Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960, in Richmond, Virginia) is an American r… Read Full Bio ↴Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960, in Richmond, Virginia) is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.

Mann attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes; the band released the EP Bark Along with the Young Snakes in 1982, and a compilation album was issued in 2004. In 1983, seeking a return to "sweetness and melody", she co-founded with Berklee classmate and boyfriend Michael Hausman the new wave band 'Til Tuesday, which achieved minor success in 1985 with its first album, Voices Carry. The title song is said to be inspired by Hausman and Mann's breakup; the video became an MTV staple, winning the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist, though Mann's signature spiky hair would lead some to dismiss the group. Mann performed with the rock band Rush on the song "Time Stand Still" (from Hold Your Fire, 1987), singing backup vocals and appearing in the music video. With Mann playing an increasingly important role in songwriting, 'Til Tuesday released two more albums, Welcome Home and Everything's Different Now. On the final album and tour, musician Jon Brion joined the band, which broke up in 1990 when Mann left to start her solo career.

Around the time of the first album's release, Mann began a romantic relationship with Jules Shear; they broke up before the final 'Til Tuesday album, which contained the song "J For Jules". Professional relationships from the band would continue: Hausman later became Mann's manager, and Brion produced her first two solo albums.

Solo career
In 1993, Mann released Whatever, her first solo album. Promotion suffered due to the collapse of her label, Imago. While only a small hit, the album was critically praised, and paved the way for her next release, 1995's I'm with Stupid, through Geffen Records. Again, reviews were positive, but sales were weak.

Mann had met musician Michael Penn in the 1980s and with comparable songwriting styles and record-industry woes to share, they struck up a friendship during the recording of Stupid, which blossomed into romance and their 1997 marriage. Around this time Brion produced her album Bachelor No. 2, but Geffen saw no hit singles in the material and ordered her back to the studio. The album languished while Mann and the label fought.

Meanwhile, iconoclastic film auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Penn and Brion had composed a soundtrack, became a close friend. Mann gained greater public recognition in 1999 — indeed, more than anything else since "Voices Carry" — when she contributed eight songs to the soundtrack of Anderson's Magnolia, including the Academy Award-nominated song, "Save Me". Anderson deliberately worked from Mann's lyrics to create the film's characters and situations. Due to this exposure, Mann became sought after to contribute to soundtracks, a success made ironic by the music industry's indifference.

Independence
Fed up with both ineffectual promotion and artistic meddling by her record label, an experience documented in her song "Calling It Quits", she struck out on her own and founded SuperEgo Records in 1999. Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 in 2000 (see 2000 in music), having negotiated a contract release from Geffen, and though initially only sold at concerts and via her website, the album became successful, allowing her to secure retail distribution through SuperEgo. The album, which included some songs from Magnolia and new material, was widely admired and Mann's "more indie than indie" success was carefully noted by other musicians.

Mann, Penn, Brion, Fiona Apple, and other musicians had by this time developed a subculture around the Largo nightclub in L.A. Penn and Mann formed a concept called Acoustic Vaudeville to recreate it on tour in California and eventually on an irregular, ongoing national tour. The Acoustic Vaudeville shows intermix music and stand-up comedy; among the comedians joining them for individual shows were Janeane Garofalo, Patton Oswalt, and David Cross.

Aimee continued her solo career with Lost in Space (2002), a somewhat more sombre album in the same vein as Bachelor No. 2. In 2004 her website released the Lost in Space Special Edition, which featured a second disc containing six live recordings, as well two B-sides and two previously unreleased songs. In November of that year Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, a live album and DVD recorded at a series of July 2004 shows in Brooklyn, came out; the two discs were sold packaged together in either a CD jewel case or a DVD case.

