead me where you will
No conversation
No wave goodnight
Just make love
With affection

Sing me another love song
But this time
With a little dedication
Sing it, sing it
You know that's what I like
Once more with feeling
Give me love
Give me love
Give me love
Love
Comments (255)add comment
First saw Joan in NYC in 1979, having never heard of her before. Still one of the best concerts I've ever been to, and a total revelation. Have been a loyal fan ever since, but this song more than any bring me right back to that wonderful time in my life.. 
 Highlowsel wrote:

A different time and place indeed.  And you bet I remember those campus bars.  Amazing how lenient the administration was back then.  These days they'd be up on charges, tarred feathered and run out of town on a social media rail wouldn't they?  Things have definitely returned to more.....Puritan....sensibilities, though I'm sure folks now would protest that description.  Oh....and let's not forget "the Voo!?"  That popular watering hole just off campus?  

I lived a block behind it in a old beat up 3 story Victorian with a big wrap-around porch on it and, if memory serves, 10 bedrooms including the attic.  There were ~20 kids living in it depending on the time of year, etc..  You just may recall it since it sound's like you're from the same era.  Many a night I could hear, if I wasn't in there myself, the closing hour cascade of beer bottles being poured into the dumpster by the bar-keep.  My room was a block away across a parking lot from the back of that establishment.  I could hear it clear as a bell.  You could say ours was Animal House before the movie popularized the concept.  I went back to the area a few years ago and found it had been replaced by...a commercial bank building.  So it goes I suppose.

In any case it was across from the graham cracker, a row of 3 sorority houses.  Delta Phi Epsilon (or DPE), and others.  We had certain....euphemisms...for the letters.  Not kind ones I'll admit.  Our house was a private one, co-ed with everyone working their way thru school as bestest as they could. 

One of our number discovered we could get free food in exchange for busing the womens meals.  3 squares, breakfast, lunch and dinner in exchange for cleaning up after them?  SOLD!  To us who were poor and working our way thru (leaving aside Pell Grants and the like) it was a bargain; plus we got to meet and understand the princesses beneath the facade.  Turned out they were mostly okay, not much different than us excepting for the money that oozed, in semi-unconscious fashion, from every pore of their being. But since they were born into it you really couldn't hold that against them, could you?  Not really. 

But euphemisms, it turned out, went both ways.  The sorority sisters had their own name for our house.  The BOD house.  Simple reason for it...we didn't have many curtains.  ;-)   

Life has gone on from there, with ups and downs along the way, but that period was probably the freest I have ever been, or ever will be, in my life...and this ain't a criticism of where I am today as I like things just fine right now....it's just that....well...if you're young and bothered to read this digression to this point all I can say is enjoy your life.  The old saying is true....Life....it goes by slower than you might like, but faster than you can ever imagine.  

Highlow
American Net'Zen


Oh yeah, time's moved so fast since playing Van, Phoebe, Joan and Nick Drake over a bottle of wine with my latest infatuation. Gees. Some I can even remember well...thanks to all those musicians. And lovers. It was so special the music survived. 
Really lush and sympathetic production, too. It's Joan, but it's the band and the producer and the studio too. They're all complicit. Great sound, great arrangement, great song. It bores holes through my protective layers. 
One of the best opening lines ever.
This song never gets old.
c.
Such a talent that deserved/es so much more attention.
Simply outstanding. Musical perfection.
 Highlowsel wrote:

A different time and place indeed.  And you bet I remember those campus bars.  Amazing how lenient the administration was back then.  These days they'd be up on charges, tarred feathered and run out of town on a social media rail wouldn't they?  Things have definitely returned to more.....Puritan....sensibilities, though I'm sure folks now would protest that description.  Oh....and let's not forget "the Voo!?"  That popular watering hole just off campus?  

