We here at Live Buzz are a bunch of hopeless romantics, or at least we can say we are on Valentine's Day. Here's a staff list of the love songs that have affected us most, presented in a variety of formats because I can't be bothered to edit them into uniformity just now. Look below for a Spotify playlist:
I've listened to thousands of songs that could arguably have been written foremost about love, written out of love, or written because the writer loves how his own voice trembles all sensitive-like when he murmurs nonsense lyrics that at times sound like they may possibly be hinting at the indefinable subtleties he thinks he understands about love, far more often than I have Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me." But there may never be another song written out of sheer unconditional devotion that is as believeable as "Bring It on Home to Me." Cooke's voice is positively that of a broken being when it goes from grievous to flat out desperate in singing, "If you ever/change your mind/about LEAVIN'!/LEAVIN' ME BEHIND!!" to an empty space once filled by that one special lady who finally realized she deserved better. Yeah (yeah).
-Steven Arroyo
"Oh! Darling" - The Beatles
Perhaps the most wounded of all of Paul's Beatles tracks, who wouldn't just swoon during this heartbreaking love song that sounds as though it were belted from the stage of a smoke-filled jazz bar? I'll never do you no harm when this song is playing.
"With Or Without You" - U2
Maybe waiting on a bed of nails doesn't spell the healthiest of relationships, but Bono's love anthem just makes you scream in anguish over a love you can't live with or without. And the Edge's guitar? Very sexy.
-Brian Welk
A favorite love song is like a birthmark; everyone has one, even though they're not always sure what it is, and even if they know what it is, it's always a bit embarrassing to reveal it, unless it's to someone well known personally. With my scattered music tastes (lulling Celtic highland traditional, California mainstream rock, 40's Vienna classic throwback with JS Bach & The Gang) I'm asked often, particularly during this most Hallmark of occasions, what is my favorite love song. It's an easy answer with a difficult explanation. "Beethoven," I answer, "Symphony 9, Movement 4." Raised eyebrows, puzzled expressions, the courtesy: "Oh, that's cool (I guess)." But the choral "Ode to Joy" truly is the greatest expression of love as seen in music. Take the man himself; brooding, suicidal, distraught, and certainly misunderstood musical genius who hasn't seen a sunny day in his life, newly deprived of nephew Karl and only physical object of happiness in his life due to his bad child-rearing. Deaf, angry, cursing his stylus with German irascibility, the man now sits at his desk and composes a masterpiece of human love. For someone who has nothing to live for, especially not the torturous, beautiful music that he can't even hear, his vision presents an all loving benefactor God declaring that "Alle Menschen warden Brueder," (All men become brothers) and bestowing a life of ceaseless "Freude" (Joy) to mankind. It's an astounding achievement in not only the musical world, but the whole notion of love itself. Equality, brotherhood, beauty, undying joy. Beethoven doesn't generally typify the Valentine's Day spirit, even though the sincerity in his love is much more intoxicating than those pink scented candles and little stale-heart hard candles.
-Brandon Cook
A break from his usual misogynism, Lil Wayne's remix of instant-classic "Marvins Room" is a testament to mutual adoration. His devotional lyricism reveals womblike warmth in 40's production, which sounded cold as ice on Take Care. Weezy's sexual appreciation of his lover Dana invokes the immortality of Ouroboros: "We gon fuck around like we fucking in a circle." This unexpectedly tender track brims with romantic gratitude, a perfect Valentine's Day treat.
-Patrick Beane
Underrated and overlooked, Tom Petty's "Wildflowers" isn't full of the frills of romance or overwhelming emotional statements. The simple melody and lyrics accompany a simple message. In fact, it's not even apparent Petty's directly talking to a lover, until he says, "I have seen no other / who compares with you." Petty wishes his beloved freedom, peace and happiness. In that simple wish, Petty encapsulates an unadorned love - one that is so often overlooked on Valentine's Day.
-Bridget Ameche
Things get more complicated later in the narrative, but it's hard to picture a song more exuberantly lovestruck than Fucked Up's "Queen of Hearts" from the epic punk opera David Comes to Life. The uptempo duet between frontman Damian Abraham and Cults' Madeline Follin is the very embodiment of a love that hasn't had to face any tribulation yet. The young couple moves from an introduction ("Hello, my name is David/Your name is Veronica") to a profession of eternal love ("Let's be together 'til the stars go out") in the span of a few seconds. Never mind that David will be "dying on the inside" two songs later - for now, it's all wine and roses.
-Brad Sanders
"3 Rounds and a Sound" - Blind Pilot
What a better titled band to construe so delicately the caress of love that seems to parallel their band's name, trusting a blind pilot and flying into the unknown. A clock, a spool of wire, a bicycle rim -- three rounds and a sound on an old transistor radio are the hidden tokens behind the song I ingenuously hummed for four months until I grasped the significance. Though never unveiled lyrically, the four items hint at a foreign wedding custom where young newly weds are gifted three rounds and a sound. Though a few Google searches can reveal the items, the significance of the lyrics only truly divulge themselves once the lyrics can depict someone in your life. If not yet, keep flying.
-Kelsey Collisi
