A Pleasant Survey
This post is part of our Love Symposium. An introduction to the symposium can be found here; all of the posts written for the symposium can be found here.
I’ve a very simple request. Nominate your top three love songs. We’ll compile selections from the comments. Vote +1 for the ones you like. I’ll start.
Also, if you’re going to embed from YouTube, Glyph has this handy tip: “on the [YouTube] video’s page, try to click “Share”, then “Embed”, then check the checkbox for “Use Old Embed Code”, and copy/paste that old embed code into your comment here.”
Burt Likko is the pseudonym of an attorney in Southern California. His interests include Constitutional law with a special interest in law relating to the concept of separation of church and state, cooking, good wine, and bad science fiction movies. Follow his sporadic Tweets at @burtlikko, and his Flipboard at Burt Likko.
My votes are:
The Beatles, Something:
Jem, Falling For You:
Massive Attack: Protection:
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+1 for SomethingReport
I want to cut and paste this comment everywhere.Report
Couldn’t decide which version I liked best so…
one from my SCA days
hard to pick three but here is my third
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my videos didn’t post can some one helpReport
I’ll try but I can’t find any links at all in your comment behind the scenes. Can you give artist and titles, at least?Report
Couldn’t decide which version I liked best so…
one from my SCA days
and three
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embedding didn’t work again I will try links
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Why do I always think Perfect Day is about heroin addicts?
My girlfriend loves that song so plus 1.Report
Because, Lou ReedReport
Don’t usually post, but this is right up my alley. For my money, this is the most romantic song I’ve ever heard.
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Hmm, you’re suggestion for embedding didn’t work for me.
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And neither did not checking old embed code. Anyways, the song is “Home” by the Magnetic Zeros.Report
I added the video. I hope you don’t mind (also, comment more!).
For everyone trying to post videos, if you have a problem getting them to post, the embed code may not even show up in your comment on the back end, so it’s hard to tell what song you mean. However, if you just link the video, or name the song, I’m happy to embed it for you if I’m around.Report
@chris could you fix the first two on mine? thanksReport
Thanks Chris, appreciate it. I would comment more, but James Hanley and Patrick and James K. tend to say more or less what I would, but far more eloquently and persuasively. 🙂Report
@Anne happy to. Could you tell me what songs (and if you have a particular video in mind)? For whatever reason, when they don’t embed, the code doesn’t even show up in the back end.Report
Nevermind, got ’em.Report
the you tube links are in my post up above
Perfect Day -Various Artists BBC charity event
Maid in Bedlam – New World Renaissance
Seemed to embed The The Love is Stronger than DeathReport
@kevin
Man, we need more of our voices. Please chime in. Besides, I talk too damn much, and appreciate it when someone else says it first.Report
Never heard that before, but that’s great. +1.Report
Mystifies Me, Ronnie Wood (tho I like the Son Volt version too)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCzmw9tpDCM
Bell Bottom Blues, Derek in the Dominoes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKAYGVIkbok
Most Of The Time, Bob Dylan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbr4ISrjII
Bonus track:
All I Want Is You, U2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQbr4ISrjIIReport
Man, my linkies broke a tube. Gunk everywhere. Sorry bout that.Report
I thought of All I Want Is You, which is a great song, but ended up boycotting it because of Bono.Report
heh. I was gonna include Follow You, Follow Me but didn’t in honor of a generally applicable boycott of Phil Collins.Report
Do you like Phil Collins? I’ve been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn’t understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins’ presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group’s undisputed masterpiece. It’s an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums….Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument…In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism….Take the lyrics to “Land of Confusion”. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. “In Too Deep” is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I’ve heard in rock….Phil Collins’ solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like “In the Air Tonight” and “Against All Odds”….But I also think Phil Collins works better within the confines of the group than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is “Sussudio”, a great, great song, a personal favorite.Report
American Psycho?
Ellis’ discussions of pop music in Less Than Zero and American Psycho make those books.
Plus he was right about the Stones achieving perfection at some point in the 70s.Report
Well, they released Sticky Fingers in 1971, so it’s a scientific fact.Report
The album that got me into Genesis was And Then There Were Three, which really is a transition from the earlier concept driven/arty stuff they were doing with Peter Gabriel to the more pop oriented stuff on Duke, Abacab and so on. I’ve always loved Collins as a drummer and vocalist, and Banks and Rutherford are amazing too. Banks’ song writing always blows me away.
I liked the early stuff too, especially The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. But I’ve been a big Phil Collins fan for long time.I had all his early solo stuff on vinyl way back when. It bums me out that it’s become so hip to bash the guy. He’s a great dummer, great song writer, great vocalist, who made some great music along the way.Report
Plus he produced the greatest air drum moment in history.Report
Was that comment a lift from an Ellis book? It sounded a bit … overproduced.Report
Ah, found it. Here’s a Rolling Stone interview with Collins from a couple years ago. It’s a little glimpse of what it’s like to be Phil Collins now. I’ve just never understood all the vilification, myself.Report
NIN – CloserReport
I’ve actually sung that at a karaoke bar before. Everyone was fairly horrified.Report
By the way @kazzy , I disagree with the selection within the Nine Inch Nails repertoire. The cover of Queen’s Get down Make Love is incredible, especially really loud with headphones:
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Another one which I think has more to it than Closer is this one at the end of the broken album:
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I feel like this is such a personal question that we’ll all have different answers, and I am so into ambiguity that I can’t imagine anyone else wanting mine. But, that said, the ones I most often come back to are:
David Dondero, Rothko Chapel:
The Magnetic Fields, The Book of Love
Bastille, Flaws
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yar, looks like glyph’s method doesn’t work for me either. here is a version with links, if someone would be so kind:
David Dondero, Rothko Chapel
Magnetic Fields, Book of Love
Bastille, Flaws
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@chris (not rushin’ you, just making it easier to spot the need for embed help)Report
Also, if y’all could @ me like Maribou did here if you need me to help you embed, that’d be appreciated. I’m sitting at a coffee shop, and people keep being all rude and talking to me (it might have something to do with me talking to them), so I get distracted from the important things, like music ;).Report
I’m going to have to disagree with the Book of Love being a good song. I can’t put my finger on it but there is something about the message of that song that doesn’t strike me as being right.Report
Much like every other song on 69 Love Songs, it is ironic and rueful (ok, some of them are sarcastic and gleeful, but). If you try to read it straight, it won’t work right.
And yet, and yet. It is the only song that Jaybird and I sing to each other in the car (as opposed to just both singing along to the same song). Because 8 or 9 layers down, it is a very romantic song.Report
Romeo and Juliet, Dire Straits
If You See Her, Say Hello, Bob Dylan
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), The ProclaimersReport
This list is a joint production, just to emphasize the love part. These are songs we love to sing together.
Righteous Brothers–Unchained Melody (Objectively the greatest love song ever. Ev. Er.)
Lucinda Williams–Something About What Happens When We Talk
Melissa Etheridge–You Can Sleep While I Drive
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+1 Lucinda that was on my short list as wellReport
Awesome. It was hard to choose between that, Essence, and Blue.Report
Oh, I was thinking of going with “Righteously.”Report
Yes to Unchained Melody. It was the first song I thought of for my list.
Best. Love song. Ever.Report
I’m partial to the Al Hibbler version:
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Seriously? Fish you, WordPress.Report
1. Richard Thompson – Read About Love
2. Blink – Its not my fault
3. Morrissey- Tomorrow
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+1 to Morrissey on the grounds that the world would be a better place if he was played more often.Report
Morrissey probably has one of the best singing voices in rock.Report
Thank you. I really need to learn how to embed videos.Report
My comment is stuck in moderation, please help. Thank you.Report
I suck at this sort of thing, because my favorite songs are usually whatever songs I am into today, so I’ll just go with three I heard today:
Oh, and…
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Also, if that Franti song doesn’t make you get up and dance, we need to have a conversation. (Spearhead is awesome).Report
+1.Report
Damn, that is some get up and move.Report
I’m not even going to try to embed anything because it seems not to be working.
My votes:
Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers. Totally agree with James and Johanna about this one.
Have I Told You Lately, Van Morrison. First dance at our wedding. Need I say more.
The Late Show, Jackson Browne. From the album Late For the Sky . I’ve loved this song since I was in college, which was forever ago. “No one ever talks about their feelings anyway without wrapping them in dreams and laughter. I guess it’s just too painful otherwise.”
Runner-up: Leonard Cohen’s Ain’t No Cure For Love.Report
Is Unchained Melody the first song to get multiple votes? Damn, I love how eclectic our readership’s tastes are!
And, of course, Unchained Melody is a fantastic bit of songwriting. There is room for re-interpretation, though:
Some people think this is an absolutely brilliant re-take, but others think she kills the song completely (and not in a good way).Report
Dayum, I gotta give +2 for The Late Show. Man, that’s a great song.
“Look–
It’s like you’re standing in the window
Of a house nobody lives in
And I’m sitting in a car across the way
(let’s just say)
It’s an early model chevrolet
(let’s just say)
It’s a warm and windy day …”Report
Bonus track–The Kooks.
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Bowie, doing Wild is the Wind
(and if I have a ‘type,’ this is it — tall, thin, intensely smart, extremely musical, and secure enough in masculinity to be a gender bender.)
and my second love song, because love isn’t always pretty and I sorta resent the pastoral imagery requirement — You Oughta Know.
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Ben E. King – Stand By Me
Magnetic Fields – 100,000 Fireflies
Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
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Here are my three, which are guaranteed one-vote wonders.
1. My One & Only Love, any version (but mostly either the Ella or the Sting)
2. Feeling Love by Paula Cole
3. Luckiest by Ben Folds
The first makes me feel as to be alive and in love after so many years, the last makes me feel misty*, and the second makes me feel like making more children.
* especially the last verse, which is as literary and poetic a way to describe true love as I have ever heard in a pop song:
Next door there’s an old man who lived to his nineties
And one day passed away in his sleep
And his wife; she stayed for a couple of days
And passed away.
I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way to tell you that I know we belong [together],
And that I know that I am
The luckiest.
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Crap, that cut and paste went all wrong. I’ll fix when I get homeReport
Ooooo! Can I add a fourth?
The Peter Gabreil version of Book of Love that Kyle introduced me to. (Or was it Jonathan?)Report
Must have been Kyle.Report
And I guess we’re all you-tubing? Very well…
Here is the jazz standard, My One And Only Love:
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Here is Ben Folds’ The Luckiest:
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The Luckiest was played at our wedding by my wife’s cousin at a piano.Report
I am glad (and somehow not surprised) that you also love this song, albeit in a different incarnation.Report
Paula Cole’s Feelin’ Love”
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And lastly, Book of Love:
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graw, THIS song (book of love) is the one my previous comment was referring to, that we both like. my browsers have trouble with these threads, as they are large and youtubeful….Report
I’m on a Motown kick, so:
“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)” — Otis Redding
“Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher: — Jackie Wilson
“When a Man Loves a Woman” — Percy SledgeReport
Man, Otis Redding died at 26. How do you fit that much soul into 26 years?
My Dad actually saw him at the Nashville show 3 days before he died. Damn people from the 60s.Report
Chris, The following is a short list of groups I saw for free or less than five bucks.
Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Santana, CSN, Cream, Jim Kweskin, Canned Heat, John Mayall, CCR, Chuck Berry, Martha and the Vandellas, The Shirells, The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. There are many, many more, but since I got hit by Al’s Hammer, lots of things are somewhat foggy. God damn us lucky boomers. All we had to do was make sure we didn’t get our ass shot of in Vietnam or lose our morality by killing someone who had never done us any harm and parteeeeee.
Also, I love “Sara” by Dylan. It is a post love song but still beautiful.Report
If I ever become a famous musician, I’m flying commercial. Every fishing time.Report
+1 to each of these. Great songs.Report
This song was apparently written as a joke, but it wins because it’s the only love song ever to mention Al Roker:
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And here is the only love song that contains the word “theodolite.”
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you really ought not to put out challenges like that.
just sayin’Report
My first suggestion is “Astounded” by Bran Van 3000 featuring Curtis Mayfield. I mean, c’mon, this list has to include Curtis Mayfield.
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Second, “Hands Down” by Dashboard Confessional:
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Finally, how about “True Love Waits” by Radiohead:
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I had forgotten all about that Bran Van 3000 song.
Also, on a purely shallow note, I always liked that album cover.
It was apparently done by Boris Vallejo…:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Vallejo
…for this novel (possibly NSFW, although no more so than the album cover in the video):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ties_That_Bind_%28novel%29Report
I can only think of one. 16 Horsepower covering Bob Dylan, “Nobody ‘Cept You.”
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+1 love me some 16 HorsepowerReport
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side:
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The Two of Us:
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Consider these bonus tracks
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Oh, now we’re doing bonus tracks? Well OK then.
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Stars-Your Ex-Lover is Dead
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Belle and Sebastian: Piazza, New York Catcher
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One more bonus track. This is the one good song Don Henley wrote and performed:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yqje_don-henley-boys-of-summer_musicReport
Well, he didn’t write it, but it’s a good song for sure.Report
I almost forgive him for Hotel California.Report
I love Hotel California. (You can check out, but you can never leave).
