You know world I'm an incredibly bitter person that seemingly hates anything and everything that makes people happy if you were to ask the various people I work with because if I'm to be honest with you I don't much care for things that are fake and disingenuous to me which is why I most often express that these things people like are trash like country music or the topic of this article Love Songs.
You know as well as I know Sam's Song of the Day is coming to an end and with that path of self wanking that is my series of ending articles I'm taking the time to go back over all the topics, songs, and what-not to kind of put 9 years of bullshit into perspective and really come to end this thing on an honest note and in the years I've been doing this there's an article I wrote back in 2015 about my top 5 love songs of all time (Original Post) and while at work talking mad shit to my coworkers about how people don't just want songs that make them happy or that make them feel good I thought about this article and figured since the end is after Valentines that it'd be about the best time to go back and look at that list and kind of react to it in a way.
Looking at it in retrospect after the relationship I was in at the time came to an amicable if not bitter end for me at least and as of the time of this writing I've been getting over yet another failed relationship you can only imagine that I'm most certainly not feeling the love these day's and that's just it I can't help but wonder to myself why does that particular article stick with me so much then so I did what anybody would do I read the mother fucker and in the process of going over the list and for the most part still believing it I was taken back by the post I'd linked to from 2011 where I coincidentally wrote about a person that very much affected my thoughts on romance in such a way that it's crazy to think I was able to realize then that I had desperately needed to move on and the fact that I'd had a guest spot from the guy who fucked that up from me is just a hair funny in a god damn it kill me now kind of way.
SO what is it that I got 8 fucking years ago that sticks with me so much today I'm a grown up now that persons moved on, the guy who contributed unfriended me YEARS ago, and I've all but abandoned the whole not revealing more information about myself that what be necessary because I guess it's just some overall lack of fucks that come with the territory of needing to paint the necessary picture when trying to give you the reader an idea into the mindset it takes for me to come up with these types of pieces.
What the fuck does any of this have to do with love songs? Well here's the deal I still after all these years still have people tell me that I seem to lack the ability to be happy or understand what a god damn love song is and that's fucking wrong because I've written about it multiple times and the string of telling people that the root of all quality music isn't what makes us happy and feel good but rather to understand a complex series of emotions far beyond happiness is truly what qualifies a good song in comparison to a terrible tune in the opinion of a guy that's spent 9 fucking years trying to describe to people these things is rather annoying and in the process of proving this point I'm going to look at the most basic of songs and explain to you what really is a good love song.
First off I literally wrote about it already looking back that top 5 list is still pretty accurate for the most part and reading over all the post on it I kind of concluded that it's more than happiness that need be encapsulated in the best of these tunes but rather the full spectrum of emotions you don't want emotionless overwrought tripe like Justin Timberlakes Mirrors that's a shit song that tries too damn hard to not look like a shameless cash grab of a track from a former boy band extra that lucked out and figured out how to do a discount MJ but with all the sanitized whiteness on 11.
Love isn't sitting on the side of a mountain exclaiming to the world that the super model you banged last night is the pride and joy of your life ala insert 80's hair metal band's mandatory second single ballad no those coke fueled romps of trying to let a stripper give you a special slip of the tongue in the area's you're too ashamed to tell your band mates you enjoy having done to you isn't the foundation of a good love song it's yet more fake ass garbage that leads me to write such mean stuff as such, it's not a matter of trying to be something more than you really are but rather you need to present a certain level of honesty that for me at the very least has only really been done on a handful of occasions.
Yeah I'll say there's a few more tunes since I originally visited this topic that can bring a certain warm feeling like Kimbra's, “Two Way Street,” (Song here) but in all honesty as much a lovely and warm fuzzy filled jam as it is that's a song that for me at least could be amplified by the fact that for lack of a more tactful way to put it is done by my forever number 1 celebrity crush and as great and genuine a musician she is and as ethereal her performance is on that track it's still kind of the required ballad in a way and while it's a damn great one it doesn't quite reach that level of being what I think of when I think of a love song.
Being that I live in Kansas City Missouri I'm also inclined to mention a little ol' group known as the Greeting Committee and their breakthrough track, “Hands Down,” (Song Here) which I truly believe could very well have been the next great modern love song it's a simple tune by a group of kids still trying to figure out this whole being a rock star thing and it's under produced aesthetic and genuinely amateur lyrics give you this idea that they didn't know just what they were doing instead they just felt like doing whatever they felt like and for the most part this song has resulted in some truly outstanding times especially when you yell 1,2,3 for Brandon, but even with that in mind this song has an unfortunate stigma to it because aside from this paragraph and when I saw these guy's perform for a sold out crowd I don't willingly listen to this song because for lack of a more tactful way to say it 96.5 the Buzz overplayed this song to a point of no return and turned what once was a lovely track into an eye roll and a station change.
That song is still a good song and it has a host of great memories I wouldn't give up for all the riches in the world and I truly love the fact that the Greeting Committee are a thing they deserve it for being good people who made a band and did something but that song is the past and they've moved on from it and are in a better place and I don't mind that because well that's every failed relationship in a nutshell you loved it once but you don't anymore and you have to separate yourself from that because clinging onto those memories does more damages than you need to do to yourself and the only way to still feel the good is to just move on, and as far as I'm concerned when a song makes you feel like you're getting over a break up that doesn't really qualify it to be a great love song now does it?
So OK you're aware that there's good love songs and there's bad ones and you got an idea of some songs that I think get close but why they fail what is the best love song, what do I Sam consider the best love song of all time? And most importantly WHAT IN THE FUCK MAKES IT SO GOD DAMN GOOD? Well if you didn't read any of the links I left in this article nor have you been a follower of Sam's Song of the Day for these 9 years let's finally get to the fucking point just like I said all those years back this song right here is the best love song of all time give it a listen then continue reading because in order for it all to make sense you have to hear this song, form and opinion, and then proceed to have me explain to you my opinion I hope that was clear and you just haven't skipped over all the wall's of text leading up to this part of the article.
Love is a complicated emotion that brings upon it a certain level of anxiety that constantly leaves you on the edge wondering if it's all worth it at the end of the day, when you are starting a relationship or establishing something with someone you'll constantly be in this mental bind of trying to figure it all out you'll obsess and constantly worry if your next move could end it all you'll get to a point where you obsess over them and have a difficult time imagining what life without them.
It's an anxious ugly feeling of wonder where you and another person can't possibly believe that someone so seemingly beautiful and perfect could enter your life you'll put them through a series of test and you'll act in such a way that makes you wonder what in the actual fuck is wrong with you a certain cheeky sense of wonder and playfulness that's constantly testing the waters of the person in question to ultimately answer this nagging question so perfectly stated at the very end ever so abruptly, “the question is do you?”
Genius borders on 2 and a half minutes it's a statement I made up a long ass fucking time ago and it's been my biggest takeaway from all of the songs I've ever enjoyed in life while a complex musical arrangement that takes the time to really make a listener think and truly find more and more to any given piece of art sometimes in life you gotta just fucking cut to the god damn point this is that it's not a happy song it's anxiety personified Brian Molko and company are leading up every scenario with this nagging question of whether or not they want to say I do he hit the nail on the head bringing forth the fact that things are a total fucking mystery and you're never quite the same person when you're in or done with a relationship it changes your life forever I've been in love I've asked that question do I wanna be with this person for the rest of my life to which all of them decided to answer that for me and for those not in the know they all said no and yes that shit fucking hurt.
I'm not the happiest person in the world that's very true but just because I am that way doesn't mean that I don't feel happy ever and the thing is what I want in a love song isn't just an artificial level of happiness that gives a fake feeling of joy but rather a tune that is kind of weird, ugly, a bit on the simple side but with an understated level of complexity that isn't immediately apparent on first listen I want a non traditional take on things that gives just the right amount of information to get you wanting to hear more just to see what you missed the first time and this song does that in a way most other songs of its nature doesn't.
I don't want happy and upbeat that isn't a good song what I and many other people want is to have all of our emotions satisfied in a way that brings a certain level of comfort and reliability and sometimes you don't know these things unless somebody introduces them to you I've always had an interest in telling people about songs I think are good because things like this wouldn't have ever of been found if I didn't hear something ask the question of who or what and then went on to give it a chance what my thing with this is I was tired of seeing the same meaningless garbage getting shared over and over again because people are machines that don't want to experience something new but rather they want to hear the same garbage over and over so I tried to fix that by telling people about a new song every day because maybe just maybe somebody was going to hear it and have the same experience I did because all it took for me to discover this band was hearing one of their tracks on a cassette tape to get me to eventually listen to their catalog of material and become a life long fan.
The first person I ever fell in love with I showed her this band and her expression of wonder and amazement was something I can't put into words she was the first person I ever felt truly felt the same thing I did and I've yet to ever have that level of closeness again but I know deep down inside it's out there somewhere and that person is a thing of the past kind of like the only other woman who told me outright start a blog already and buy a copy of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd the memories are there but the people are long gone and time has taught me that it's not the end of the world that they're gone and have moved on with their existence and like I told myself 8 years ago it's time I about do the same thing I'll admit I feel like I am going a bit overboard with my ending this little old blog of mine and the whole throwing myself a show thing but you know what I have to let it end with something because I need some validation for all the efforts I ever put into doing this so I can know that moving on was the best decision.
Catharsis, the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions that's what this piece is that is the best love song all time it's not spilling your guts, it's not screaming on a mountain top, and it's not saying that the other person is your one and only it's saying that somebody is a certain level of discomfort and wonder that you can't possibly come to understand on your own and you want them to help you come to make sense of it all and possibly be with them for the rest of your life it's more than happiness it's a cathartic release you chose to share with the world and hope that they feel the same.
Sam's Song of the Day was my catharsis and it's been a fun 9 years but this relationship is over and I'm going out in style so wont you join me in letting me know that I can do this?
Happy Valentines Day.
