Ten Country Songs That Make Me Cringe: When We Make Love (#7)

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There is so much music out there that I love. There's also a lot that I can't stand. It's been fun to go through a list of the songs that send me running to a trash can. I hope you've noticed, if you've been following along, that I pull no punches. I have used songwriters that I love and groups I love. There's another songwriter showing up today who wrote a favorite song. Of course, this song isn't that favorite. Here's the next country song that causes me to lose my appetite. #7: When We Make Love - Alabama Now the Georgia peach is fair, Kentucky's beyond compare And Alabama's grand The state, not the band (From "Cigarette State" by Robbie Fulks) Bingo. I had so many friends who loved the Eagles to turned to this band once the Eagles broke up. I don't have a clue what the attraction was. I gave them a try and got bored by the end of side one of the album. To me, Alabama made a Hall of Fame career out of three songs: the "The Closer You Get" mid-tempo "we wanna be the Eagles" country-rock tune; the "Dixieland Delight" mid-tempo song that progresses to a fast song with a fiddle break; and their "Lady Down on Love" hokey ballad. This is from the last category. In fact, if you listen to "Lady Down on Love" then this song, you'll see how identical-sounding they are, despite the fact that they were written by different people. Oh, but that's only half of the problem with this skunk (apologies to the animal for the comparison). I'm not a prude (listen to Warren Zevon's "Dirty Little Religion" and you'll realize that), so it's not the sexually explicit nature of this song that bugs me. It is sexist (and not in a funny, "It's Hard to Be Humble" or "Put Another Log on the Fire" way), and maybe that's the turnoff. I know women who fawn over this as being romantic, but to me, it's him bragging how he's gonna score. And, of course, it's just a formulaic Alabama song. The only song I ever liked of theirs is "Jukebox in My Mind," and I was genuinely shocked when a friend told me it was them. I said, "What? That doesn't sound like everything else of theirs." Now for the kicker: I said this song was written by someone who wrote a favorite. That person was the late Mentor Williams, writer of the Dobie Gray classic "Drift Away." Give me the beat, boys....just don't give me this song. When We Make Love Written by Mentor Williams and Troy Seals Recorded by Alabama From Roll On, 1984 Here's the great "Drift Away," written by Mentor Williams, in lieu of the crappy Alabama song he also wrote: