Love, Afraid: Coversongs to Prepare the Heart for Valentine’s Day
February 11th, 2008 — 01:45 am
I spent all morning trying to script a post about songs which struggle with the infinite and indescribably complex mysteries of love. The idea was to celebrate this complexity, and acknowledge as valid the stuff that often holds us back from putting a name to what we feel, lest we call it wrong and mess everything up.
But every time I try to put words to love, things fall apart. Love’s like that, I think. I guess that was the point, after all.
Instead, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, here’s a mixed bag of folk-tinged coversongs that address the myriad and multiple fears we have about love: naming it, finding it, losing it, and losing ourselves to it.
May each of us, regardless of our romantic status, find something in the words of these poets and songwriters which speaks to our secret heart – the better to withstand the oversimplified, candy-red onslaught of emotion sure to come by Thursday.
(live at KEXP; also available on Let It Die)
(from Remain)
(from the Prince & Me soundtrack; more Marc here)
(from Merman)
(live; from the Lost In Space Special Edition)
(from the Across the Universe soundtrack; Evan’s not a recording artist, but her movies rock)
(from Back In The Circus)
(from New York City)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Goffin/King)
(from the Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason soundtrack; more Amy everywhere but the Grammys)
Link removed due to hotlinking. Please stop stealing my links — I pay for my bandwidth!
(from Other Voices, Other Rooms)
(live 1994 bootleg; more Eva here)
(live, unknown origin; more Evan here)
As always, all artist and album links above go to artist websites and stores, the better to show our love for the folks who speak for us when we run out of words.
Hoping for some more traditional Valentine’s Day fare? Never fear: we’ll back Wednesday with a short, sweet romantic soundtrack for the lucky ones.
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