Silly Love Songs
Let us be sincere. Who doesn't like a love song? Who doesn't have a special song, one that tells a tale, one that you may not want to hear anymore, one that brings memories? Sometimes the silly love songs that play on the soundtrack of our lives are not necessarily the ones we would choose, or the ones that look smart and sophisticated in social conversations. But no one has to go to the extremes a guy I knew in high school went. He would be close to tears every time he heard something called (I am not kidding!) "Drop kick me Jesus through the goal post of life", which reminded him of someone he had met in Sunday school.
Here I go with one more of my lists. I have named some of my favorite love songs. If anyone gets interested, I can send MP# version of any of them to Pat's FTP server in a minute.
1) If I loved you (from the play "Carroussel", by Rodgers and Hammerstein). For me, this is one of the most beautiful (and saddest )songs ever.
"If I loved 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"
Every shy person in the world must have gone through this some time in life, I guess. It is way 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 starts:
"He is a fool and don't I know it/ but a fool can have his charms"
I have often wondered at that line. He is a fool? Then the woman who sings the song gotta be in love with... a guy! Yes, because I am still to find one who is not clueless. Sorry, boys.
I appreciate her 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
Here is a lady who is "wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again", but who has not her critical sense.
3) Heroes, the David Bowie song, is very tragic. The lovers meet furtively by the Berlin Wall, risking their lives for a fleeting glance while soldier with machine guns follow every step they take. 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. I had problems choosing one though. Even the title song can be considered an obsessive love song. "Those who have seen your face/draw back in fear/ I am the mask you wear/It is you they hear". I do like the "Point of No Return" too, which talk about lovers finally united (in every sense possible) and finishes gloriously with "the bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn/We've passed the point of no return". There is no way back, nothing left to lose.
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.
8) Back to Broadway, to something completely different. "Mack & Mabel" was a short lived musical by Jerry Hermann (of Hello Dolly), that tells the ill fated romance between director/producer Mack Sennett and actress Mabel Normand, in the good old days of the silent comedies. He is an older fella, hardened. "I won't send roses" is an upside down declaration of love. "I won't send roses or hold the door/I won't remember which dress you wore/ My heart is too much in control/The lack of romance in my soul/ will turn you grey kid/ so stay away kid". He lists a whole lot of reasons for Mabel to run as fast as she can, among them "forget my shoulder when you are in need/forgetting birthdays is garanteed" and even admits that "I am the first one to agree/I am too preoccupied with me", and advises her to turn back and go. And finishes: "I won't send roses and roses suit you so" .
Do you want my opinion here? He is already mince meat. And the poor lady who listened to this song? Well, with so much brutal honesty, she is probably mince meat too.
9) Send in The Clowns, by Stephen Sondhein, is also a different kind of love song. It is about two people who have an incredible hard time getting together and hitting a common ground. It is very touching. She sings: "Just when I stopped opening doors/ finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours/Making my entrance again with my usual flair/Sure of my lines/ no one is there
10) So in love, by Cole Porter. The ultimate surrender. "So taunt me, and hurt me, deceive me, desert me. I am yours till I die, so in love with you am I".
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