When a man loves …
… he can get a bit soppy and embarrassing to his mates.
A man can so swiftly move from the hard to the wimpish – see Wodehouse stories, Coriolanus etc. Hell, I’ve seen engineers reduced to putty before a woman they’re besotted with. And all it takes is the appearance of some new girl:
When a man gets all blubbery over a woman, nature gets co-opted a lot, e.g. rain, waves crashing on the shore etc. and the imagery – metaphor, simile, personification – can get all jumbled up in the emotion.
One interesting aspect is that a man’s love songs often have an aggressive, passionate intensity to them – they’re quite different to a woman’s and yet, a glance at Angel of the Morning, The Very Thought of You, The Dark End of the Street and so on – songs popularized by women – were actually written by men for women to sing. I’m still looking for one a woman wrote and sang.
Here’s one – The Second Element [Sarah Brightman]. Hmmm – nope, that was by Frank Peterson / Thomas Schwarz. OK, here’s one from a “love songs written by women site”: I’ll Never Love This Way Again [Dionne Warwick]. Nope, it’s by Richard Kerr (music) and Will Jennings (lyrics).
Britney Spears? “Oops!… I Did It Again” is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears. The song was written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub.
Now this is getting to be intriguing. The Bangles – all women – surely they have a love song. Eternal Flame, right? It was written by popular songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and The Bangles’ own Susanna Hoffs. So at least there was a woman involved in it.
Aretha Franklin’s Respect is not a love song. OK, here’s one – The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Roberta Flack. 1957 folk song written by British political singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger.
There has to be some love song somewhere written entirely by a woman. Can anyone help out? Meanwhile:
There’s a nice subplot if it can be called that in Farewell My Lovely when the Moose ends up dead by the object of his soppy besottedness – the woman always remains hardheaded in love with all but bad boys and then they’re as soft-centred as a man in love.
Most of my mates have been fairly hard men in the sense of standing tall rather than coming on the hard man. I’ve seen a few of them with tears in the eyes over some woman who had done ‘em wrong and why such women mishandle their power says a lot.
Just as the woman falls in love with a bad boy or love rat – the one who ultimately doesn’t care and will do her wrong, so the man falls for the femme fatale and then wonders when she destroys him. But he’ll still come back for more, weeping and begging.
Major mistake. Watch a woman closely when she senses he’s gone all wimpish on her – suddenly she figuratively places her stiletto heel on his prostrated body.
No one does this femme fatale thing quite like Celentano – I’ve the best version downloaded on my computer but it’s gone from youtube – this version is OK:
The songs of Chris de Burgh leave me cold with all that talk of “we both break down and cry” – hell, I’ve never known a man go that far and I can’t believe a woman of any strength, who doesn’t need a man’s subjugation to assuage her power cravings, would want to see such innermost feelings on a man’s sleeve.
It’s enough, I think, that she knows he’s susceptible to her:
From the title and lyrics, it’s pretty clear what a man wants from a woman and it’s not what’s on offer these days in so many cases.
Filed under: Music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Deshannon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWQCLqab4o
US Country singing sensation, Taylor Swift, has been writing lurve songs since she was knee-high to a razorback hog.
At the age of 14 she became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house.
Off the top of my head[a love song written by a woman] is Ode To Billy Joe written by Bobbie Gentry. One of my favourites.
I was shocked when I learned Sinead O’Connor’s song, Nothing Compares to You was actually written by the artist formerly known as Prince[an is now known as a symbol of slavery].
Every time you walk in the room – yes.
Teardrops on my guitar – unrequited love – yes.
Ode to Billy Joe not a love song.
Love story – yes.
So we have two love song writers who are female so far. Perhaps there are a dozen all up. Why don’t more women write of love?
here’s another one and she is singing it to the man she wrote it for -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBLJIcaVC1w
That one doesn’t count either, JD because she’s leaving him. There are any number of those, e.g. No Second Chances. They have to be actual love songs, i.e. she loves and wants to be with him.
