Alternative Love Songs.

We have all heard of your stereotypical love song, "I love you", "You are the one and only" etc... and all that jazz.
Not to sound like completely anti-"love" but love isn't all about the great things that happen, and how good you feel... love is also about hurting and tragedy, to a certain extent.

So instead of disecting stereotypical love songs, and boring you all to tears. I'm going to go through a few songs, that are either love songs; in disguise, or love songs that go into the darker side of love, that most people try to pretend isn't real.

Firstly, one of my all time favourite songs, by one of my all time favourite artists...

Pearl Jam - Black (from the album "Ten")
The lead singer, Eddie Vedder's lyrics, appear to be about a girl, who was close to him, who either broke up with him, or died. Eddie desired a girl that he felt he could never have and went into a fantasy world about them being together since it would never come true.
"Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything..." - He had pictures of the woman, but something happened to her and now they're "black" to him.
Listening to this song, you can feel the anger and resent in Vedder's voice, and it definitely dives into the darker side of love. One of the final lines in the song is particularly interesting, and clarifies that he was wanting someone he couldn't have.
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but why why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine" -
She is now with somebody else, but he wants to be with her.

Last Kiss - J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (original song by Wayne Cochran)The song is sung from the viewpoint of a young man who, while on a date, crashes his father's car: There was a car in the middle of the road that had stalled. He couldn't stop, so he swerved to the right. When he wakes up in the street, it's raining. He finds his girl, who asks him to hold her tight, and he kisses her that last time, before she dies when in his arms. Hence, the title "last kiss". The refrain affirms his belief that he must lead a "good" life to be reunited with his love in Heaven when he dies.

The Scientist - Coldplay (from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head)
This song is about a scientist who is so caught up in his work that he neglects his girlfriend, but realizes it eventually and wants to "go back to the start" and begin fresh. This song is about couples who are on the verge of breaking up, and they want to "go back to the start" because that's when things were enjoyable and fresh.  Also this song seems to show that some people view love in a logical (and scientifical) way as opposed to an emotional way. "Questions of science do not speak as loud as the heart."

Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
At a low point in his life, Anthony Kiedis wrote a ballad to the one thing he knew he could count on: the city of Los Angeles. "Under the Bridge" is best known as a tale of drug addiction and self-doubt, but it's also a love song to a place that gives Kiedis a reassuring sense of community. For many brokenhearted souls, this track has been a source of comfort during hard times. This song was about a period when Kiedis maintained sobriety for three years, but his band mates Flea and John Frusciante were still doing it, and he felt like he had lost them, and in some form, they resented him. 
Despite these emotions, Kiedis believed his life was better without drug addictions, telling Rolling Stone that "no matter how sad or lonely I got, things were a million percent better than they were two years earlier when I was using drugs all the time. There was no comparison." The optimistic ideology gave birth to the chorus of the song: "I don't ever want to feel. Like I did that day. Take me to the place I love;" the place he loves being his fellow band mates, friends and family.

I Told You So - Randy Travis (from the album Always & Forever)
This country ballad is song about a man who left his significant other, and then misses her, and thinks what would her reaction be if he called her to ask if he could come back to her, only to find out she has someone new in her life. This song is unique because she tells him that she has moved on but he still wonders.
"Suppose I called you up tonight, and told you that I loved you, and suppose I said I wanna come back home."

I could go on and on, but I'll leave you with those few...
And my sincerest apologies if I've tainted anybody's view of Valentine's Day, you can all do what you want for it! :)
Enjoy it, hope you have fun, it's just not for me.

Laura :)