FEATURE:
Groovelines
No Doubt - Don't Speak
__________
ONE of the biggest albums…
of the 1990s turns thirty tomorrow (10th October). No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom was the third album from the band, and it reached number one in multiple countries. In terms of its sales, it is this massive success. No wonder when you consider the songs featured. Included are Just a Girl and Sunday Morning. The most successful and the best-known is Don’t Speak. It was released as a single on 8th November, 1996 but, as the album it came from is thirty tomorrow, I want to focus on Don’t Speak for this Groovelines. Written by Gwen Stefani and Eric Stefani, Don’t Speak became the most widely played song on American radio in 1996. It hit number one on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart, and stayed there for sixteen non-consecutive weeks, which was a record at the time. This video, where No Doubt spoke from the set of Don’t Speak, is worth a watch. I want to start out with a feature from Independent from 2010. They shone a light on Don’t Speak and its creation:
“When Gwen Stefani walked into the Anaheim house she shared with her brother and bandmates, she heard Eric Stefani playing a tender piano figure that stopped her in her tracks. The pair immediately set about writing the song that would become "Don't Speak". Gwen gushed out some lyrics: "I can see it all in an eye blink/ I know everything about how you are/ I can understand exactly how you think/ Between you and me, it's not very far." The verses celebrated Gwen's long-standing relationship with her bassist, Tony Kanal. It was a pretty, if lyrically unexceptional, love song; unusual for a band more noted for an energetic ska-pop. Melodically, though, it sounded like a hit. "The vibes were there, the chorus was almost exactly perfect," said the band's guitarist, Tom Dumont.
When Stefani and Kanal's relationship hit the buffers, it demanded a review of their new song. "Eric and I went into the garage, stubbornly and very irritated about the situation, and sat down and rewrote the verses and lyrics," Gwen said. "Don't Speak" went through various overhauls, some at the behest of their producer, Matthew Wilder, and each more lachrymose than the last. "It used to be more upbeat, more of a Seventies rock-type thing," said Gwen. "[When] Tony and I broke up... it turned into a sad song." Dumont's Spanish guitar solo was spliced together from six different studio takes. "I was thinking about how any true classical players would've hated the way I did it," he said. "I played it with a pick – a huge no-no”.
As was typical of the 1990s, and perhaps now, that if an artist released a song that sounded different to what they did before or what the fans expected, then they would be attacked for it – regardless of how great the track was. That was true for Don’t Speak. Many fans felt that No Doubt betrayed their Ska roots. That they were creating this sugary commercial Pop. In years since, people have recognised how incredible the song is. I also don’t think its lyrics are simplistic. They are powerful and honest. If they were too elaborate or complicated then it would take away from the emotion and effectiveness of the song. That Independent article featured these words: “Mere words cannot describe how abysmally gutless and sugar-smothered it is," ran the review in 'Kerrang!' "No Doubt suck badly”. Last year, American Songwriter looked at the meaning behind Don’t Speak. Its lyrics took a little while to crystalise. However, when you listen to them now, you can feel and sense the emotion in Gwen Stefani’s voice. She means and feels every word:
“Gwen Stefani dared to get candid on this track. Her honesty becomes all the more impressive when you realize the subject of this song was in the room with her when she recorded it. “Don’t Speak” was written in the midst of her breakup with bandmate Tony Kanal.
You and me, we used to be together
Every day together, always
I really feel that I’m losin’ my best friend
I can’t believe this could be the end
It looks as though you’re lettin’ go
And if it’s real, well, I don’t want to know
The lyrics about losing a best friend during a breakup hit home for Stefani and her bandmates–especially Kanal. Around this era of their career, Stefani couldn’t help but write about the end of her relationship.
“I was like, ‘Fu**, I can’t keep writing about the same thing. But I gotta write about what’s in my head, and that’s the only thing on my mind,’” Stefani once said of this track. Elsewhere she added, “Eric [Stefani] and I went into the garage, stubbornly and very irritated about the situation, and sat down and rewrote the verses and lyrics.”
Don’t speak, I know just what you’re sayin’
So please stop explainin’
Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts
Don’t speak, I know what you’re thinkin’
I don’t need your reasons
Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts
The iconic chorus of this No Doubt classic is evocative of all of that irritation. You can feel how desperate Stefani is in the chorus. She begs Kanal to not break her heart. I don’t need your reasons / Don’t tell me ’cause it hurts, she sings”.
I am going to end with part of an interview last year, where Gwen Stefani spoke about the impact and importance of Don’t Speak. Before that, I want to come to Insounder and part of their feature. Despite the song’s lyrics and subject, Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal had this strong and healthy friendship. And they do to this date. As Tragic Kingdom is thirty, many people will be discussing its biggest single. A song that is a true fan favourite:
“There is a playful undertone to the whole thing, if you really watch the exchanges between band members, it kind of looks like they were having a great time filming it. Although, some reports say that the band were about to break up before doing the clip and that they filmed it as a sort of therapy.
However, Gwen and Tony continued to have a positive relationship, both professionally and personally, and continued playing together for years to come. In fact, Stefani later wrote a song about her relationship with Kanal, aptly named "Cool". They aren't the first band that has survived breakups, written songs about it and continued to have a professional career (looking at you Fleetwood Mac). It seems to be a recurring motif in the music business.
However, it must take its toll, and it certainly says something about the maturity of the relationships in the band that they could get through it. Tony once said: "travelling around the world and you’re doing press in all these different countries, and every single question that you have to answer is about the breakup. You do that for a couple years, and it could drive anyone crazy [...] The fact that we got through all that stuff and we persevered through all that is a real testament to our friendship”.
When The Guardian took readers questions and put them to Gwen Stefani, she was asked about Don’t Speak It is clear how much it means to her. Thirty years after people first heard it, Gwen Stefani must be asked about it all of the time. It was definitely one of the defining tracks of my high school years:
“Did you think Don’t Speak would become such a huge hit? Troy_McClure
I absolutely had no idea. It didn’t even represent what we were doing, because No Doubt were such an uptempo, live-energy band. Even the guitar solo has no business being in that song. The original version was written by my brother [Eric, keyboards], who lived at my grandparents’ house; after they passed away, it became the band house. He’d stay up all night eating peanut butter sandwiches, drinking milk and smoking cigarettes and go: “Oh, I wrote this last night.”
Then I ended up rewriting the lyrics and changing the whole song because Tony [Kanal, bass] broke up with me. It’s crazy, but that song really is the heartbeat of who I am and changed everything”
Tomorrow, we celebrate thirty years of Tragic Kingdom. Its third single, Don’t Speak, took on a life of its own. It is amazing to think that Don’t Speak was not allowed to appear on the Billboard Hot 100, since a physical single was not issued in the U.S. However, this colossus of a track did top the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart for four months. Such was the brilliance and impact of the song. To this day, it is still widely played. Those critics who slated the song and felt that it was weak or No Doubt had sold out. The fact Gwen Stefani holds Don’t Speak so close to her heart shows…
HOW wrong those critics were.