I lived a block behind it in a old beat up 3 story Victorian with a big wrap-around porch on it and, if memory serves, 10 bedrooms including the attic.  There were ~20 kids living in it depending on the time of year, etc..  You just may recall it since it sound's like you're from the same era.  Many a night I could hear, if I wasn't in there myself, the closing hour cascade of beer bottles being poured into the dumpster by the bar-keep.  My room was a block away across a parking lot from the back of that establishment.  I could hear it clear as a bell.  You could say ours was Animal House before the movie popularized the concept.  I went back to the area a few years ago and found it had been replaced by...a commercial bank building.  So it goes I suppose.

In any case it was across from the graham cracker, a row of 3 sorority houses.  Delta Phi Epsilon (or DPE), and others.  We had certain....euphemisms...for the letters.  Not kind ones I'll admit.  Our house was a private one, co-ed with everyone working their way thru school as bestest as they could. 

One of our number discovered we could get free food in exchange for busing the womens meals.  3 squares, breakfast, lunch and dinner in exchange for cleaning up after them?  SOLD!  To us who were poor and working our way thru (leaving aside Pell Grants and the like) it was a bargain; plus we got to meet and understand the princesses beneath the facade.  Turned out they were mostly okay, not much different than us excepting for the money that oozed, in semi-unconscious fashion, from every pore of their being. But since they were born into it you really couldn't hold that against them, could you?  Not really. 

But euphemisms, it turned out, went both ways.  The sorority sisters had their own name for our house.  The BOD house.  Simple reason for it...we didn't have many curtains.  ;-)   

Life has gone on from there, with ups and downs along the way, but that period was probably the freest I have ever been, or ever will be, in my life...and this ain't a criticism of where I am today as I like things just fine right now....it's just that....well...if you're young and bothered to read this digression to this point all I can say is enjoy your life.  The old saying is true....Life....it goes by slower than you might like, but faster than you can ever imagine.  

Highlow
American Net'Zen

This was wonderful to read. Exactly perfect, I was on that same campus in the early ‘80 and this brought it all wonderfully back. Some of my friends bussed at the sororities but  I worked at the Kemp Mill Records warehouse up Rt. 1. That’s how I heard of Joan Armatrading and a lot of other artists that weren’t stupid hair bands,

Takes me back to university days in Belfast in the 80’s. Happy memories of those days
 timmus wrote:

One day we'll find out that low male voice singing "Give me love" was just Bill opening up the mike and letting loose a bit.


Sorry to break it to you, but it was the wonderful actor Clarke Peters

One day we'll find out that low male voice singing "Give me love" was just Bill opening up the mike and letting loose a bit.
Without a doubt, one of the top ten albums in my life - and has never ceased to be in high rotation in my house, over all these many many years. SO much pleasure from Joan Armatrading's "Love & Affection"
Went for the full 10 on this one, both as a great song in& of itself, and for having seen her perform it a few times in  Bushnell Hall in Hartford back in the 80s, where she really used to tear it up.  Any one of those shows can be counted among my top 50 favorites ever.
I loved this song most of my life. I have had a great life.
 Shesdifferent wrote:

Love it! More Joan...please....this talented performer is so overlooked! Especially this album.


Ha! This song hit me so hard when it came out that I told a friend that I predicted that Joan A. would be really famous some day. My friend didn't agree. And, unfortunately for Joan, there are more people who don't understand her genius than those of us who do.
 McBuggins wrote:

My very first concert was seeing Joan at The Winter Gardens in Bournemouth, aged 17. Forty years later, I'm still amazed at this song, and so many of her other tunes.
Thank you, Joan.



