Linda Ronstadt’s track Long Long Time has climbed the charts following the release of the third episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. Streams of the 1970s song have increased by 4,900%, according to Spotify.
Oh, so all our hearts were breaking last night… ? #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/upTiav0MLw
— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) January 30, 2023
“Long, Long Time” is prominent in the series and can be heard during sensitive moments in scenes with Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) and later in scenes with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella ) Ramsay).
For Bill and Frank, the song is key to their relationship. During their first meeting, Frank somewhat clumsily begins to play it on the piano after finding a collection of songs. And Bill later stops him to sing the first few lines: “Love will abide, take things in stride. Sounds like good advice but there’s no one at my side.”
The song was chosen for the episode by the film’s producer and director Craig Mazin after his friend Seth Rudetsky suggested the track.
“I knew that the song had to reflect the longing, the pain and the feeling of endless, unrequited love. I couldn’t find her for a long time, and then I wrote Seth, who works at Sirius XM on Broadway, and said, This is what I need. And in two seconds I heard: “Linda Ronstadt, Long Long Time.” I thought, ‘This is it!'” says Mazin.
The song, written by Gary White, was included on Linda Ronstadt’s album “Silk Purse”. The single spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at number 25. In 1971, the singer was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance.
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“Long Long Time” is a song about a love affair that never started. In the text, Linda Ronstadt admits that she is deeply in love with a man who did not reciprocate her. So she ponders aspects of love she’ll never know, letting through the history of a relationship that never was.
The real meaning of the lyrics in “Long Long Time”: “I love you, and I will love you for a long time, even though you will never let that feeling become real.” A sad song that is the perfect accompaniment to the story of the relationship between two people who survived in an abandoned town during the pandemic: it is actually mutual love, but at first with great resistance from Bill.
The adaptation of the popular game The Last of Us is currently showing quite good viewing figures – the debut episode was watched by 4.7 million viewers, and the second – 5.7 million viewers (this is the largest increase in the audience in the history of HBO – by 22%). Therefore, the authors decided to immediately extend the show for a second season.
The first season of The Last of Us spans nine episodes, each lasting between 46 and 81 minutes. The series will be released every week, and the final will appear on the air on March 12.
Source: Variety, Auralcrave