Mature love songs?

XTC - "In Another Life". Colin Moulding has suddenly become the most interesting part of XTC, writing gentle and realistic songs about being a fortysomething living comfortably out in semi-rural England. "In Another Life" has him counting off a few of his younger romantic ideals and concluding, quite wisely, that he and the wife are better off without them. It's really rather sweet.

Again Royal Trux :) In this case 'Map of the city' off "Thank You", were Neil Hagerty sings the amazingly sick though very touching lines: "I knew right then I would love her forever/ Even if her breasts were rotting with cancer." That's mature love and not in some ironic way.

pulling jessica's hair - pure, questions love as something worth attaining. pretty.

Dylan -- "Mama, You Been On My Mind." To write in 1964 or so, "I don't even mind who you're waking with tomorrow" is quite a feat. Very mature expression there, more so considering he was like 22 at the time.

I admittedly don't know the context of that Dylan line, but to me it sounds like a "Beast Of Burden"-type thing, where he tells the girl she can sleep around all she wants, 'cause that's what HE fully intends to do. How about "If You See Her Say Hello" instead ? Though I'm not sure that's adult enough for what Sterling wants. Maybe John Prine's "In Spite Of Ourselves". Or Charlie Rich's "Life's Little Ups And Downs".

I cant believe no-ones mentioned The Chi-Lites "Have you seen her?".

Hold on, i dont think that really counts on second thoughts.;)

I'm gonna have to go with al green on this one.

Killing Joke - Pleasures Of The Flesh. Apology for sleeping around turns into condemnation of the monogamous ideal; maybe the most subversive love song ever.

I would say 'Apology Accepted' by the Go-Betweens, as typical of their 'mature' love songs, but I'd need to qualify it by saying that both Forster and Mclennan 'matured' into a realization that they weren't going to mature -- or that any 'love' worth writing about was going to be permanently teenage in some way. And if that rules them out, then most of Sheryl Crow's singles would count, no? (If it makes you happy?)

Jeez, stuff like James Taylor 'You've Got a Friend' says that you're just SO beyond sex and that friendship is what really matters. That's for mature people, right? Carole King, Carly Simon... run down the list. I don't even want to think about this, but feel strangely compelled to answer.

For some reason I keep thinking of "Silly Love Songs" by McCartney... "Maybe I'm Amazed" too.

Yuck.

octopus's garden

I forgot "Indian Summer" by Beat Happening. Doh! I love that song.

1. Lloyd Cole, 'Undressed'.

2. Bruce Springsteen, 'Tougher Than The Rest' and 'Tunnel Of Love' - just about.

2. I thought that Alex Thomson really hit something there - in the (G-Bs) idea that true romantic maturity is realizing that romance isn't and shouldn't be mature. I'm not sure I agree with the idea (or how I could find out whether I agreed or not), but it's a fairly compelling one.

"Tougher Than The Rest" ! That's a wonderful example. I wish I'd thought of that.

"She's the One" - Roy Harper

"Famous Blue Raincoat" - Leonard Cohen

The former might not be as well known as the latter. It's sort of the flip side, but not just roles, the situation, too: a guy is telling his friend how great his wife is and how he shouldn't leave her. I think there's an idea, perhaps untrue, that in youth love is egoistical - self-centered, but also unreserved - and that later on you lose the good with the bad. So is that why "Undressed" is up there?

How about virtually the entire content of the last four albums by The Bathers?

1. Dylan has been mentioned copiously, but not that much specifically on Blood On The Tracks. I think that the likes of 'Tangled Up In Blue', 'Simple Twist Of Fate', and the flabbergastingly brilliant 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' may be major candidates.

2. Has no-one mentioned the two MOR 'classics' here: 'The Lady In Red' and 'Wonderful Tonight'?

3. Billy Bragg has also got to show up on the MatureLoveOmeter - especially for the William Bloke album (1996), and *especially* for 'Brickbat'.

4. Dishonourable mention for 'Time Enough For Rocking When We're Old', 'Xylophone Track', and 'Parades Go By'.

Yo La Tengo's last album.

'Will Never Marry'?

Mmm. I was thinkiing of putting "Better Off Without A Wife" with "She's The One" instead. (Not that "Famous Blue Raincoat" isn't a great love song, esp. for the lines "Thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes / I thought it was there for good so I never tried". But then there's the attraction of false dichotomies, the pleasure of repeating oneself (a compilation tape sequence), and a tendency to forget that hearts are roughly triangular - yes, 'triangulate against [or was it 'towards'?]' bizarre love triangles.) I've only heard the song on that Tom Waits tribute album that came out several years ago, with Pete Shelley doing the honors in this case. It's great! I just had a look at the lyrics. I think they say a lot about 'mature love'.

Most of the suggestions in this thread are appalling.

You want a real answer? Listen to 'These Four Walls' by Irma Thomas. You can get it on the second volume of Dave Godin's 'Deep Soul Treasures' series.

A lot of Abba songs, actually.

Most of the songs on Deep Soul Treasures Vol. 1 struck me as quite as young/adolescent/whatever in outlook as anything else here, only sung in deeper voices. Not heard Vol. 2.

Nick: why appalling?

Pinefox - I loved "Undressed," but this seems like a song more about infatuation than "mature love" don't you think? More like "for mature audiences only" in my book.

Great song, though.