McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California. She studied modern languages at the University of California, Berkeley. McCorkle began singing professionally after hearing recordings of Billie Holiday in Paris in the late 1960s. She nearly became an interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels, but moved instead to London in 1972 to pursue a career in singing. While in the UK, she made two albums which, although well received, enjoyed only limited circulation.
In the late 1970s, McCorkle returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where a five-month engagement at the Cookery in Greenwich Village brought her to wider public attention and elicited rave reviews from critics.
During the 1980s, McCorkle continued to record; her maturing style and the darkening timbre of her voice greatly enhanced her performances. In the early 1990s, two of the albums McCorkle made for Concord Records, No More Blues and Sábia, were enormously successful and made her name known to the wider world. She was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution which at the time made her the youngest singer ever to have been included in its popular music series. McCorkle played Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls five times and Carnegie Hall three times, and was featured soloist with Skitch Henderson and the 80-piece New York Pops in a concert of Brazilian music.
Thanks to her linguistic skills, McCorkle translated lyrics of Brazilian, French, and Italian songs, notably those for her Brazilian album Sabia. McCorkle also had several short stories published and, in 1991, began work on her first novel. She published fiction in Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and non-fiction in the New York Times Magazine and in American Heritage, including lengthy articles on Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Irving Berlin and Mae West.
McCorkle suffered for many years from depression and cancer, and took her own life at age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her highrise Manhattan apartment. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.
Love
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In thinking such a thing could be
That you could ever care for me
I'm sure you hate to hear
That I adore you, dear
But grant me
Just the same
For love
You'd be so easy to love
So easy to idolize
All others above
So worth the yearning for
So swell to keep every home fire burning for
We'd be so grand at the game
So carefree together
That it does seem a shame
That you can't see
Your future with me
Cause you'd be oh, so easy to love
In Susannah Mccorkle's song "Easy to Love," the singer is expressing her feelings to someone she is enamored with. She acknowledges that it's likely a waste of time to think that they could be together because they are not reciprocating her emotions. The lyrics "That you could ever care for me" and "But grant me just the same / I'm not entirely to blame" reflect this. The singer is not solely at fault for feeling the way she does, but she knows that it's unlikely for the person she is addressing to return those feelings. Despite this knowledge, she still thinks that this person would be "so easy to love." The chorus emphasizes this sentiment, describing how easy it would be to idolize and care for someone who is so "worth the yearning for."
In the second verse, the singer describes how well they would work together. She sees their potential as a couple and imagines that they would be "so grand at the game" and "so carefree together." For her, it's frustrating that the person can't see the same potential in them as a couple. She closes the song once again by emphasizing how "easy to love" this person would be, "so worth the yearning for."
Overall, "Easy to Love" is a song about unrequited love and the frustrations that come with it. The singer acknowledges that she is likely wasting her time, but can't help but imagine what could be if only the other person would return her feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
I know too well that I'm just wasting precious time
I am aware that I am foolishly thinking that something could happen between us.
In thinking such a thing could be
I am aware that I am wasting my time by having this thought that I can be with you.
That you could ever care for me
I do not believe that you will ever care for me in the way that I want you to.
I'm sure you hate to hear
I believe that you do not want to hear me say that I love you.
That I adore you, dear
I am confessing that I have a deep affection for you, my love.
But grant me
But please allow me to express my feelings to you.
Just the same
Even though you may not feel the same way about me, I cannot help how I feel.
I'm not entirely to blame
I do not believe that I should be entirely responsible for having these feelings for you.
For love
This is simply how love works and I cannot completely control it.
You'd be so easy to love
I believe that if we were together, the relationship would be easy and effortless.
So easy to idolize
If you were mine, I would think of you as perfect and worship you.
All others above
I would prioritize and value you above anyone else.
So worth the yearning for
I believe that you are worth the pain and longing I feel for you.
So swell to keep every home fire burning for
You are so amazing that I would do anything to keep our relationship strong and steady.
We'd be so grand at the game
If we were together, we would be an amazing and enviable couple.
So carefree together
Our relationship would be easy-going and enjoyable, without the burden of stress and worry.
That it does seem a shame
It is unfortunate that you cannot see how great we would be together.
That you can't see
I believe that you are unable to see how great we would be together as a couple.
Your future with me
I believe that we would have a great future together as a couple.
Cause you'd be oh, so easy to love
You would be so easy to love and cherish if you were in a relationship with me.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind