The Closer I Get to You

<p>The song is about the slow dance of intimacy, two people circling each other in that space between friendship and something more. Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway recorded it as a duet, their voices intertwining like two people who are afraid of what will happen if they get any closer. The closer I get to you, the more you make me see. The song is about the vulnerability of proximity, the way that getting close to someone means risking the comfort of distance. The arrangement is warm and intimate, the kind of song that sounds like it was recorded in a room with candles burning.</p> <p>That same slow dance gets a Luther Vandross reading on his 1988 album *Any Love*. Where Roberta and Donny's duet is a conversation between equals, two voices sharing the vulnerability equally, Luther approaches the song as a solo performance, taking both parts and turning the conversation into an internal dialogue. His voice carries both sides of the argument ... the desire to get closer and the fear of what that closeness will reveal. The arrangement is classic Luther: rich, polished, the backing vocals responding to his lead like a lover answering a question. Where the original was two people discovering each other, Luther's version is one person discovering that the person he wants to get closer to is already inside him.</p>