Mann described her next album, The Forgotten Arm (2005) as a concept album set in the '70s about two lovers who meet at the Virginia state fair and are now on the run. The Joe Henry-produced album, which was recorded mostly live and has few overdubs, was released May 3, 2005. The album reflects Mann's interest in boxing in its illustrations as well as its title, derived from a boxing move in which one arm is used to hit the opponent, causing him to "forget" about the other arm, which is then used to deliver a harsher blow. The album received weaker reviews overall, with critics impressed at the totality but unimpressed with any individual songs.

In October 2006 Aimee released 'One More Drifter in The Snow', an album of Christmas songs. All bar one of the songs, 'Calling on Mary' were covers of holiday classics.

Mann's independence from the industry led her to more explicit political stances. She joined Artists Against Piracy, a group formed to act against the illegal downloading and file sharing of copyrighted music from the Internet. Mann, Penn and Hausman took their experience with SuperEgo to found the independent music collective United Musicians, which is based on the principle that every artist should be able to retain copyright ownership of the work he or she has created, in contrast to normal music industry contracts.

June 2008 brought the release of '@#%&*! Smilers,' a collection of songs featuring greater use of keyboards. Aimee's set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the same month featured a number of selections from the new album as well as a number of her concert standards. Aimee and her band covered Elton John's 'My Father's Gun' as part of the set.

You Do
Aimee Mann Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You stay the night at his house
With no ride to work
And I'm the one who tells you
He's another jerk
But you're the one who can succeed
You've only got to prove your need,
And you do
You really do

The sex you're trading up for
What you hope is love
Is just another thing that
He'll be careless of
But though there are caveats galore
You've only got to love him more,
And you do
You really do
Even when it's all too clear

You write a little note that
You leave on the bed
And spend some time dissecting
Every word he said
And if he seemed a little strange
Well, baby, anyone can change
And you do

You do
You really do

Overall Meaning

In Aimee Mann's song "You Do," she tells the story of a woman who stays the night with a man who isn't interested in a committed relationship. Despite warnings from Mann's character, the woman in question continues on with the fling, believing that she can prove her worth to the man and hoping that he'll eventually love her back. Mann's lyrics are poignant and insightful, shining a light on the painful reality of unrequited love and the ways in which we convince ourselves that we can change people who aren't interested in changing.

The first verse sets the stage for the rest of the song, as Mann sings about the woman staying the night with the man and then not having a way to get to work the next morning. This moment speaks to the woman's vulnerability and dependence on the man, even though he's not there for her in the way that she wants him to be. Mann then sings about how she's the one who warns the woman that the man is "another jerk," but the woman believes that she can succeed and win his love if she just proves how much she needs him. This idea of needing someone to love us in order for us to feel adequate is a common theme in Mann's work, and it's one that she explores more in depth in other songs as well.

The chorus of "You Do" repeats the phrase "and you do, you really do" several times, emphasizing the woman's persistence in trying to win over the man, even when it's clear that he's not interested. Mann sings about how the woman is "trading up" sex for what she hopes is love, only to be disappointed when the man doesn't give her the attention she craves. She also notes that the woman writes a note to the man and dissects every word he says, hoping to find some clue that he might actually be interested in her. Despite all of this, Mann's character still believes that the woman can change the man and make him love her, highlighting the power of hope and the ways in which it can blind us to reality.

Overall, "You Do" is a poignant and emotional look at unrequited love and the ways in which we convince ourselves that we can change people who aren't interested in changing. Mann's lyrics are insightful and relatable, and they shed light on the difficult and painful realities of relationships that aren't meant to be.

Line by Line Meaning

You stay the night at his house
You spend the night with him

With no ride to work
You don't have a way to get to work

And I'm the one who tells you
I am the one who informs you

He's another jerk
He is just another guy who mistreats women

But you're the one who can succeed
You are the only one who can make this relationship work

You've only got to prove your need,
All you need to do is show him that you need him

And you do
And you successfully prove your need

You really do
You truly prove your need

The sex you're trading up for
The sex you are bargaining for

What you hope is love
What you wish to be true love

Is just another thing that
But sadly, it is just another thing that