A Cup of Coffee

Silly love songs

I was listening to an old David Bowie song today called "Heroes". It is the story of a couple separated by the Wall in Berlin, during the Cold War years. I was paying attention to the lyrics and I decided it is one of the most tragic love songs ever composed. I decided to post here a list of some of my favorite love songs.

1) If I loved you (from the play "Carroussell", by Rodgers and Hammerstein). For me, this is one of the most beautiful songs ever. It is the classic tale of a person who is afraid of communicating his/her feelings. It runs like that:

"If I love you/ off and again I would try to say/what you mean to me/If I loved you/ words wouldn't come in an easy way/round in circles I'd go/ Longing to tell you, but afraid and shy/I'd let my golden chances pass me by/Soon you'd leave me/ off you would go in the mist of day/ never ever to know/how I loved you/if I loved you"

Boys and girls out there. Don' ever dare to leave things get this way. It is too sad.

2) Let us make things a bit lighter now. Try to listen to Ella Fitzgerald's version of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, which is also a Rodgers song, with Lorenz Hart writing the lyrics. It is sung by an older, more experienced woman, who finds herself unexpectedly in love. The introduction sets the tone.

"He is a fool and don't I know it/ but a fool can have his charms/I'm in love and don't I show it/like a babe in arms/ Love is the same old sensation/ Lately I have not slept a wink/since this half pint imitation/ put me on the blink/I am wild again/beguiled again/a simpering, whimpering child again/bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I.

I appreciate the humour when she says:
Lost my heart, but what of it/he is cold, I agree/He can laugh and I love it/although the laugh's on me

3) Heroes, the David Bowie song, is very tragic. The lovers meet furtively by the Berlin Wall, risking their lives for a fleeting glance. He sings to her: "though nothing can keep us together, we can steal time/, if just for one day/We can be heroes/ forever and ever".

4) Moon Over Bourbon Street, with Sting. It is inspired on Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat series. The sinner/vampire or whatever your fancy chooses sings his love for an innocent girl. And he finishes with the question: How could I be this way/ when I pray to God above
I must love what I destroy/ or destroy the thing I love/Oh you’ll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet/While there’s a moon over bourbon street". It is a vampire with a conscience.

5) Where or When, another Rodgers and Hart oldie. It is the song of lovers who seem to be fated to meet. Maybe this is the serendipity song too. It starts like that: "It seems we stood and talked like this before/ we looked at each other in the same way then/but I can't remember where or when/The clothes you are wearing are the clothes you wore/the smile you are smiling you were smiling then/but I can't remember where or when/"

If it is not fate, it might be the oldest trick in the seduction book!

6) As a fan of the Phantom of The Opera, I couldn't leave out one song from this play. The Point of No Return

Past the point of no return/the final threshold /the bridge is crossed/, so stand
and watch it burn/ We've passed the point of no return

7) But the definitive song of lost love for me is the Liebestod from the Opera Tristram and Isolde, by Wagner. You don't even have to understand German to appreciate its sadness. It is also known as the death of love of Isolde. She arrives too late, and finds her love is dead. The song grows from a whimper to a full fledged wailing, till she dies of love. For me, it is the most beautiful piece of music ever.

posted by Livia de Almeida @ 9:59 PM