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insist that he does not love the addressee, yet the poignant music is undermining all his denials and turning them into
excuses. In the end, though, the speaker never comes clean and admits it. He is saying that he's not in love to the
very end. In Dylan's 'Just Like A Woman' the music seems to be almost rebelling against the acid disdain of the
lyric. Other songs with a marked tension between lyric and music include The Police's 'Every Breath You Take',
Blue Oyster Cult's 'Don't Fear The Reaper' and Elvis Costello's 'Oliver's Army'. The respective themes of
possessiveness, suicide and imperialism are deliberately presented in musical disguise, the bitter pill sugar-coated.
And all three were big hits.
Theme:
What Shall I Write About?
The most common subject in popular song is, of course, romantic love. Adapting the title of the famous
psychological book I'm OK, You're OK, we can group lovesong lyrics in accordance with which of these existential
positions they express.
Existential Positions in the Love Song
Our starting point is simple and straightforward:
I love you, you love me (the bliss song)
Happy songs are not so easy to write as unhappy ones, as most songwriters know. Happy songs that celebrate
fulfilled love are apt to rub listeners the wrong way – because they're sentimental, banal, over-simplified, liable to
arouse envy or seem unrealistic.
Happy love lyrics benefit, therefore, from an element of drama. This could be adversity or a problem – some kind of
"but' that clouds the picture. So let's introduce some complications. How about qualifying the happiness with a time
factor:
I love you, you love me... tonight (but maybe not tomorrow)I love you, you love me... forever (so let's get married as soon as.. .)
I love you, you love me... but I'm so much older/younger than you
Love can be complicated by external factors such as geography and the demands of life and work:
I love you, you love me... but I'm/you're leaving for a whileI love you, you love me... but we're far apart
Or by constrictions closer to home:
I love you, you love me... but my/your/our parents don't agree
Or by moral conflicts owing to a run-in with The Law:
I love you, you love me... but I've/you've just killed a man (cue 'BohemianRhapsody')
Or by the sufferings of mortality:
I love you, you loved me... but you're dead (have a cry in the chapel)
Or by the mysteries of fate: