[I know it might not be very 2024 of me to say, but love is in the air, and not just because it’s Valentine’s week. If you’re feeling it too, or maybe if you need a little help getting into the V-Day spirit, this week I’ll quickly highlight the AmericanStudies stories behind a handful of our great past love songs, leading to a special post on current ones that have hit my heart. Add your Valentine’s tunes in comments, please!]
You didn’t
really think I could get through a whole songtastic series without including
Bruce, didya? When Springsteen was young, he was—as he himself has since admitted
quite honestly and thoughtfully—not great when it came to romantic
relationships, and thus often not at his songwriting best when depicting them
(although there are still some
greats on the early
records). But in the decades since, Springsteen has matured and become a
true master of what I would call the “adult love song”—songs about both the
gaps between romantic ideals and human realities and (most importantly and to
this listener inspiringly) the ways we try to navigate and make the most of our
relationships and lives nonetheless. For my money, no song has ever captured
those layers better than does “Happy” (1992),
especially in its final verse: “We’re born in this world, darling, with few
days/And trouble never far behind/Man and woman circle each other in a cage/A
cage that’s been handed down the line/Lost and running ‘neath a million dead
stars/Tonight let’s shed our skins and slip these bars.” Word, Boss.
Special
post this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Other love songs you’d AmericanStudy?
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