Liberal Arts Blog — Three Romantic Songs: Eric Clapton, “Wonderful Tonight,” (1977) Peter Gabriel “In Your Eyes,” (1986), Bryan Adams “Everything I do” (1991)
Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day
Today’s Topic: Three Romantic Songs: Eric Clapton, “Wonderful Tonight,” (1977) Peter Gabriel “In Your Eyes,” (1986), Bryan Adams “Everything I do” (1991)
What are your favorite romantic songs? What three come to mind first? Does one of these stand out among the rest? Why?
Today, an eclectic bouquet of three.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
PETER GABRIEL “IN YOUR EYES” (1989) if you haven’t seen “Say Anything,” starring Jon Cusack and Ione Skye, well you just have to do yourself a favor and watch it. The best teen romance since Romeo and Juliet. This song makes the movie.
1. “I get so lost, sometimes days pass and this emptiness fills my heart when I want to run away I drive off in my car but whichever way I go I come back to the place you are. All my instincts, they return and the grand facade so soon will burn, without a noise, without my pride, I reach out from the inside.”
2. “In your eyes, the light, the heat (your eyes) I am complete (your eyes) I see the doorway to a thousand churches (your eyes) The resolution of all fruitless searches (your eyes) I see trhe light and the heat (your eyes) I want to be that complete I want to touch the light, the heat I see in your eyes,, in your eyes, in your eyes, in your eyes.”
3. “Love, I don’t like to see so much pain, so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away, I get so tired of working so hard for our survival, I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive.”
NB: “Accepting all I’ve done and said I want to stand and stare again ’Til there’s nothing left, woah, it remains there in your eyes whatever comes and goes, Oh, it’s in your eyes.”
Say Anything • In Your Eyes • Peter Gabriel
ERIC CLAPTON — “WONDERFUL TONIGHT” (1977) — his most popular Spotify download at 480,000,000. Written for Patti Boyd who left her husband (George Harrison of The Beatles) for Clapton, they married but divorced ten years later)
1. “It’s late in the evening, she’s wondering what clothes to wear, she puts on her make up and brushes her long, blonde hair and then she asks me “Do I look alright?” And I say, “Yes, you look wonderful tonight.”
2. “We go to a party and everyone turns to see this beautiful lade that’s walking around with me, and then she asks me, “Do you feel alright?” And I say, “Yes, I feel wonderful tonight.”
3. “I feel wonderful because I see the love light in your eyes and the wonder of it all is that you just don’t realize how much I love you.”
NB: “It’s time to go home now and I’ve got an aching head so I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed. And then I tell her, as I turn out the light, I say, “My darling, you are wonderful tonight” Oh darling You are wonderful tonight.”
Eric Clapton — Wonderful Tonight (Live Video) | Warner Vault
BRYAN ADAMS “EVERYTHING I DO, I DO IT FOR YOU” (1991) — Adams is Canadian and was “the most played artist on Canadian radio in the 2010s.” This song stayed at #1 in the UK longer than any other single in history. It was written for the film, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”
1. “Look into my eyes, You will see, what you mean to me, search your heart, search your soul, when you find me there, you’ll search no more, Don’t tell me it’s not worth trying for, You can’t tell me it’s not worth dying for, You know it’s true (you know it’s true) Everything I do, I do it for you.”
2. “Look into your heart, you will find, there is nothing there to hide, Take me as I am (take me as I am) Take my life, I would give it all, I would sacrifice Don’t tell me it’s not worth fighting for, I can’t help it, there’s nothing I want more, You know it’s true, Everything I do, I do it for you.”
3. “There is no love, like your love, and no other, could give me more love, There’s nowhere unless you’re there, All the time, all the way everything I do..”
NB: “You can’t tell me, it’s not worth trying for, Just can’t help it, there’s nothing in the world I want more, Oh, I would fight for you, yeah I’d lie for you, walk the wire for you, yeah I’d die for you, You know it’s true, everything I do, I do it for you.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pdQU87dc8
BACKGROUND
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabriel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Your_Eyes_(Peter_Gabriel_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_Anything...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Tonight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Adams
Bryan Adams — (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood:_Prince_of_Thieves
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
A LINK TO THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED BY THEME:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENT BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Time to share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to music.
Or the coolest thing you learned in your life related to music. Say your favorite song or songs. Or your favorite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation. Or some insight into the history of music….Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers. jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter in your musical autobiography.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And perhaps to cement in your memory something important you would otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters to you.
