But you really have to love the song, for real. And try to surprise us!
“But I think you've got to be either in a place of having romantic love in your life or longing for it to fully appreciate mushy, gushy love songs.”
You’ve made a good point here; I have a different angle. Think about how young you were when (or if) you first began hearing popular music in general. Not children’s songs, nursery rhymes, not anything specifically aimed toward very young children, but the types of songs geared toward teens, young adults, adults, etc. Some children are exposed to songs like that because their parents are listening to them, or they’re played in conjunction with a tv show, even some commercials and jingles include lyrics that might not be directly intended for two-year-olds, yet babies and infants and toddlers hear them, pick up on them, and it sometimes helps form the basis for the songs he or she will enjoy in later parts of life or throughout their entire lives.
I remember a lot of the R&B songs that my mother listened to when I was about two years old, perhaps younger. (Originally, I was going to name the specific songs, but I decided not to because I’d be dating myself.) Regardless of song type or song genre, many song lyrics capture us because of how they sound, how catchy they are, etc. It doesn’t even matter that the lyrics make sense or not, often they don’t, and in some cases, lyrics in languages we don’t know or don’t understand well are also catchy. This is true for love songs too. I had no idea what romance meant, nor sex, nor romantic love, nor sexual love, nor lust, yet there were numerous song lyrics that included exactly those themes. Innocently singing along with them, falling in love with the tunes and the words, my repertoire for music favorites was formed in my early years, long before I was even capable of truly knowing what was a love song or what it meant to love or desire a person in those ways, or has ever been in a situation outlined in song.
Fast-forward to the times when I began to get into those situations, and later points when I was “between conquests” (cough, cough). While a particular song that reminds me of a particular woman or a particular time in my romantic life might not be my cup of tea for the moment at hand, the genre itself is never off-limits to me at all. For me, I can’t and/or don’t have to be in a romantic place in life to thoroughly enjoy romantic, or sexy, or lusty lyrics. (And that’s not just the Harem-Master in me talking. Grrrrrrr.)
~
Yes, thank you.
(Gee, Granddaughter, is Googling the lyrics of new songs you’ve just heard or just heard about a thing these days? Heck, I remember when we had to wait months and months for lyrics to be published in “Song Hits” magazine or “Tiger Beat” magazine to figure out each word. Even then, those magazines only printed the lyrics for a few songs each issue, and half of them were new songs while the other half were oldies. With the sheer volume of songs being released, we only had access to printed lyrics for about 25% of them. I’m telling you, you whippersnappers these days . . . )
~
“Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” by Wham!, 1984.
I was listening to this song one day when had been in the Marine Corps for a few years. My Sergeant, who was at least ten to twelve years older than I was and had been in the Corps for many years longer than I, heard me listening to the song and he almost had an aneurysm. I didn’t care, I kept jamming to the song. Some of the other Marines also tried to give me a hard time about it, but that meant nothing to me, I just ignored them.
“True” by Spandau Ballet, 1983.
Years later, back in 2000, this song came on the radio while I was at work, my eyes lit up and I began grooving to it. A co-worker of mine who had been an officer in the US Army Special Forces couldn’t believe it. “Are you wearing a skirt and panties under your clothes?” he asked me. “What? What’s wrong?” I asked him. “It’s a great song, I love it.” His face twisted in a disapproving scowl, he asked, “Are you absolutely sure you served in the Marines?” “You just don’t know good music,” I told him, “now be quiet and let me enjoy my song.”
“O.P.P.” by Naughty by Nature, 1991.
My favorite line from the lyrics: there’s no room for relationships, there’s just room to hit it! (Ok, maybe that one won’t surprise anyone about me.)
“The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton.
“Love Will Keep Us Together” by The Captain and Tennille.
“Oh, Mickey” by Toni Basil.
“Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.
“Let‘s Give Them Something To Talk About” by Bonnie Raitt.
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt.
“On The Dark Side” by John Cafferty from the soundtrack of the movie “Eddie and the Cruisers”.
Dozens more.
You know, this is a great question you’ve posed. I can’t think of others right now, I’m sure that when I put my mind to it I’ll be able to come up with more surprising answers. Be on the lookout for them, please. My musical tastes, a lot of which I’ve shared on these pages before, are so wide and varied that I’ll be hard pressed to shock and amaze, but I will try.
~
This post was edited by Randy D at October 9, 2022 10:29 PM MDT