“Love Done Gone”
Billy Currington
Written by Shawn Camp and Marv Green
2011
There’s something to be said for artists who are so consistently great that it can, at times, be easy to take them for granted; as part of this retrospective, we’ll have a whole feature about those artists.
Billy Currington? Is not part of that feature.
No, Currington here is an example of something that can be no less magical: When the exact right song finds its way to the exact right performer, who might otherwise not be in conversation with the all-time greats but who, at least for a song or maybe an album, just nailed it.
Currington’s built a successful B-list career on a slew of singles that are average-or-maybe-better radio fodder, all of which live or die by his ability to leverage his affable, aw-shucks persona to sell whatever he’s singing. That works for him sometimes (“Good Directions” and “People Are Crazy,” his two biggest hits, which are both fine) and less successfully at other times (“That’s How Country Boys Roll,” this year’s dreadful “Everything is Changing”).
Then there’s “Love Done Gone.” An absolutely horn-y triumph that interpolates some flourishes of Dixieland Jazz into contemporary pop country and lets the genre’s most perpetually half-confused singer revel in a full-on daze. Country has never treated a break-up song with such ain’t-that-some-shit glee, and there’s never been someone more apt than Currington to deliver that message. Who else could say what amounts to, “It’s not you, but it also ain’t me,” and really and truly mean it with the complete sincerity Currington does here?
I love the juxtaposition of the series of poetic similes (“like a red kite lost in the blue sky wind,” “like the disappearing bubbles in a glass of champagne”) with the underclass vernacular of “done” as a helping verb. I love the way Currington delivers the word “autumn” like it’s something he’s never once spoken on purpose in his adult life. I love the staunch refusal to vilify anyone involved in this break-up and how it’s handled with a fundamental kindness (“I don’t regret a single thing that we did / Or any time together we ever spent”).
“Love Done Gone” doesn’t just follow the country trope of turning heartbreak into escapism; it turns heartbreak into three and a half minutes of pure joy. And it gives Billy Currington a moment of genius.
Additional Listening:
- For some additional contemporary study in Dixieland Jazz, “Daddy Lessons,” by Beyoncé featuring the Chicks.
- “Fallin’ Never Felt So Good,” the should’ve-been-a-hit single by co-writer Shawn Camp.
- “Good Directions,” the other time Currington’s persona of not really knowing what’s going on was put to its best use.
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This is arguably Currington’s best single, though I also liked the laid back vibes of Must Be Doin’Something Right and Don’t (both of which low key reminded me of Ronnie Milsap). Can’t say I particularly care for anything else he’s put out though I appreciate that he has a somewhat distinctive voice (is he actually a good singer? I feel like he is, but I’m not sure).
“I’m Pretty Good at Drinking Beer” is a guilty pleasure for me. I usually hate songs that make light of alcoholism, but “Drinking Beer” either ironically or with clunky sincerity nailed the ne’er-do-well nature of the unmotivated day drinker. Of the 2000s and 2010s mush peddlers, I thought Currington was at least a tick above-average, and both songs you listed (and the one profiled here) delivered with some decent vocal chops. With that said, he’s always come across as a major league douche personally.
Is Currington a particularly good singer? He can carry a tune well enough, though he has a limited range and not a ton of power.
Which is to say he sings most of today’s radio acts completely off the table. So it goes.
Is he a major league douche? Most anything I’ve ever read about him or heard him say in interviews is… not exactly flattering, and is generally at-odds with his persona on record.
As an answer to both questions– Sort of, I guess? And probably!– I’d say it makes this single all the more a stroke of fluke genius.
Count me in for lovin this song. It really is pure joy, despite it being about a break up.
I knew you’d come through for me on this one, Leeann!
…perhaps the most upbeat break-up song since “pray for you” by jaron and the road to love (done gone).
Certainly the most upbeat and, thankfully, in no way nearly as mean-spirited as Jaron et al’s one hit. That one was a nasty little piece of work, though it was a fine example of “good church-goers” vindictiveness.