But Boys of Summer is also a favorite, although I don’t really think of it as a love song. More of a love lost song.Report
@newdealer
I never got Hotel California until I moved to SoCal. Spend a couple years there and you may still hate the song, but you’ll always relate to it.Report
This one is easy, and I am sure you will all agree. The two best love songs ever recorded are by that amazing duo called Captain and Tennille. Top of the list is that 70s mega-classic Love Will Keep Us Together. Followed closely by Muskrat Love (Muskrat Susie, Muskrat Sam)
You asked for three though, and the competition here is stiff. I would have to go with either Puppy Love by the young Donny Osmond (back when he was at the top of his game), or Yummy, Yummy, I’ve Got Love In My Tummy by The Ohio Express.
To prove these are the best ever, I challenge ANYBODY to try not to hum one or more of them for the next half hour. It can’t be done!Report
After thinking about this all night, I seriously nominate the following three songs:
Your Song by Elton John (and Bernie Taupin)
The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield
A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
The latter of course is about spiritual love.Report
Shelter from the Storm – Bob Dylan
Think he might’ve been going through some stuff during Blood on the Tracks?
My Aim is True – Elvis Costello
Deceptively beautiful.
True – Spandau Ballet
It took me 20 years to notice what a great vocal track it has.Report
My Aim is True is a great song. I am still not sure if Elvis is singing about love or his desire to kill her, or both.Report
It’s (seriously) about the thin line between desire and contempt.Report
Paul Anka had a surprisingly good cover of True.Report
My ignorance of American culture looms large here…
1) Small two of pieces — Xenogears
And now that we’ve gotten the squishy out of the way…
2) That song from “The Deflowering of Eva von End”
(you’ll know the one. it’s romantic, but oh, so graphic)
[song is not appropriate for teenagers.]
3) Snow Cherries from France
because love isn’t always kind, or stable, or loving.Report
My three:
Let My Love Open the Door – Pete Townsend
500 Miles – Proclaimers
More – Bobby DarinReport
If we’re going hundreds of miles, can we do the Pretenders 2000 miles?Report
“Let My Love Open the Door” wouldn’t be in my top ten, but it’s a very good choice.Report
Ooh, how about “Love Reign Oer Me”?Report
Bonus track!
All y’all namechecking 500 Miles have gotten my fave devotion-through-pedestrian-exertion song, Edwin Starr’s 25 Miles, stuck in my head. So here, this is my internal radio tonight:
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1. Bobby Darin’s cover of “Happy.”
2. “I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten,” by Dusty Springfield.
3. Koibito Yo (“Oh My Love”), by Mayumi Itsuwa:
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What do I have to do to embed a video? I tried the embedding HTML from YouTube, and I also tried copying the source from other embedded videos on this page, and neither have worked. Or do all of them have to be rescued by someone with the keys?Report
Brandon, the embed code from YouTube *should* work (“use old embed code” is preferred, as the newer YT embed code really kills page load performance) but in practice, it seems twitchy. Sometimes embeds just get obliterated entirely. And sometimes posting a link, shows as an embed. Embed code works for me (though sometimes I have to CAPTCHA to get the comment itself to post – are you getting CAPTCHA screens?). I changed your links to embeds.Report
I’ve noticed that if I am logged into the site, I have no problem embedding videos with the embed code. If I am not, the code simply disappears.
I suspect this is the result of a setting, probably the WP default.Report
Yeah, there should be a list of acceptable HTML tags that you can adjust, and usually it will be more permissive for authenticated users.Report
Rather, there should be multiple such lists, one for each class of users.Report
To be clear “should” expresses my belief about how it actually works, not my views on good software design.Report
Links:
1. Happy
2. I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten
3. Koibito Yo
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1. Paint my love – Michael learns to Rock
2. Glory of love – Peter Cetera
3. Everything I do – Bryan Adams
coming close behind are:
4. All for love – Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting
5. Amazed – Lonestar
6. Power of love – Air Supply
A decent 7th place is
7. Sill Loving You – ScorpionsReport
There are far too many songs that I like for me to possibly winnow them down to 3. So I’ll just go with the song that I gave to my love on this year’s Valentine’s Day (on a thumb drive in her card):
I Stand in Wonder, by Joe Cocker
Oh, and +1 to This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking HeadsReport
I think I figured out my three… finally.
Jann Arden captures how I wanted to be felt about in my early 20’s.
The entire Marc Cohn album “Marc Cohn” was an awesome album but “True Companion” is the love song of love songs that paints my 30’s:
I think that the Talking Heads “Heaven” captures everything I hope for at this point, though. Who knows what the 50’s will look like?
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Oh yes, “Heaven.”Report