You know, something like Islands in the Stream, between Dolly and Kenny. [Except it was written by the Bee Gees.]
Carly Simon. (Loving you’s) The Right Thing To Do.
you need to revise your definition of love
you appear to be confusing it with desire -
love is giving unconditionally; desire is a selfish act of taking in order to satisfy one’s self
desire is never sated
Who needs to revise the definition? Not sure you’re referring to this but if you mean the Dolly Parton number, JD, that was not about love – that was about her telling him he was gone and covering the message with protestations of love, trying to let him down without fallout.
That’s a common female strategy – she tells him he has fine qualities, that she loves him to bits and all that but the bottom line is – she ain’t stayin’ with him. It’s a protective device for him, so he goes away glowing and for her so that she feels she ain’t done him wrong.
What I was referring to was real love. Even Carly Simon’s:
… lacks the emotion where she’s overwhelmed by him. It’s a matter-of-fact statement of what is going to happen, quite hardheaded about where he is in relation to her.
What I’m getting at is where a woman is gone on a man and she writes a poem or song about it. She doesn’t write about what how she sees him fitting in with her life but just about how fantastic he is.
There was one decades ago – Norman, by Sue Thompson:
http://youtu.be/t4D3RYJC5KE
… check whom it was written by:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_%28song%29
The Jackie de Shannon number:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_You_Walk_in_the_Room
… was genuinely a woman’s love song, as was:
TAYLOR SWIFT – LOVE SONG LYRICS
… but even there she’s relating the story although she concludes: “You were everything to me.”
………..
So JD, perhaps we do need to revise our definitions. There are how many billion women who have fallen for a boy [as a girl] but where are the love songs from them to that effect? Things like “I’ll die if you break my heart,” and all that?
There are hundreds of women who have adopted a lovesong, e.g.
http://youtu.be/0hoX4rXJGWg
… and she sings it fantastically but, but, but … it was written by Erik Katz with Libby Titus. If you go to Libby Titus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Titus
… she co-wrote with quite a few men but again – it’s not what I’m looking for. It really is difficult to find a woman’s love song to a man, not while leaving him but gone on him and wanting it to be forever.
Think we’re up to two so far.
………..
I’ve just been to Great Female Singer Songwriters:
http://www.squidoo.com/LyricalVenus#module4245559
… and taking the pen, stabbed at the middle of the list, say Kristi Martel:
http://youtu.be/_R8vX33C-8o
Nightmare. Let’s try another on the list:
http://youtu.be/pV1qFTKe7tc
Nope, no romance whatever. OK, I found one I think:
http://youtu.be/VdIsk5fbeAc
Nope, no soft feelings for her guy, only about who’s right or wrong. Try another:
http://youtu.be/kCWkrSCr3ac
Hey, found one at last:
………..
Think I’ll leave it there – don’t want to wreck it by pointing out her age and asking if any woman over 30 writes things like that.
There are not more great female songwriters because musical genius, like mathematical genius, requires great doses of testosterone.
“Masculinity is aggressive, combustible, unstable. It is also the most creative cultural force in history.”-
Camille Paglia, lesbian feminist
I have to admit it’s fascinating. It’s not that women can’t feel or emote – they obviously can and you only need listen to Piaf or Ronstadt to hear that.
Apart from a few – let’s call it a dozen women songwriters, the subject matter is far more the struggle in the relationship and where watch partner is in respect to each other. Men though seem to lose the plot and fall completely.
I have a theory that that’s because women are beautiful and enticing and we are ugly mutts in the main. it could also have had something to do with roles in society. The woman had to get the best deal possible and so it was a far more serious matter. The man could play Romeo because he had options.
Might have a look now at Joni Mitchell. Oh dear – she’s bi. Who else? Susannah Hoffs.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Warren_Presents_Love_Songs
I guess that this list will also fall short in the absolute devotion stakes.