Triumph and Disaster

Here are my two favorite lovesongs in one entry. Marianne Faithful is first with “Crazy Love“. I could not find a suitable video on youtube so here is the audio:

Crazy Love

Hated by all and everywhere he goes
Blazing contempt for human life and lies
Murder as art and what he knows he knows
from life and fear in other people’s eyes

Crazy love is all around me
Love is crazy love is kind
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

She walks the boulevard without a care
Knowing too much but having come so far
Pretending life is just a game you play for nothing
Loving no-one and no-where

Crazy love is all around me
Love goes crazy given time
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

She looks as if expecting a surprise
Maybe an encounter that will change her life
Not knowing hot from cold or good for bad
If life is just a joke or if it makes her sad

Crazy love is all around me
Love is crazy love is kind
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

Crazy love is all around me
Love goes crazy given time
But I know somehow you’ll find me
Love is crazy love is blind

Many Love songs are about sadness when a love has ended. “Crazy Love” deals with the promising opening of love or even the anticipation of a coming love still in search for the lovers. Similar timing in “Dance me to the end of love” by Leonard Cohen about the  hope at the beginning of each love to reach and cross every limit. The “end of love” in this song can have so many different shades and meanings. Beside the traditional “till death us part“, it means “to the limits where our love ends” as well as “through these limitations at the current boundary of our love“.
There are many recordings of this song. I like this matured life version most:

“Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I’m gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love
Dance me to the end of love

Nachdem Cohen und Faithfull gebührend eingeführt sind, hier meine beiden liebsten Songs zum Thema Liebe. Beide behandeln den Auftakt, die Option, die Verheissung des Zusammenkommens. Wobei das “to the end of love” bei Cohen unzählige Bedeutungen annehmen kann: von klassischen “bis dass der Tod Euch scheidet” über “bis wir das Potential unserer Liebe erschöpft ist und sie endet” bis zu “über die Begrenztheit dessen was wir uns vorstellen können hinaus“.
“Show me slowly what I only know the limits of!“

Trackback URI | Comments RSS