Love songs that are not trite and mushy

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Most love songs read like greeting cards - they are sentimental, yes, but most of them are also lame. I want love songs with balls! Love songs that you are thrilled to share with the object of your devotion without embarassment or shame because they do not sound like schlock. List these songs for me, please.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Monday, 15 May 2006 12:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Non-Alignment Pact"

― Kenneth Anger Management (noodle vague), Monday, 15 May 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

i love you you big dummy

― merrychain, Monday, 15 May 2006 12:50 (nineteen years ago)

Put a, ahem, "slow-set" segment on to a compilation cd for my girlfriend recently which included the following:
- The The - August & September
(Piano at the end decays nicely in to the piano at the start of... )
- Prince - How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?
- Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You
(Sentimental but certainly not lame. His voice here is simply astounding.)

Best of all though, perhaps, is Spiritualized's The Slide Song. Heartbreaking.

― smn (smn), Monday, 15 May 2006 15:04 (nineteen years ago)

"where the wild roses grow" - Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.

it ends with him killing her with a rock to the head.

― Shaun Leacy (cassettessac), Monday, 15 May 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

As opposed to every other Nick Cave song where they get married and move to Pennsylvania.

― Action Time Version (noodle vague), Monday, 15 May 2006 22:08 (nineteen years ago)

I want love songs with balls!

There are some love songs here:

What was the first top 40 song to reference homosexuality?

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 15 May 2006 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

of montreal - the party's crashing us
pixies - gigantic
pj harvey - this is love
sleater-kinney - oh!
bjork - joga
why? - gemini (birthday song)
joni mitchell - all i want
david bowie - let's dance
lucinda williams - right in time
nick cave and the bad seeds - and no more shall we part
all dylan love songs

i could go on... there are tons of wonderful love songs.

― Emily B (Emily B), Monday, 15 May 2006 23:28 (nineteen years ago)

ween - sarah

― topdownjimmy (topdownjimmy), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 01:30 (nineteen years ago)

Big Star, "Kangaroo"
Tom Waits, "Johnsburg, Illinois"

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 05:10 (nineteen years ago)

much of 69 Love Songs is trite enough to be meta-trite... not full of 'balls' exactly but rather of intellect and/or wit

― davelus (davelus), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

Sam Cooke's "Bring it on Home to Me" is still pretty damn exciting.

― erklie (erklie), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Mission of Burma, "Forget"

― davelus (davelus), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 05:12 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

tom waits - i hope that i don't fall in love with you, jersey girl
elliott smith - i didn't understand
bob dylan - visions of johanna, sad eyed lady of the lowlands, i'll be your baby tonight, sara
pink floyd - nobody home
sonic youth - the diamond sea
tim buckley - phantasmagoria in two
wilco - i'm the man who loves you, we're just friends

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

Billy Bragg "14th of February"

― silence dogood (catcher), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 15:25 (nineteen years ago)

whitehouse - rape day

― james brooks (j_brooks), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

The Mountain Goats - Internation Small Arms Traffic Blues

― Steve Go1dberg (Steve Schneeberg), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

"As opposed to every other Nick Cave song where they get married and move to Pennsylvania"

Nick Cave should really write a song like this.

― Marco Damiani (Marco D.), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

Townes van Zandt - "Buckskin Stallion Blues"

― Jason G. King (King-a-Ling), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

the fall - "bill is dead"

― Conor (Conor), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 22:47 (nineteen years ago)

Why hasn't anyone found fault with the premise of this thread?

― Post-Rodney (But no one called it that at the time) (R. J. Greene), Thursday, 7 September 2006 02:48 (nineteen years ago)

Afterglow (of your love) - Small Faces

I love this song. It starts off mumbling, like the singer wants to tell her all this stuff he's feeling, but is quite frankly embarassed by himself. Then he thinks Fuck it, and the band starts. The chorus is one of the happiest things I know. Love is never trite and mushy, it's hard and tiring and it pushes you around, but you batter it back and it respects you for it. I love this song.

― Johnny B Was Quizzical (Johnney B), Thursday, 7 September 2006 06:42 (nineteen years ago)

Loving Pauper by Gregory Isaacs.

Proper pathos, genuinely touching.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 7 September 2006 08:36 (nineteen years ago)

I had Lucinda Williams - Fruits of my Labor at my wedding.

I also think a lot of the great Motown lovesongs are just so good that it doesn't matter if they're trite and mushy - "When a Man Loves a Woman" was the song I danced with my wife too, and as cliched as it is, it still sounds fresh and very very stirring to me.

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:51 (nineteen years ago)

(Percy Sledge, obv, not Bolton)

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, 7 September 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

Leonard Cohen to thread!

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

This Must Be the Place - Talking Heads

I See You, You See Me - The Magic Numbers

― Sam Wunderl (neatMCsammer), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

Um, Hurting, "When A Man Loves A Woman" ain't Motown.

― Run Ruud Run (Ken L), Friday, 8 September 2006 00:46 (nineteen years ago)

wilco - i'm the man who loves you

haven't heard it in awhile but i remember this being the definition of soft and mushy

― a.b. (alanbanana), Friday, 8 September 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

~~soft~~trite

― a.b. (alanbanana), Friday, 8 September 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

"I Want Your Sex"

― a.b. (alanbanana), Friday, 8 September 2006 02:35 (nineteen years ago)

"Afterglow" OTM.

How about "Love Song" by The Damned.

― kwhitehead (stephen schmidt), Friday, 8 September 2006 15:59 (nineteen years ago)

Spooner Oldham/Dan Penn- Dark End of the Street

This thing of genius oozes with love and pain.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Friday, 8 September 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

"if i could you know i would just hold your hand and you'd understand"

this is true sentiment

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Saturday, 9 September 2006 03:22 (nineteen years ago)

She don't like her eggs all runny
She thinks crossin' her legs is funny
She looks down her nose at money
She gets it on like the Easter Bunny
She's my baby I'm her honey
I'm never gonna let her go

He ain't got laid in a month of Sundays
I caught him once and he was sniffin' my undies
He ain't too sharp but he gets things done
Drinks his beer like it's oxygen
He's my baby
And I'm his honey
Never gonna let him go

In spite of ourselves
We'll end up a'sittin' on a rainbow
Against all odds
Honey, we're the big door prize
We're gonna spite our noses
Right off of our faces
There won't be nothin' but big old hearts
Dancin' in our eyes.

She thinks all my jokes are corny
Convict movies make her horny
She likes ketchup on her scrambled eggs
Swears like a sailor when shaves her legs
She takes a lickin'
And keeps on tickin'
I'm never gonna let her go.

He's got more balls than a big brass monkey
He's a wacked out werido and a lovebug junkie
Sly as a fox and crazy as a loon
Payday comes and he's howlin' at the moon
He's my baby I don't mean maybe
Never gonna let him go

― 100% CHAMPS with a Yes! Attitude. (Austin, Still), Saturday, 9 September 2006 03:27 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.