Love, etc.
I am not a huge Valentines Day kind of girl, but I like the candy that comes with it, and I like the pink and red, and I like the hearts, and I like how it's a good excuse to leave work early in the middle of the busy season. The first Valentines Day I spent with Andrew was at a gay club in Halifax where we watched drag queens lip synch "My Heart Will Go On", and it was probably one of the most romantic nights I had ever had at that point in my life. Love is, you know, absurd and silly like that. And it often results in good music. One of my favourite Magnetic Fields lyrics is, "The book of love has music in it /In fact that's where music comes from/ Some of it is just transcendental /Some of it is just really dumb." So, in honour of the upcoming February 14th, here are my favourite transcendental/dumb love songs. My Valentine is in Toronto for work, so I'll listen to these songs to maintain that warm and squooshy feeling for the precious, stupid holiday (by "warm and squooshy" think: the consistency of a handful of cinnamon hearts getting melty in the bottom of your coat pocket).
WE WERE NEAT AND WE LOOKED COOL
Les Etoiles Secretes - Ida - Because driving around listening to music is still probably one of the top 5 most romantic things I like to do on dates.
I Found A Reason - The Velvet Underground - For awhile I preferred the Cat Power version, but I have completely flipped sides, mostly for those "ba ba ba"s.
This Will Be Our Year - The Zombies
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths - I once wrote a story that revolved completely around the two main characters listening to this song. It was an awful story that you will never read, but the thought of it is kind of funny.
Like Dylan In the Movies - Belle and Sebastian - If your heart doesn't turn into a puddle when Stuart Murdoch sings, "Yeah, you're worth the trouble and you're worth the pain", I feel sorry for you.
A Girl Like You - The Troggs - I cannot put into words how sexy I find this song.
A Case of You - Joni Mitchell - I am linking to a performance of the song from YouTube - her voice sounds amazing in it. It's still sweet, but the years of smoking have started to take their toll on her vocal chords. It's just enough to make her sound a little more whiskey + honeyed. Oh Canada.
La La La Song - Low
and finally:
Beautiful - Broken Girl: This song is early, early Julie Doiron, when she used to go by the painfully endearing moniker of "Broken Girl". I remember hearing it for the first time on a Saturday evening on that defunct CBC radio show "Real Time". I was 18, which is very close to being 10 years ago. I taped it onto cassette. I still love this song in all of its naive, sweet glory. That last line, "We were neat, and we looked cool, and somehow it was beautiful" is to this day one of the dumbest and most perfect ways to summarize the best parts of a relationship.
WE WERE NEAT AND WE LOOKED COOL
Les Etoiles Secretes - Ida - Because driving around listening to music is still probably one of the top 5 most romantic things I like to do on dates.
I Found A Reason - The Velvet Underground - For awhile I preferred the Cat Power version, but I have completely flipped sides, mostly for those "ba ba ba"s.
This Will Be Our Year - The Zombies
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - The Smiths - I once wrote a story that revolved completely around the two main characters listening to this song. It was an awful story that you will never read, but the thought of it is kind of funny.
Like Dylan In the Movies - Belle and Sebastian - If your heart doesn't turn into a puddle when Stuart Murdoch sings, "Yeah, you're worth the trouble and you're worth the pain", I feel sorry for you.
A Girl Like You - The Troggs - I cannot put into words how sexy I find this song.
A Case of You - Joni Mitchell - I am linking to a performance of the song from YouTube - her voice sounds amazing in it. It's still sweet, but the years of smoking have started to take their toll on her vocal chords. It's just enough to make her sound a little more whiskey + honeyed. Oh Canada.
La La La Song - Low
and finally:
Beautiful - Broken Girl: This song is early, early Julie Doiron, when she used to go by the painfully endearing moniker of "Broken Girl". I remember hearing it for the first time on a Saturday evening on that defunct CBC radio show "Real Time". I was 18, which is very close to being 10 years ago. I taped it onto cassette. I still love this song in all of its naive, sweet glory. That last line, "We were neat, and we looked cool, and somehow it was beautiful" is to this day one of the dumbest and most perfect ways to summarize the best parts of a relationship.
posted by terki at 7:52 PM
4 Comments:
Can I be the only person in the world who thinks that the Velvets and the Grateful Dead can sound eerily alike? It freaks me out sometimes.
Thank you for posting this Teri. Happy Valentine's Day!
michael, you can be that one person. the thought has never crossed my mind! nor.. many others, i bet.
happy v-day to you too, jen :)
So yeah, this is nearly a month late, but you have the best music taste in the whole world, ma'am. :-)
Vicky
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