Issue #32 / March 2019
You’ve written at length in song, poetry & prose about love. What is love? Why do love songs so frequently move us? Perhaps a list of your top 10 love songs?
MACK, BAIRNSDALE, AUSTRALIA
How important is the song in your life, as a listener?
LUIZA, VIÇOSA, BRAZIL
Dear Mack and Luiza,
It’s the early hours of the morning, here in Los Angeles, and I can’t sleep. I’ve been in the studio all night, working on new songs. The melodies and words are running around in my head, so excuse this letter if it’s kind of scrambled. You asked about love, Mack, and maybe that’s what love is right there – maybe songs are the parlance of love. Maybe that’s what we have conceived them for – to give a voice to this strange, inscrutable feeling that tears away at us, all our lives. I don’t know. Maybe some songs are the embodiment of love itself and that’s why they move us so deeply. They are simple, plainspoken, incendiary devices that bomb the heart to pieces – something other art forms can’t do with the same sudden and frightening precision.
So, here is a list of ten of my most treasured love songs – old, sad songs mostly, and sentimental too, that have travelled with me through the years, holding sway over my world and never failing to rescue me. They are just small unassuming love bombs, but dear Luiza, as important as anything can ever be.
Much love, Nick
Ten Love Songs
To Love Somebody – Bee Gees
My Father – Nina Simone
I Threw It All Away – Bob Dylan
Comfort You – Van Morrison
Angel of the Morning – Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts
Nights In White Satin – The Moody Blues
Where’s the Playground Susie? – Glen Campbell
Something On Your Mind – Karen Dalton
Always on My Mind – Elvis Presley
Superstar – Carpenters

BOB DYLAN