5 Songs You Might Not Realize Are Love Songs

Courtney Barnett performs live in concert.
Photo credit (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

When you’re head over heels for someone, it can feel like every song you hear is about them. And when you’re lonely, there are millions of heartbroken ballads to choose from. Whether it's present or absent, is there any drug more mind-altering than love? No wonder it has remained the favorite subject for songwriters everywhere. Just like Christmas music in December, love songs are inescapable—as Jeff Tweedy put it in the title of last year's Wilco single, “Love is Everywhere (Beware).”

But some love songs are difficult to spot, whether because they break with expectations or portray a different kind of romance entirely. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, here are five deceptively romantic tracks that you might not have realized were about love:

The White Stripes – "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"

And every breath that is in your lungsIs a tiny little gift to me

Seeing the title of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” it’s easy to miss just how sweet this song is. Under all those heavy guitar riffs hides a lovelorn singer wishing he could just hear that one voice he misses the most. Loneliness never rocked so hard.

The Beatles – "I Am the Walrus"

I am he as you are he as you are meAnd we are all together

At first, “I Am the Walrus” doesn’t seem to be about anything at all. Among the strangest hit songs by The Beatles, its psychedelic imagery doesn’t lend itself easily to interpretation, and this is no accident. John Lennon reportedly wrote the song after feeling that their songs were being overanalyzed. “Let (them) work that one out,” he said. Well, despite the rest of its nonsense, the song’s opening lines are pretty clear, expressing an all-encompassing and probably drug-induced love for humanity.

The Velvet Underground -- "Venus in Furs"

          Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
With their original, gritty sound, The Velvet Underground managed to cement a place for themselves in rock and roll history despite their initial failure to sell many records. But you might not know that one of their best-known and noisiest tracks, “Venus in Furs,” is actually a love song. The track takes its title from the 1870 Austrian novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (whose name was the source for the term “masochism”) and describes a dominant/submissive relationship. Though such subject matter might have been extreme in 1967 when the song debuted, nowadays, not so much--Fifty Shades of Grey was the highest-grossing film on Valentine’s Day when it was released in theaters in 2015.

Mitski -- "Townie"

And I want a love that falls as fastAs a body from the balcony

If you didn’t listen to closely to the lyrics, you might not realize that Mitski’s breakthrough hit was a love song. “Townie” is fast and fuzzy, flying by like a whirlwind without giving you time to stop and think, wait, a love that does what? But, as Mitski expresses so well, being young and in love feels just that forceful and fleeting, exhilarating and painful too.

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile – "Over Everything"

                You could say I hear you on several levels at high decibels
Lotta Sea Lice, 2017’s collaborative album between Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, was more than just a supergroup mash-up of two great songwriters and guitar players--it was a testament to the value of their “intercontinental friendship.” This song, in particular, reads as a conversation between the two musicians, revealing the love that lies at the heart of any meaningful artistic collaboration. Sometimes all you need is to be heard by a friendly ear.

 

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