someone pointed out to me once that while guys name their songs after girls all the time (ie. "Layla," "Gloria," "Celia"... etc,) "you never hear a song by a girl that's called, like, 'Steve.'"
Two Steves, one Apple... no songs :(
that was about a year i heard taylor swift's song "hey stephen" on fearless. it was almost like she'd overheard our conversation, and was smart enough to realize that being the first to rise to the challenge would totally GIVE HER THE EDGE over all those ditsy cheerleaders who are traipsing around trying to scoop her man.
"all those other girls, well, they're beautiful
but would they write a song for you?"
no, they wouldn't. and that's why after this line she GIGGLES. taylor knows that steve will choose her, the girl with substance and talent. the song's message is so empowering it's almost... feminist. (but let's not get ahead of ourselves.)
girls don't usually sing like this to guys. when a girl wants to sing about romantic longing, she usually confides in a third party; she doesn't start singing to the guy until after their relationship has begun. (if she just wants sex, of course, she can be direct from the beginning, à la "If U Seek Amy") which is why i think it's pretty cool that taylor (who's a serious christian) comes out and says something as direct as this:
"i can't help it if you look like an angel
i can't help it if i wanna kiss you in the rain"
she's assertive, but also romantic, two adjectives that our culture places at opposite poles (at least when they're applied to girls): being assertive means competing with boys, not pursuing them, and being romantic means playing passive and hard-to-get. which explains at the same time why no one before has written a song called "steve" ... and also why taylor swift is pretty cool.
(this sentiment might be a little outdated since fearless came out last november, but "hey stephen" is an album track so you can't complain you've heard it too many times on the radio or anything.)
yayyyyy taylor!
It's a composite picture of the members of Massive Attack, created to promote a concert series they curated last June in London.