Rilo Kiley - Does He Love You? Lyrics

Such a great and sad song

The realisation at the end the song is like a punch in the face. With the cellos and violins blasting! The song is in such a progressive rock manner. Love it!

here bc Reese Witherspoon mentioned your lyrics on Vogue 73 questions :)

He will never leave you for me

it's almost time for that 20 year nostalgia fairy dust to sprinkle on this song

first part always reminds me a bit of the melody from Cat Steven's "Father and Son"

The husband is a huge douche bag. Who would want him. He is going to leave his, "baby" and wife. To go after a woman, who is obviously not a loyal friend or girlfriend. He is a boy for going outside his relationship. Instead of communication or counseling. He really doesn't love anyone. He doesn't even love his self. You can walk out on your brand new baby. You know you have a cold heart!!

Such an underrated band

Oh fuck this is so relatable. Only for me It was Josh. I'll love you always. You'll never leave her for me.

Heard this song was when I was 17 I'm 32 now and I still feel some kind of melancholy joy when I hear this song

This song is not that old.

@Roseabelle Shelton yes, it is. Google search is your friend..

Holy cow, SAME!! Also, the lyrics hit wayyyyy harder in your 30s lol.

It hits harder the older you get. And the more desperate you get for a connection. This song is really the ultimate for lack of a better term "break up song" as it is someone feeling out of options but still breaking it off with someone starting a family. And in keeping with the theme of jenny on this track of revealing a bit too much...it hits too close to home personally.

@3:30 goosebumps.

Listening to this song again after allowing years to pass without thought, I found an even deeper story. The singer didnt simply "not go thru with it". I believe successfully moving the hubby to Cali to be with her was never really her plan. It was never about stealing the guy from her friend; it was always jus a game to her. It was the chase. In the end she confesses to her friend practically saying "let's not forget our roles here: you're meant to be married with a kid and I'll continue my antics elsewhere cuz Id never be happy even IF I DID get ur husband" (cuz im flawed if im not free)

I think she accepts at the end that she is the flawed one. She knows that he will never leave and come to California after all his promises because he has a stable life and she is still a mess. It was never a game - she was in love and believed that he was too, but she realises too late that her "better off for leaving" friend did what she never could, made a life and found stability.

It's not time to make a change. Just relax, take it easy. You're still young, that's your fault. There's so much you have to know. Find a girl, settle down. If you want you can marry. Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

LMFAO seriously

The part at 3:40 still gives me chills...

It's one of those "OH SHIT THE WIFE IS HER FRIEND" moments that gave me goosebumps. I hear you man. Ironic I first heard this song two weeks ago also haha. I had sort of an existential crisis a few weeks ago after vacationing with some friends and meeting someone that we clicked so ridiculously well that mine and her friends were asking me about it. Put me into a thought about if I've 'made the right choice in my life to marry' and 'did i just meet my true soul mate'? Took a week and a half to get out of that daze, and just like the song, I am reminded that me, the husband, would never leave her for another.

E. Lehcar made me come here.

who's perspective is singing "and you're better off for leaving.."

After listening numerous times, to me it's the story of two female friends who were very close, and when one decides to get married even though they both swore they never would, the other feels abandoned and betrayed. The whole song is from her perspective, and years later she realizes that her friend is better off for having made that decision.

roastbeastss it's the one character's perspective throughout. She's saying to her "good friend" that she’s better off for leaving the place where they both used to live. I think they might have also been lovers. The "good friend" went off, got a "real job" and got married and had a kid, because she ultimately desired having a baby over the freedom she'd always swore. The character singing is at first bitter about this and is enacting some byzantine revenge plan by seducing her ex-lover's husband, and making him fall in love with her and leave the good friend. But the good friend up and calls her and confides in her that though she married him just to get a baby, she's fallen desperately in love with her husband and is afraid he's leaving for this "other woman" that she doesn't know is her ex-lover/friend. So she realizes at the end that she's hurting her friend in a way she didn't really intend, this is real love and she's messed up people's lives.

83croissant I never thought of the fact she and the friend might have once been lovers. Interesting idea. Adds a whole new level of messed up but it kinda makes sense.

ghostbeast_ im

He will never leave you for me.

It is a special moment when you stumble across your first masterpiece, the first piece of art that plays your brain like a violin. A true masterpiece isn’t something someone else can force upon you; you have to come to it on your own. I don’t remember the first time I heard Does He Love You? I had listened to the song hundreds of times and thoroughly enjoyed it before the night when the full magnitude of it hit me. It’s one of my favorite things about Rilo Kiley: how their songs are planted like seeds in your head, how you have to listen over and over at various stages of your life before the entire meaning blossoms, shooting tendrils all through your bones.

Does He Love You? is especially good at this. There is the obvious storyline, told in pieces and hints, that you understand the first time you listen: the tale of two women who love the same man. Subsequent hearings of the song bring an appreciation of the music itself, different instruments added with every few lines, leading up to a crescendo of emotion. The beautiful lyrics and gorgeous music would be enough on their own, but the final element is what sealed the deal for me. I was delivering newspapers one night, ruminating about a friend who had hurt me deeply, when I heard the story behind the story for the first time. Hidden within the stanzas is a story about a lost friendship, a revenge story that ends before the final blow is dealt when the aggrieved realizes she can’t go through with her plan.

:) I had to write that for a Composition class, and I saw someone else post a short essay-type comment on a song on YouTube, so I figured I'd post mine. xD

BelleFlower15 well I loved it!

Listening to this song again after allowing years to pass without thought, I found an even deeper story. The singer didnt simply "not go thru with it". I believe successfully moving the hubby to Cali to be with her was never really her plan. It was never about stealing the guy from her friend; it was always jus a game to her. It was the chase. In the end she confesses to her friend practically saying "let's not forget our roles here: you're meant to be married with a kid and I'll continue my antics elsewhere cuz Id never be happy even IF I DID get ur husband" (cuz im flawed if im not free)

You are a gem upon this soiled earth

i remember being 14 and sitting on a couch in the dark with the first ipod and listening to this.. just blown away...

still hits me.

I am flawed if I'm not free

keep thinking about this song... I'm hopelessly in love.

Jenny Lewis ♡♡♡♡♡♡ :*

P's Emma you seem nice night x

brilliant love from Ronnie newtownards xxxxxx

This song always makes me cry... I can relate

Every so often, it makes me really sad Rilo Kiley isn't together anymore.

geez the lyricsis amazing, too <3

Love this....

This song tells a story and is beautiful in my opinion. Jenny Lewis is wonderful.

jenny lewis <3

the song is sung from both perspectives, starting from the girlfriend then to the wife and back to the girlfriend. the two women are friends, the girlfriend is talking to the wife at the end of the song, "and your husband will never leave you, he will never leave you for me"

I'm not sure if Beatles did a version of the song, but the melody is from Cat Steven's "Father and Son". The Flaming Lips used it in "Fight Test" as well.

Fuck I finally found this song again after like 4 years.

jenny is the mistress.

to me, this is the most Beatles sounding song I've heard in a long time. thoughts?

is she the wife or girlfriend?

Sky Smolen gf obvi

Both. Song is sung from both perspectives.

high school

Grade 11 memories flashing through my brain.

Do they have any other songs in this similar style?

get a real job.

Damn it. 7 years later, I still get tears.

masterful

The answer to the title is yes.

This is such a dramatic and beautiful song. <3