Today’s song is ‘It Takes Two’. The song was a hit single recorded in late 1965 by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston for Motown’s Tamia label. Produced by Weston's then-husband, long-time Gaye collaborator, William ‘Mickey’ Stevenson, and co-written by Stevenson and Sylvia Moy. ‘It Takes Two’ revolves around a romantic lyric that depicts many things in life (dreams, love, wishes, etc.) being better with two people instead of one. The single became Gaye's most successful duet single to date; later outperformed by Gaye's duets with Tammi Terrell. The song duet peaked at Number 14 on the ‘Billboard Pop Chart’ and reached Number 4 on ‘Billboard Soul Singles’ chart in 1967. ‘It Takes Two’ was also Gaye's first major hit in the UK, where it peaked at Number 16 on the British singles charts in the spring of that same year.
In 1990 ‘It Takes Two’ was covered by Rod Stewart and Tina Turner and featured in a television advertising campaign for Pepsi. It was released as the lead single from Stewart's album ‘Vagabond Heart’ in late 1990. The duet was a European hit, peaking at Number 5 in the UK, and becoming a Top 10 single in several European countries. It later appeared on both artists' greatest hits albums: Turner's ‘Simply the Best’ (1991), and Stewart's’ The Very Best of Rod Stewart’ (2001).
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In 1624, the English poet, John Donne wrote a line of prose that was to remain forever remembered when he said in a sermon, ‘No man is an island’. His meaning was that no one is self-sufficient or self-reliant. No one exists in splendid isolation and no one is immune from the actions of others around them. Think about a time in your life when you felt sadness or pain, and wouldn’t have benefited from the presence, understanding and empathy of another to help ease your unhappiness and discomfort; you cannot! Whether one hates or loves, we all need another upon whom to focus our emotions and direct our actions.
Six workmates from the mill I worked at decided to emigrate to Canada in December 1963. One by one they pulled out at the 11th hour, and I decided to go on this adventure alone. I won’t pretend that it was easy facing a new world all on my lonesome.
For the first three months, I frequently experienced feelings of homesickness. Three or four months later, I found myself doing what many tourists to the Niagara Falls find themselves doing; as I stepped across the borderline that divides Canada from the USA; back and forth like a child playing hopscotch. I smiled to myself at the time, but had I been sharing the experience with another, you could bet that we’d have both laughed out loud.
It’s like going to the cinema alone and watching an extremely good film; it’s just not the same! Even if your companion is sitting quietly next door to you, merely being together and sharing the same experience transforms and heightens the sense of enjoyment and excitement! Even going on ‘The Big Dipper’ or travelling ‘The Ghost Train’ either alone or with another seems to add to the fear level and excitement you each experience.
No one thing/person/experience or aspect of one’s life exists in isolation, wholly unconnected to another. No person or thing can be said not to have an effect (for either good or bad), upon another. When we are happy, we tend to make others around us happier than they otherwise might have been. Indeed; any emotion we express produces a greater likelihood of that very same emotion being expressed by others in your presence.
When one person in the West eats two slices of bread where one would suffice, someone in the East will starve as an indirect consequence of global interconnection! Hammer out a bump in a sheet of metal and a depression will appear elsewhere in the form of displacement. Strengthening one part of an object can often weaken another section of the same object as a direct consequence. How many times have we seen the solving of one problem directly lead to the creation of another problem?
The Creation of the Universe was the finest of balances imaginable in producing an Earth of 'relativity'. Mankind needed the ‘two’ primary planets of the Sun and the Moon to maintain a life of balance on the Earth. The creation of Mankind required both Man and Woman to bring meaning and a sense of purpose and happiness to one’s existence. According to the Bible, when God destroyed the Earth in ‘The Great Flood’, He saved ‘pairs’ of humans: Noah and his wife, their three children and their wives. Animals and all creatures that entered the Arc came in ‘two by two’.
So, whether it is friendship, companionship, romance, sexual activity, cohabitation, marriage or true love one seeks, it will always require the presence of two people to make it happen. Even obtaining one notable sensation of the body requires at least two of the body’s senses to bring such about. To come into ‘contact’ with something/someone necessitates ‘two objects/people meeting’.
Whichever way one looks at the facts, there is simply no denying that ’It takes two.’ Sheila and I know that!
Love and peace Bill xxx
In 1990 ‘It Takes Two’ was covered by Rod Stewart and Tina Turner and featured in a television advertising campaign for Pepsi. It was released as the lead single from Stewart's album ‘Vagabond Heart’ in late 1990. The duet was a European hit, peaking at Number 5 in the UK, and becoming a Top 10 single in several European countries. It later appeared on both artists' greatest hits albums: Turner's ‘Simply the Best’ (1991), and Stewart's’ The Very Best of Rod Stewart’ (2001).
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In 1624, the English poet, John Donne wrote a line of prose that was to remain forever remembered when he said in a sermon, ‘No man is an island’. His meaning was that no one is self-sufficient or self-reliant. No one exists in splendid isolation and no one is immune from the actions of others around them. Think about a time in your life when you felt sadness or pain, and wouldn’t have benefited from the presence, understanding and empathy of another to help ease your unhappiness and discomfort; you cannot! Whether one hates or loves, we all need another upon whom to focus our emotions and direct our actions.
Six workmates from the mill I worked at decided to emigrate to Canada in December 1963. One by one they pulled out at the 11th hour, and I decided to go on this adventure alone. I won’t pretend that it was easy facing a new world all on my lonesome.
For the first three months, I frequently experienced feelings of homesickness. Three or four months later, I found myself doing what many tourists to the Niagara Falls find themselves doing; as I stepped across the borderline that divides Canada from the USA; back and forth like a child playing hopscotch. I smiled to myself at the time, but had I been sharing the experience with another, you could bet that we’d have both laughed out loud.
It’s like going to the cinema alone and watching an extremely good film; it’s just not the same! Even if your companion is sitting quietly next door to you, merely being together and sharing the same experience transforms and heightens the sense of enjoyment and excitement! Even going on ‘The Big Dipper’ or travelling ‘The Ghost Train’ either alone or with another seems to add to the fear level and excitement you each experience.
No one thing/person/experience or aspect of one’s life exists in isolation, wholly unconnected to another. No person or thing can be said not to have an effect (for either good or bad), upon another. When we are happy, we tend to make others around us happier than they otherwise might have been. Indeed; any emotion we express produces a greater likelihood of that very same emotion being expressed by others in your presence.
When one person in the West eats two slices of bread where one would suffice, someone in the East will starve as an indirect consequence of global interconnection! Hammer out a bump in a sheet of metal and a depression will appear elsewhere in the form of displacement. Strengthening one part of an object can often weaken another section of the same object as a direct consequence. How many times have we seen the solving of one problem directly lead to the creation of another problem?
The Creation of the Universe was the finest of balances imaginable in producing an Earth of 'relativity'. Mankind needed the ‘two’ primary planets of the Sun and the Moon to maintain a life of balance on the Earth. The creation of Mankind required both Man and Woman to bring meaning and a sense of purpose and happiness to one’s existence. According to the Bible, when God destroyed the Earth in ‘The Great Flood’, He saved ‘pairs’ of humans: Noah and his wife, their three children and their wives. Animals and all creatures that entered the Arc came in ‘two by two’.
So, whether it is friendship, companionship, romance, sexual activity, cohabitation, marriage or true love one seeks, it will always require the presence of two people to make it happen. Even obtaining one notable sensation of the body requires at least two of the body’s senses to bring such about. To come into ‘contact’ with something/someone necessitates ‘two objects/people meeting’.
Whichever way one looks at the facts, there is simply no denying that ’It takes two.’ Sheila and I know that!
Love and peace Bill xxx