My first concert was at Bournemouth Winter Gardens in 1978, i was 15.
But it wasn't Joan Armatrading.
It was the Buzzcocks!!
 elgreenie1 wrote:


Where?? I thought she was dead??{#Stupid}


Nope.  Thankfully still alive and kicking in 2023.   She released an album in mid 2021 and I've read she is still recording.  
I've seen her live at Byron Bay Bluesfest and again in The Gov, a small pub venue in Adelaide in about 2015.   Both times the audience were entranced and hushed by her presence, her words, the beautiful arrangements and musicality and smooth but wide-ranging vocals then after the last notes of each song often there was a tiny pause  as we all returned to earthly consiousness before going wild with applause.   Joan is in her early 70s now and definitely not gone but she sure can make her fans feel like they are in heaven.  
Hearing her on RP is sublime, thanks. 
A song that seems to keep getting better
This song rocks.{#Bananajam}
As good as it gets!
 Highlowsel wrote:


What a great reminiscence! Thank you!
 zenhead wrote:

Two Nice Girls did a really nice cover, mashed up with Sweet Jane. https://youtu.be/46Hm67G2vP8



These hidden treasures are why I read the comments! I was familiar with I Just Spent My Last $10, but this cover/mash is SO PRETTY.
Silky smooth vocals ❤️
My very first concert was seeing Joan at The Winter Gardens in Bournemouth, aged 17. Forty years later, I'm still amazed at this song, and so many of her other tunes.
Thank you, Joan.
ten out of ten-est of all the ten out of tens
It doesn't matter how many times I hear those opening notes; instant goosebumps from the get-go followed by the need to stop and listen.  When this came out, I was just shy of 12 years old but even then I loved the song - even if I didn't appreciate the subject matter. This beautiful, peerless love song will never age. Pure bliss.
I saw her so many times in Dublin, years back - happy memories :)
such a lovely and pure voice
More Joan, please. 
Saw her in Austin right after this record was released. A sublime and memorable show
This album came out in 1976. The following year she put out my fave JA song, Show Some Emotion. A very creative period period for an amazing artist.
 Highlowsel wrote:



Keep writing.  You have stories to tell - tell 'em!  (Names changed to protect the guilty, of course!)
yep gotta love Joan
Love Joan. Excruciatingly shy in her first appearances but has grown into an assured and hugely talented individual. Saw her live at Wembley Arena, The Picnic at Blackbushe and Hammersmith Odeon back in the day..still going strong. Both of us. And she collects Beano and Dandy comics...cool or what!

Love Joan. Excruciatingly shy in her first appearances but has grown into an assured and hugely talented individual. Saw her live at Wembley Arena, The Picnic at Blackbushe and Hammersmith Odeon back in the day..still going strong. Both of us. And she collects Beano and Dandy comics...cool or what!
The deep background "oh give me love" vocals are by Clarke Peters, probably best known as Lester Freamon on The Wire. (He also sang background vocals on "Boogie Nights" by Heatwave.) 
The whole album is a stone masterpiece; peerless playing, wonderful songs, utterly bewitching.
A lovely response to Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly with His Song"? A grand masterpiece!
tho opening line - perfect for a HS graduate in a crazy world with uncertain prospects...
Fiona Shepherd? Comm Rec in Brissy. This Is Your Song! mm Kip Smilin’ 😎
Perfection.
c.
She was something in her day. So real and so musical.
This takes me back... last show I saw before joining the CG back in late 76. Joan opening for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Both rocked the house, and were both much, much better than I had expected.
 zenhead wrote:
Two Nice Girls did a really nice cover, mashed up with Sweet Jane. https://youtu.be/46Hm67G2vP8
 
Back in the day, Austin had a 'Sweet Jane' contest every year. TNG won it, hands-down, the year they performed that medley.

Used to go see them perform a lot. Gretchen has always been a force to be reckoned with.
c.
That voice, those lyrics. Had to drop in and see if I'd already rated this a 10. Of course!
c.
Those opening lines- sincere and pure.
Gorgeous.
 LPCity wrote:
 
 
A different time and place indeed.  And you bet I remember those campus bars.  Amazing how lenient the administration was back then.  These days they'd be up on charges, tarred feathered and run out of town on a social media rail wouldn't they?  Things have definitely returned to more.....Puritan....sensibilities, though I'm sure folks now would protest that description.  Oh....and let's not forget "the Voo!?"  That popular watering hole just off campus?  

