Photo by Proprpostur
I was listening to the pod today when two particular songs followed each other in shuffle play and it struck me that the misery of un-requited/failed/disappointed love makes for good music as well as art.
It begs the question does the joy of Love always become overwhelmed by the misery of failed Love in the end? Or is it just more dramatic in terms of artistic representation? Perhaps we obsess with failure and hurt more than we celebrate joy and success.
Personally, happy, joyful songs celebrating Love I find can often be terribly irritating. I'm thinking of one particular song with twittering birds in the soundtrack that drives me completely nuts and I can hit the OFF button as soon as I recognise the opening first chords in world-record Olympic times. I have the gold medal to prove it. Give me misery over this kind of music every time.
However, I don't think that's the case in classical music. That more often really makes the heart soar with joy. Nevertheless there are popular songs that celebrate the joy and downright fun, of Love without any cloying sweetness. Midnight at the Oasis for one. How can you beat fun lyrics like this, 'Send your camel to bed ..."
Or the wonderfully bizarre "Give me Money, that's what I want by the Flying Turtles. Not sure that's about 'Love' though ...
And the two songs that made me write this piece? Here they are... One by Sting and the other by Dire Straits. Both good songs and miles better artistically that the ones above. So what does that tell you? Misery wins, I guess...
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