All Outta Love

Traffic during my morning commute yesterday was worse than usual, giving me some time to reflect. It being Friday the 13th and all, my mind paused to dwell on the subject of love. In the delightful book The Secret Life of Bees (say what you will about the American South, Southerns can write) by Sue Monk Kidd, one of the month-named sisters (it's been a long time since I read it) talks to Lily about the word "love". We have only one word for love, she explains, so you use the same word to describe how you feel about your favorite color that you use to describe your feelings for your mother. It made a big impact on me and I think of that book often. Why just yesterday Kate embraced me in a huge hug and said "I love you, mama!" and then turned to Lola, scrubbed her ears and said "I love you, too, Lola!" and I thought "hmph."
Thinking of all the things I love but love in completely different ways for which there are no other words, I began a mental list of the love songs I love and all the different love people sing about. Here's what I came up with when I grew tired of reading the bumper stickers all around me:

Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix (best love song ever written. Unconditional love)
Blind Love - Tom Waits (second best love song. Unrequited love)
For You Blue - The Beatles (Adoration)
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen (Time-tested love)
Bones of an Idol - The New Pornographers (love of profession)
I'm in Love with My Car - Queen (gay love. HA! Just kidding, obviously, love of one's car. This is just one a millions of songs about love of cars.)
Yes - Morphine (love from a mentor)
Kooks - Davie Bowie (love for a newborn)
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane (love of God)
8-Piece Box - Southern Culture on the Skids (love of fried chicken)
Head - Kirsty MacColl (love of intellect. Not what you thought I was going to say, was it?)
You Look Like Rain - Morphine (even better love of intellect and wisdom, too)
Red, Red Wine - Neil Diamond (love of wine. The love of wine is on here for me, Neil Diamond for mom, who could write a dozen songs about her love for Neil Diamond)
The Neighborhood - Los Lobos (love of community)
Everybody Loves a Train - also Los Lobos (love of trains, and seriously, who doesn't love a train?)
Ice Cream - Sarah McLaughlin (love of ice cream and even greater love from a lover. This one's a multi-tasker)
Lust for Kicks - The Cars (love of shits and giggles, I think this one should be allowed in because we so regularly confuse lust with love anyway)
Martha, My Dear - The Beatles (love of one's pet. This one's on here for you, Lola, Kate's dear.)

Then I got to work and had to start thinking about work-related things. I posed the question to Jeremiah "what are some good love songs that aren't about the love of people?" Jeremiah then posed the question to his posse of online fellow music geeks.

Want to see what the music geeks have to say on the topic? This post is now 6 pages long and there have already been arguments about the meaning of Beatles' song titles (Nerd Alert!). What have we missed here? This, people, is why comments are enabled on this blog. Bring it!