Radley's list and my additions.
So the search for the best love songs continues. And for a music-lover like myself, it becomes all too easy to get wrapped up in the nostalgia of a life lived to the tune of love songs. I wholeheartedly agree with the songs Radley added, but particularly the two that follow.
Nick Cave and Johnette Nopalitano, "The Ship Song" -- "I must remove your wings, and you, you must learn to fly..." Cave's creepy barritone and Nopalitano's angelic cry mingle with rapturous results.
Absolutely. The most amazing part-- losing your innocence, or exchanging one faith for another.
Bob Dylan, "Just Like a Woman" -- Speaking of Dylan, I guess I'd pick this one if I had to choose just one, by a hair over "Most of the Time." Like most of his bests, it's beautiful in its simplicity. "She makes love just like a woman,/But she breaks just like a little girl." Did a man ever understand a woman better than Dylan?
Now I will venture into the realm of the unspoken secret shames-- ah yes, the cock rock realm, and everything thereafter. So whip out your pleather pants, your yearbooks, and forget about what you're supposed to be doing.
Love is a battlefield by Pat Benatar-- "We are strong-- no one can tell us we're wrong. Searching our hearts for so long...both of knowing... love is a battlefield. Believe me believe me but I can't tell you why-- I'm trapped by your love and I'm chained to your sigh." Reminds me of first love-- defiant, rebellious, refusing to concede to anything like "wisdom". Thank you for that, Martin Kennedy. Love has never been as mad, as tempestuous, or as extreme since.
Patience by Guns N Roses-- I won't even quote this one. Let's just assume everyone has a secret place for this tune.
Crash by Dave Matthews-- "I'm bareboned and crazy for you, when you come crash into me... and I come into you, in a boy's dream..Hike up your skirt a little more, show the world to me. Oh, hike up your skirt a little more, show your world to me". So much to say about this song, and how it unravels every defense, unblocks every expectation. "Tied up and twisted" the way love leaves you, hungry and longing, so beautiful. I remember listening to this song with someone on a train through Europe, so happy in my chains, as small tears rolled down my cheek. This is what makes life worth the sometimes-pain.
Romeo and Juliet by the Dire Straits-- "Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start. And then you exploded into my heart....When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong?....I dreamed your dream for you, but now your dream is real. How can you look at me as if I were just another one of your deals? You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold, you can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold..... I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you...And all I do is miss you, and the way we used to be. All I do is keep the beat of bad company. And all I do is kiss you.. through the bars of a rhyme. Juliet, I'd do the stars with you anytime." Once again, this belongs to Martin.
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley-- "Well, your faith was strong but you needed proof. You saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you. She tied you to her kitchen chair, and she broke your throne and she cut your hair and from your lips she drew the hallelujah." When a man loves you, there is that moment when he decides to finally let go of his fears. Only then do you both get to taste freedom. John Charles named the kittens I left in a basket for him Sampson and Delilah. Indeed, Sampson lost in the end, but "love is not a victory march-- it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah". You can't "win" love; you can't control it-- you can only accept it. Courage is knowing that you can't love without losing a little part of yourself. But you also can't love without discovering new parts. Embrace your blues.
Borderline by Madonna-- "Finish what you start....Just try to understand, I'm giving all I can cause you've got the best of me. Borderline... feels like I'm going to lose my mind. You just keep on pushin' my love over the borderline." About all the insecurities and nonsense and jealousy and envy you tolerate and attempt to placate when you love someone. Put this one a few CDs for Bill. Love to dance alone in my room to this-- early Madonna makes me want to skip.
Breakdown by Tom Petty-- About looking someone in the eye and essentially saying, "Quit bullshitting. Lay it on the table. What do you want?"
Sign your name by Terence Trent D'Arby-- High school again. And again.
