Last night a friend posted a Sara Bareilles song on Facebook and I and another friend of hers remarked how much we liked this "Love Song" of hers. The other woman noted that it was written by Sara when her record label asked her to write a love song. Now, how cute is that? All this time I thought it was a cute song about some romance Sara was having. Now I realize it's a cute song about having to write about romance!
This makes me like it that much better. She's showing a great deal of personality in writing a song to fulfill a contractual obligation and making it work so well as.....a love song.....
What is any song *really about*? I guess only the artist knows for sure. We fans think we know how a certain song speaks to us, what it's about and I'll bet the artist is good with that as long as you enjoy it and buy the CD.
Years ago I heard a DJ talking about the 1974 tune, "How long?" by Ace. It sure sounds like a "hurt me" song- and it is but, it actually had nothing to do with romance. The band had just found out their manager was stealing from them! How long had THAT been going on?
As far as I know, that's a true story. Thousands of people who have been cheated on may hear that song and get melancholy, maybe a little misty and think back to when they caught on to their significant others indiscretion. Well, they can still relate if they put the song in it's proper context and remember how that lover also cleaned out the bank account.....
Life gives you lemons sometimes and some make lemonade. Sometimes life puts demands on others to write love songs when they might not really want to and they wind up writing a love song. Sorta.
and it works.
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