Feb 132007
In preparation for Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about love songs. What makes a great one? What can spoil a love song for you? Are love songs more important to you when you are in love or when you are not in love? Songwriters, poets, have you written of love? Not love gone bad, not unrequited love, but true love, or at least a facsimile thereof. How did your loved one feel about hearing your work for the first time?
The only rules (don’t think the only rule is there are no rules) in this game are as follows:
- No lists
- No posting full sets of lyrics without analysis
- No wussing out and holding your tongue, so to speak
I look forward to your input.
May I lead by example? Beside the fact that a great love song requires great music that somehow taps me into feelings of love, it helps me if the language and delivery is plainspoken. I’m listening to a love song, and love should be natural. The exhortations of a Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey do not speak to any love I care to choose to engage in. I’ll have to think about it – there’s probably some over the top soul song on love that I like, but for the most part, I like ’em plainspoken.
Typical “deal breakers” for me and a love song include a song’s reliance on a girl’s name to the exclusion of any other content (although there are exceptions), the feeling that the writer of the song has not even spoken to the love of his or her life, and the heavy use of similes (“I love you like rain on an April morning”).
According to what I’ve laid out, Marvin Gaye’s “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” may be my favorite love song. It’s obsessive – in a friendly way, it’s conversational, it’s funny, it’s comfy. It probably is tied to the glow of the first months of love, but I’ll take it. Although it’s not meant for me, “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” is a love song that I think hits at aspects of love rarely covered successfully in love songs. It seems to have a longer shelf-life than most love songs. I’m sure I’m missing some other obvious examples of love songs that aren’t all about the here and now.
As to the “importance” of love songs at various times in my life, I’ll have to come clean: I’m not a love song kind of guy. There are those I love and those that have served as an important ideal in my life. They continue to be a helpful anchor in my development of real-life, long-term love, but for me, the real thing is not only unlike the early feelings of love expressed in 99.9% of love songs, it’s too much a part of my life to be able to express except to those who matter most.
As a result of all this, I’ve never been a writer of love songs. “Happy stories tell themselves/They don’t leave much to say” is the way I’ve expressed it. This does not thrill the love of my life, but hopefully I express enough in our everyday lives for her to know how I feel.
The love songs that resonate most for me are songs that focus on the deep, important aspects of “grown up” love — and by that I *don’t* mean whiny “love is complicated” musings. I mean songs like Curtis Mayfield’s “The Makings Of You” — perhaps the greatest grown-up love song I’ve ever heard. I mean, I get misty whenever I hear “Ooh Baby Baby,” just like the next guy/gal, but check out what Curtis is singing about here, in his own elliptical kind of way: it’s sweet, selfless, mature and deep, like true love is meant to be.
(Side note: I recently picked up the Gladys Knight soundtrack to “Claudine” on a thrift store jag, and hearing Gladys breathe her own kind of life into these words was a revelation. Actually, hearing a *woman* sing them was a special thing of beauty.)
Add a little sugar, honeysuckle and
A great big expression of happiness
Boy, you couldn’t miss
With a dozen roses
Such would astound you
The joy of children laughing around you
These are the makings of you
It is true, the makings of you
It’s been a miracle what you’ve done
Please stay right by my side
Two can be one
The righteous way to go
Anyone would know
I believe I thought I told you so
You’re second to none
The love of all mankind
Should reflect some sign
Of the words I’m trying to recite
They’re close, but not quite
Almost impossible to do
Describing the makings of you
I know you lovebirds are busy ordering flowers and candy, but don’t wuss out. How do you call your loverboy?
RICK MASSIMO:
I’ve been groovin’ on a copy of the Tavares album that includes “Heaven (Must Be Missing an Angel)” that I thrifted the other day, and I submit that *that’s* a great love song, too — a full-on winner. I know you’re a big fan of the disco/soul years, and I’d be curious to get your take on the intersection of the Valentine’s Day thang and music from that era. To help get those (ugh) juices flowin’, I submit the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TmkM_UeWuk
That Tavares song is a strong “feel-good” number.
I don’t know about you, hrrundivbakshi, but I’m shocked at the lack of Love Vibrations folks are sharing today. They must have their flower and candy orders in by now.
I dunno, Mr. Mod. Like you, I’m somewhat familiar with the psychographic profile of the typical Townsman. I can see how they’d feel funny about sharing.
Ah, Tavares. Man, I loved those guys. “Heaven” is a good one, but their version of “More Than a Woman” is the greatest. As I’ve said privately to Fritz, you know how people (like Mr. Mod, I believe) get all analytical about the Four Seasons and how they have the perfect encapsulation in sound of the working-class Jersey they hail from? Well, listen to Tavares’s “More Than a Woman, particularly the martial response on the line “let history repeat itself.” That’ Providence, Fall River and all the towns in between, right there.
And I’m happy to report that although only three of them are still performing as Tavares, they’re all doing well in life.
Admittedly cheesy “More Than a Woman” video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56I5kBPs7s
As for love songs in general, I’m a big fan of love songs that avoid direct address. Jim’s “Too Busy Thinking ‘Bout My Baby” is a good one, and I’ve been trying to come up with others all day. But the kind of songs where the love happiness overflows into someone’s regular day.
“Say a Little Prayer for You” is a good example, though I don’t happen to much like that particular song. But something that acknowledges that the real world exists. Know what I mean?
I’ll try to think of some more.
“More Than a Woman” — WINNER!
BTW, I was surprised at how solid my Tavares album is, from one end to the other.
Man, I LOVE the backup vox in the outchorus, i.e.:
“More than a woman… more than a woman to me…”
“YOU ARE!”
That “you are” is killer stuff!
The Bee Gees ‘More than a Woman’ kicks it’s ass. Barry Gibb is the master of love songs. My favorite of which is ‘Run to Me’, without it, Oasis would not exist.
I like a little directness in a love song – there’s the fine and sometimes volatile line between love and lust, and neither should be absent entirely. But songs that make me feel like they are a soundtrack to how love feels to me are less high on the lust meter. Dinah singing “What a Difference a Day Makes” is a hit. Rose Royce’s “I Wanna Get Next to You” brings in the physical, but only as a future hope, so the line stays pleasantly blurred for me. And I get behind a little underdog in my love poems. Al Green’s “I Didn’t Know” is arguably the hottest R & B love song ever recorded. And while it doesn’t cross the line too much for me, I’m not entirely comfortable with the way that song looks at my wife. But do give it a listen if you don’t know it. From Al Green Is Love. One that is a perennial hit at our house is Bill Withers’ “Kissing My Love.” It is baldly about the physical, but when that beat gets you going, and his smoky voice talks about kissing his love, what does it make him think of? “I close my eyes and see a pretty city, with a million flower beds!” See? Get your minds out of the gutter! Also the tasty, restrained rhythm section is its own reward. And for those who like their love at a pleasant upbeat remove, you can’t beat Buck Owens and His Buckaroos’ “Above and Beyond.” Positive, angst-free, yet pro-active, as the moderns say.
Don’t give up hope. Since this post, a few more Townspeople have come forward to share. I sense we’ve only just begun. Try it, People!
BTW, the dbs video is nice. Very reminiscent of an early Nixon’s Head show. I mean, always more noise than decorum at those shows, but something about them, and their pitch (not musical pitch, their “slant” if you will) seemed familiar. Though none of the Head, as I recall, ever did the lead-guitar feet-close-together-mincing-steps thing. I always thought that move, like rappers’ crotch grabbing, had the opposite effect from what may have been intended. I would see these men in public, back in the day, at a bus stop, or whatever, just holding their crotch. Once I told a kid at the bus stop in Germantown that they had a restroom over at the Wendy’s. Then I felt bad when the other people laughed, because I didn’t need the extra oomph to my wise-acre-ism. I’m probably lucky not to have been seriously wounded for my efforts over the years! In any event, the video: nice ending with that tenth or whatever the bass holds out. Very pretty.
General Slocum, as you noted, I also sensed a kinship with the well-intentioned yet not-quite-greatness of this dBs performance. We loved those first 2 albums, and – as you aptly pointed out – we suffered/benefitted from some of the same weaknesses/strengths. Or so I’d like to think. Yes, Stamey’s lead guitar foot positioning was all wrong! We never allowed band members’ feet to be that close together.
It’s probably obvious, but “Big Brown Eyes” is not only my favorite power pop song but one of my favorite silly love songs. I usually don’t go for those girl on a pedestal numbers, but I’ll make an exception for this one.
Hey. I realize Rock Town Hall must, like youtube, become a ghost town when nobody’s at work. But it’s snowing cats and dogs across many of our Townsmens’ areas. Where’d everybody go? Are you all out with the snow blower, excavating the strolling musicians you hired to serenade your sweethearts?
I’m working from home – heading into the office shortly. As much as folks in this region are ducking the weather, I sense they’re also ducking dealing with love songs and Bon Scott. Come on, Townspeople! I’ve got a healing KISS Reunion in the works. It’s your turn to shine.
Sorry, but I was without power most of the day yesterday. A tornado killed a woman less than a mile from where I’m currently staying. So you picked the perfect day to be discussing ACDC, about whom I couldn’t care less. And I note that the discussion of love songs has not yielded an example less than what 20 years old? In this era when hardcore sex is ubiquitous, is the innocent love song even possible anymore?
Here, There & Everywhere.
The love songs that resonate with me the most are not so much due to any musical nuance as much as being associated with a particular moment.
Any good (seemingly) heartfelt love song, randomly heard at just the right moment is going to be with me forever.
Yes. Examples to follow, but I have to go celebrate V-Day by signing huge piles of legal forms, because nothing says eternal plighting of troth like incurring a massive long-term debt with your beloved.
BigSteve, that was one hard-hitting comment. I like it. You might be onto something, or this may be a function of too many Townspeople who’ve been out of Love Circulation for all that time. We’ll have to see what The Great 48 and others bring to the table. Good luck, Great One.
One before I go: “Oh Golly, Oh Goo, Oh Gee (I’m In Love)” by John Southworth, which despite the OTT title is every bit the wide-eyed ‘n’ innocent love song. From 1997, so only a decade old at this point.
Well I guess I’d better say Michelle by the Beatles if I know what’s good for me.
Since I don’t, I’ll say Everyday by Starbelly. BigSteve, the album with that song on it came out in 2002. Chock full of those harmonies Mr. Mod’s sure to find objectionable.