I lived a block behind it in a old beat up 3 story Victorian with a big wrap-around porch on it and, if memory serves, 10 bedrooms including the attic.  There were ~20 kids living in it depending on the time of year, etc..  You just may recall it since it sound's like you're from the same era.  Many a night I could hear, if I wasn't in there myself, the closing hour cascade of beer bottles being poured into the dumpster by the bar-keep.  My room was a block away across a parking lot from the back of that establishment.  I could hear it clear as a bell.  You could say ours was Animal House before the movie popularized the concept.  I went back to the area a few years ago and found it had been replaced by...a commercial bank building.  So it goes I suppose.

In any case it was across from the graham cracker, a row of 3 sorority houses.  Delta Phi Epsilon (or DPE), and others.  We had certain....euphemisms...for the letters.  Not kind ones I'll admit.  Our house was a private one, co-ed with everyone working their way thru school as bestest as they could. 

One of our number discovered we could get free food in exchange for busing the womens meals.  3 squares, breakfast, lunch and dinner in exchange for cleaning up after them?  SOLD!  To us who were poor and working our way thru (leaving aside Pell Grants and the like) it was a bargain; plus we got to meet and understand the princesses beneath the facade.  Turned out they were mostly okay, not much different than us excepting for the money that oozed, in semi-unconscious fashion, from every pore of their being. But since they were born into it you really couldn't hold that against them, could you?  Not really. 

But euphemisms, it turned out, went both ways.  The sorority sisters had their own name for our house.  The BOD house.  Simple reason for it...we didn't have many curtains.  ;-)   

Life has gone on from there, with ups and downs along the way, but that period was probably the freest I have ever been, or ever will be, in my life...and this ain't a criticism of where I am today as I like things just fine right now....it's just that....well...if you're young and bothered to read this digression to this point all I can say is enjoy your life.  The old saying is true....Life....it goes by slower than you might like, but faster than you can ever imagine.  

Highlow
American Net'Zen
Such a great song and album. Great memories of enjoying this album through the later 70's, and 80's. Thanks RP! 
She has always been one of my favourite writers/performers. Totally crisp and meticulous.
I LOVE THIS!{#Meditate}
So nice to hear this again -- it's been too long.
Two Nice Girls did a really nice cover, mashed up with Sweet Jane. https://youtu.be/46Hm67G2vP8
 Highlowsel wrote:

LOL!  Well it only took me ~2.5 years to read your response.  Jeeez....I can be slow about things like this from time to time. 

Yah...great show indeed.  I was one of the "long hairs" on one of the spot lights back then.  Also helped work the monitors on the sound board.  Them's were certainly the days weren't they?  The Land of the Turtle (Univ of Maryland, College Park - never forget College Park); a land from which I'm actually quite proud to have graduated...though back then it was known more for being a party school than anything else. 

But that was then, this is now....many moons later, and definitely a lot less hair at this point, though, for all the excesses of the day *ahem* I still have all my marbles.  At least....I think I do!?  Heh!

Highlow
American Net'Zen  

 
Ha-Ha, and it only took me another 8 months to see yours!  Great memories of days gone by more than a few years ago.  Yes, College Park was a special place back in the day and I am also proud to have graduated from there.  My kids are more than a bit incredulous when I tell them the drinking age was 18, the University owned and operated 3 bars on campus, and every Thursday night in September a beer truck with 50 kegs on board would roll up on the south chapel lawn for the weekly mixer.  3 beers for a dollar, live music and fine fall weather.  What could be better than that for a broke college student?

