Who can talk about James Blunt without bringing up his most successful single, "You're Beautiful"? The track swept the radio in 2004 and earned the musician fame. It has been a dozen years since that single helped Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam, become the UK's best-selling album of the 2000s, and now the British singer-songwriter is opening up about his feelings toward that track and the wrong impressions people have about its storyline. Think the meaning is all sunshine and rainbows? Think again. The song is a tragedy, and its plot is darker than you might expect. Check out what Blunt himself said about the song's true origins:
Everyone goes, 'Ah, he's so romantic. I want 'You're Beautiful' as my wedding song.' These people are fucked up. You get labeled with these things like, 'Oh, James Blunt. Isn't he just a soft romantic?' Well, fuck that. No, I'm not. 'You're Beautiful' is not this soft, romantic fucking song. It's about a guy who's high as a fucking kite on drugs in the subway stalking someone else's girlfriend when that guy is there in front of him, and he should be locked up or put in prison for being some kind of perv.
Well, that changes things, doesn't it? The unexpected explanation comes from The Huffington Post's recent interview with James Blunt, who is busy promoting his new album, The Afterlove. According to Blunt, the lyrics and sound of the new album are much different from what people might expect from him. Apparently, he is full of surprises.
But James Blunt has always known what people thought of him and his works. He comes across as being in tune with what people think of his music, specifically "You're Beautiful," and he does not shy away from speaking about it. Blunt explains that he feels lucky to have a song like "You're Beautiful," something with which people connect, but he also understands how too much of a good thing can become bad. He acknowledges there is a backlash against that song among people who call it annoying, but he thinks it's because the song got played too much, not because the song itself is annoying.
"You're Beautiful" did receive a ton of airtime that killed its appeal for some people. But we're not sure James Blunt's description of the subway creeper stalking a woman makes the song better just because it's a darker, edgier interpretation than what we initially thought. Does Blunt's description change your view of the song for better or worse? And speaking of for better or worse, we could have told you that "You're Beautiful" is an unusual wedding song; after all, it ends in sorrow with the final line "I will never be with you."
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