Love Songs, Man.

Love songs, man. They are…ubiquitous. There is a strong argument that we can’t live with them and can’t live without them. And for me, as a songwriter, they were an essential part of my development and my history.

Most songwriters start out writing love songs, or some permutation of them. You can argue that it’s either inherent or it’s conditioning; either the turbulence of romantic entanglements in our adolescence is the first thing powerful enough to drive us to write songs, OR we are so inundated with them as we grow up that we subconsciously consider that idiom to be the logical first step in our songwriting efforts. Whichever it is, there’s no doubt that’s where most people start. Many of my students start there. AND IT’S OKAY.

That being said, as I have gotten older, two things have happened: 1) I have been in the same romantic relationship for over 20 years now, and trying to write love songs about the same person for decades has its challenges. Not that I don’t love that person…I do. But as I say in my (yet to be released) song “Crazy Love Song”:

“The love music canon’s primary concern

is documentation of when we first learn

what it feels like to fall deeply and fast

and to desperately hope that those feelings will last”

And 2) My desire to subvert the expectations of the love song as a form has gotten bigger and bigger. Your stereotypical love song is definitely a “been there, done that” for me. And so it doesn’t interest me to write them anymore, or at least write ones that tend to fit the expected mold.

But there are still so many love songs that I absolutely adore. How could I not? Whether the category is played out or not, I have to admit there are some absolutely gangbuster entries. “Something” by the Beatles and “At My Most Beautiful” by R.E.M. come to mind immediately. What are a couple of your favorites?