Charles & Eddie, ‘Would I Lie To You?’: The beginning and end of a beautiful friendship

Charles & Eddie
‘Would I Lie To You?’

Highest UK Top 40 position:
Number One on November 15, 1992

1. Look into my eyes

The internet loves a good quote. That’s why Facebook is now overwhelmed with aphorisms like, “Be the change you want to see in the world”, usually misattributed to a Minion.

C.S. Lewis—author of The Chronicles of Narnia and B.F.F. of J.R.R. Tolkien —has become something of a star in this Inspirational Quote Meme space in recent years. Lewis wrote some wonderful non-fiction books on themes of love, grief and faith, many of which are very quotable and look good on a Minions meme. Many of these quotes come from his book The Four Loves, a study of our most complex emotion.

2. I’ve hidden my heart behind the bedroom door

In The Four Loves, Lewis writes that there are four types of love:

• Eros: Romantic love, not to be confused with sexual desire (which he called “Venus”)

• Storge: The emotion you feel for people who are a vital part of your life, especially your family

• Agape: Universal love, including devotion to religion or principles

• Philia: Strong friendship between two people who aren’t family or lovers

Philia, according to Lewis, is the most neglected of the four loves. We value family, we value romance, we even value religious faith. But we do not sufficiently value our homies.

For some people—especially straight men of a certain age—friendship can seem somewhat frivolous, almost embarrassing. Lewis has some thoughts about why:

“The first and most obvious answer is that few value it because few experience it. And the possibility of going through life without the experience is rooted in that fact which separates Friendship so sharply from both the other loves. Friendship is—in a sense not at all derogatory to it—the least natural of loves; the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious and necessary. It has least commerce with our nerves; there is nothing throaty about it nothing that quickens the pulse or turns you red and pale. It is essentially between individuals; the moment two men are friends they have in some degree drawn apart together from the herd.”

—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

And when friends become close, they unlock something in each other, something that’s normally hidden. Reflecting on how his circle was affected by the death of poet Charles Williams, Lewis wrote:

“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s [Tolkien’s] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him ‘to myself’ now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.”

—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

People sometimes say “I can be myself around my friends.” What they mean is, “I can be more than myself.”

3. Everybody’s got their history

Cool fact about Eddie Chacon of Charles & Eddie:

As a teenager in California, Eddie formed a garage band with some neighbourhood kids, one of whom was Mike Bordin from Faith No More.

The other kid in the band: Cliff Burton of Metallica.

Mike, Cliff and Eddie all wanted to play rock music, but Eddie’s dad thought he had potential as a soul singer. He personally coached him for years, helping Eddie develop his distinctive voice.

Eddie pursued a singing career, getting signed and quietly dropped again. He connected with The Dust Brothers, but unfortunately, it was during their “let’s smoke weed and not make music” era. Desperate for his break, Eddie moved to New York.

Charles Pettigrew took a serious approach to music when he was growing up in Philadelphia. He studied jazz singing at a prestigious Boston school, then joined a pop band called Down Avenue.

Down Avenue are bang average, but something does jump out when you listen to their songs. It’s that voice, so honeyed and mellow and perfectly controlled:

After Down Avenue fizzled out, Charles moved to New York, where he was taken under the wing of an A&R man at Capitol Records called Josh Deutsch, who was very enthusiastic about Charles’s talent, but a solo deal remained elusive.

And then, one day, Charles was stepping off the C-train in Manhattan with a copy of Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man tucked under his arm.

Up walks this Latino guy with flowing black hair, and he says, “I love that record, you have great taste.” He introduces himself as Eddie Chacon.

Charles and Eddie instantly click, so they decide to get a drink and talk about the challenges of the music industry. At one point, Eddie says, “I have this A&R guy who’s very supportive, but I can’t get a break.”

Charles says, “who’s your A&R guy?”

Eddie says, “Josh Deutsch at Capitol Records.”

The next day, Charles and Eddie go to Josh’s office and announce that they’re a duo.

4. I’m here to stay

Charles & Eddie wrote lots of songs together, but they didn’t write ‘Would I Lie To You?’

That songwriting credit belongs to another duo, Mick Leeson and Peter Vale. Lesson & Vale have written hundreds of well-known songs, including Sheena Easton’s Bond theme, ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ by Eddie Money, and ‘My One Temptation’ by Mica Paris.

I do not have a meet-cute story for Lesson & Vale, sorry. They keep a low profile, although I think they might have been schoolteachers before becoming songwriters.

(In the absence of an authoritative biography, let’s make one up. Let’s imagine them in the teacher’s lounge one afternoon. Mick starts humming a tune and Peter says, “what’s that song?” Mick says, “oh, just some nonsense. I made up.” Next day, Peter comes in and says, “this might be weird, but you know that tune you were humming? I wrote some lyrics to go with it…”)

‘Would I Lie To You?’ peaked at 13 in the Billboard Hot 100, and went bananas in the rest of the world, topping the charts in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and scooping the Ivor Novello award for Best Original Song.

Like ‘Be My Baby’ a couple of weeks ago, ‘Would I Lie To You?’ correctly guessed that there was an appetite for old-fashioned soul music. And ‘Would I Lie To You?’ is a very good, old-fashioned soul song.

It was a hit, however, because of the chemistry between Charles and Eddie. They unlock something in this song.

5. Can’t you see they’re open wide

Sadly, the duo peaked with ‘Would I Lie To You?’ and are generally classed as one-hit wonders.

Charles joined The Tom Tom Club, who were having their own revival thanks to Mariah’s constant championing of ‘Genius Of Love’. Eddie made another fruitless attempt at a solo career. As the end of the 90s approached, the two reconnected and talked about relaunching Charles & Eddie, going so far as to cut some demos.

Charles didn’t mention that he had cancer, or that it was terminal. Eddie had no idea, pretty much until the moment Charles died in 2001.

Perhaps this was unfair of Charles, to raise his friend’s hopes when he knew that his time was limited. Or maybe he just wanted to spend some of his final days with his pal, being Charles & Eddie again for just a little while longer.

…bummer ending, huh? Look, every relationship story ends in tragedy if you wait long enough. And that final sour note can make you wonder… was it worth the effort? Why did I get invested at all?

Our homie C.S. Lewis has an answer. In The Four Loves, Lewis refers to St Augustine, who was once so devastated by the loss of a friend that he wrote, “This is what comes of giving one’s heart to anything but God. All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”

Lewis’s response is one of the most memed passages in all of his writing:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal…lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

—C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

That passage is usually quoted in the context of romantic love, but it’s actually about friendship.

People can be stupid and annoying and toxic. They often let you down, and sometimes they die. But people can also open you up, and show you a part of yourself that you never knew about. Which means that people will always be worth the risk.

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