But for love? It would seem impossible, almost by definition. You can debase yourself for sex, for drugs, for money, for a job, for recognition. There is something deeply abject about pleading for love in this way. Desire turns into longing, which turns into frustration, which turns into desperation, which turns into masochistic grovelling, which turns into solipsistic thrashing about in a void. The song tells an implicit story of degradation. Don't break my heart, he sings, but she already has.
"Build Me Up Buttercup" is a passionate song, but this passion has been thwarted again and again. The song is addressed to the girl, but she isn't even listening. He begs her to return, which will obviously never happen. But he keeps on waiting by the phone, keeps on running to the door, hoping against hope that she'll be there. She doesn't call, she doesn't come by, she doesn't show up for their dates. The singer has been stood up by his girl. The Farrelly Brothers knew what they were doing when they used it over the closing credits of their 1998 comedy of heterosexual-male humiliation and panic, There's Something About Mary. It's Proust in two minutes and fifty-seven seconds. I think now - though I certainly didn't realize it back then - that "Build Me Up Buttercup" appeals to me because it is a song about erotic rejection. I was fourteen years old at the time, and I fell in love with the song. "Build Me Up Buttercup" was a number one hit for The Foundations in early 1969. "Build Me Up Buttercup" (2:57), The Foundations (1969) Beatdown 1 CRITICAL BEATDOWN Steven Shaviro 1.
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