"the excesses of the day"  Indeed!  It was a different time and place for sure.....
Goddess of Serious Love and Affection!!!  Rock on for many more Highlowsel!!!
The preceding post made this one for me! Great song with typically wonderful "RP Lounge" inhabitants. O, for a real one! :-)
 LPCity wrote:

Holy Hell!  I went to that concert!  I was also an undergrad at college park and it was an opportunity to go on a date with a fine young lady.  I was way more into rock and roll; Little Feat, Allman Brothers, etc. but I was willing to go see Joan Armatrading if it meant an evening spent with this girl.  It was a great show as best as I remember.  This song is my absolute favorite of hers.

 
 
LOL!  Well it only took me ~2.5 years to read your response.  Jeeez....I can be slow about things like this from time to time. 

Yah...great show indeed.  I was one of the "long hairs" on one of the spot lights back then.  Also helped work the monitors on the sound board.  Them's were certainly the days weren't they?  The Land of the Turtle (Univ of Maryland, College Park - never forget College Park); a land from which I'm actually quite proud to have graduated...though back then it was known more for being a party school than anything else. 

But that was then, this is now....many moons later, and definitely a lot less hair at this point, though, for all the excesses of the day *ahem* I still have all my marbles.  At least....I think I do!?  Heh!

Highlow
American Net'Zen  


Heard this a bunch .... but never rated it.  Tight groove, though laid back and easy.  
Yeah, what bokey said.
 

bokey wrote:
This one just makes you go Oh My.How can such beauty be possible?

 


This one just makes you go Oh My.How can such beauty be possible?

Love this song.  Love this entire album.  Love Joan.

{#Sunny}
 
I always thought she was singing "i could really laugh, freely laugh."

A magnificent 9.
 RabbitEars wrote:
man she made some good music

 
Very nice for this sunny west coast December morning {#Cheers}
man she made some good music
 hayduke2 wrote:
Armatrading is Godlike!
just an amazing song 

  
Second that.  Still sounds like a new release.
If the tune is not enough, i love the lyrics, which I normally do not pay much attention to.
 Highlowsel wrote:
I was an undergrad at the University of Maryland circa late 1970's, and working my way thru it pretty much in jumbled "where can I get some money" fashion.  One job was on the AV crew (we were also the movie projection crew, too) at the Student Union back then, so had cause to support the sound/lighting work for the various musical groups who would play there.  I got pulled in to work a concert for a "Joan WHO?"  First time I'd ever heard of her.  Great concert that enticed me to buy this vinyl, and some of her subsequent work down thru the years.  Good lady, great musical style if you're into it.

Highlow
American Net'Zen

 
Holy Hell!  I went to that concert!  I was also an undergrad at college park and it was an opportunity to go on a date with a fine young lady.  I was way more into rock and roll; Little Feat, Allman Brothers, etc. but I was willing to go see Joan Armatrading if it meant an evening spent with this girl.  It was a great show as best as I remember.  This song is my absolute favorite of hers.
                     {#Daisy}   {#Clap}   {#Wave}   wonderful song, great artist!
Love this song.  
Armatrading is Godlike!
just an amazing song 
Thanks to Patti for introducing me to this wonderful artist way way back in the day.
 stangalbraith wrote:
As someone said below: the great artists are instantly recognizable. The first few notes and I am looking up from my desk been turning up the volume to listen to this compelling, catchey and lyrical music.

 
Me too.
 
As someone said below: the great artists are instantly recognizable. The first few notes and I am looking up from my desk been turning up the volume to listen to this compelling, catchey and lyrical music.
 Dickieb68 wrote:
One of my favourite opening lines.

 

Definitely!
I was an undergrad at the University of Maryland circa late 1970's, and working my way thru it pretty much in jumbled "where can I get some money" fashion.  One job was on the AV crew (we were also the movie projection crew, too) at the Student Union back then, so had cause to support the sound/lighting work for the various musical groups who would play there.  I got pulled in to work a concert for a "Joan WHO?"  First time I'd ever heard of her.  Great concert that enticed me to buy this vinyl, and some of her subsequent work down thru the years.  Good lady, great musical style if you're into it.

Highlow
American Net'Zen
 oldsaxon wrote:
Unique music from an amazing artist...can't get better, really...
 

 
What he said.  All the great artists are unique and instantly recognisable from the first note they sing.  Joan belongs to that small, exclusive club.  {#Notworthy}  {#Sunny}
One of my favourite opening lines.
One of her best songs, but they're all pretty great :)
yummy
This album is one of 200-300 I lost in a flood.
I haven't heard anything from this album in over 30 years.
Thanks Bill  
 vandarbar wrote:
It just doesn't get too much better than this!  woo hoo!!
 

Absolutely, positively, gosh darn right.......................I never get tired of this jewel.
It just doesn't get too much better than this!  woo hoo!!
Outstanding track!
 TuneAgeWhereWoof wrote:
Ouch.  Bit of a rough transition from Just Like Heaven...       
 
What,,,,no vampire?   {#Devil_pimp}
Ouch.  Bit of a rough transition from Just Like Heaven...       
really nice to hear this right now.
Unique music from an amazing artist...can't get better, really...
 
YAY!
Moving—soulful. . .one my all time favorites.
 oldviolin wrote:
Joan Armatrading is a gift from God.
 
Fiddle speak truth.
 yanet wrote:
really laugh 
really sing
really love !!!
 
"Sing it, sing it. You know that's what I like...woohoo!!!"
Deja Vu....like an old friend coming to visit and you just fall into each others arms. ;-)
really laugh 
really sing
really love !!!
 window wrote:
Had the pleasure of seeing Joan last year, and this song was a highlight.  Magical!

 
I did as well, the gal can sing.

Had the pleasure of seeing Joan last year, and this song was a highlight.  Magical!

Does anyone out there have Two Nice Girls' cover of 'Sweet Jane/Love and Affection'? If so would you upload it? Of course it's not Joan, but it's an outstanding homage to her (and Lou).
 NuggetNectar wrote:
Boring cliche lyrics.
 
They aren't cliche, the artists after Joan are cliche.
really, love, love..........this song
Just posted to my Facebook page: "Sounds from my childhood...my parents played such great music. Listening to Joan Armatrading - Love and Affection"
Boring cliche lyrics.
Do I love Joan Armatrading? Do I love this album? Resounding YES!
Would Joan have been a beauty - she'd been a superstar!
She is a GORGEOUS ARTIST, SINGER and COMPOSER.
What a beautiful song ... {#Angel}
I just checked her web site to see if she is touring.  It shows dates for her tour starting September 21, 2012.  14 months from now!  Now that's a booking agent who doesn't like to let things go 'til the last minute.

And no US dates shown.
Once more with feeling

Love - a - woo - hoo

Yeyeah
My first intro to Joan by an old girlfriend way back when.  Great tune
As good as it ever was.
 
I saw her in concert in Exeter as a birthday treat many, many years ago....happy days.
MAGNIFICENT
Perfect accompaniment to a nostalgic mood.
 Rooney wrote:
Oh God, just gorgeous. 
 
Yeppers
Saw her a few years ago at Glastonbury -  was the highlight for me.
She plays a mean electric guitar - no backing session guitarist for her!

 
Rabid_Engineer wrote:

Wikipedia seems to disagree with this assessment.
 


 elgreenie1 wrote:


Where?? I thought she was dead??{#Stupid}
 
Wikipedia seems to disagree with this assessment.

...this sounds like it could have been recorded just last year - remarkable!..
Joan Armatrading is a gift from God.
 cohifi wrote:
I forgot to mention I had the pleasure of seeing Joan A in concert this year.  Blissfull
 

Where?? I thought she was dead??{#Stupid}
Oh God, just gorgeous. 
What a classic!! Wonderful memories, too :)

Mirland -> Tåbelige Dansker


 GuiltyFeat wrote:
This is godlike.
 
If there's a god he'd put a stop to this.
This is godlike.