Jiwang 24 Karat

I never favoured love movies or love songs. I think they're too cheesy for my liking. Not that i don't enjoy them, just that i think there are too many love songs/movies out there. Love is just too mainstream that almost each movie has this romantic fling whether it takes a minor or a major role in the storyline. Most are so stereotypical, just regurgitating the idea over and over again, vomitting scenes after scenes from old movies to new releases, patching up here and there.

But you know, there are odd ones that i enjoy. I cried after watching "A Walk to Remember" while performing that obligatory truancy hours at INTEC. And somehow, i thought that "Can't hardly Wait" was a good movie, from which i based one short love essay at MRSM Langkawi.

Whatever.

I have been cursing love songs since i was 13. I mean, give me a break. You could hear love songs from the bathroom, on the radio 24/7 and everyone on the street whistles to the tunes of that latest bubblegum pop love song.

That's why i preferred Incubus who sings about vitamins, space aliens and skin regeneration (on the album SCIENCE, before they themselves started to sing more about love!), at the drive-in and RATM, 2 political bands, the Flaming Lips and some other bands who DON'T sing about love.

But those evergreen love oldies are good to hear. They really sound desperate for love rather than our modern day love songs trying to get to the top of the charts. To sum it up, one of my favourite indie band, Cursive in their song 'Art is Hard' sings , 'Fall in love to fail, to boost your cd sales." I can't agree more.

But some things, yea, some things have happened to me for the past few months which make me appreciate love songs more than ever before. Jeez man. I'm not jiwang or anything close to it.

But now, the ghosts of love songs are hunting me down. If they are human beings, they are looking down on me, laughing persistently for my cursing of their existence awhile ago. Now, i do understand why there are so many love songs out there. Once in a lifetime at least, you will get yourself entangled with it. Be it with your wife or your girlfriend or if you're gay, with your partnert.

WARNING : Poisons and antidotes strongly opposes gayism.

You can't talk about the Beatles because most of their love songs are evergreen but some new love songs are now more appreciated than ever before by me.

Take for example Iron & Wine's 'Promising Light'.

But now i see love,
tracked on the floor where you walked outside.

Or their wonderful 'Dead Man's will', a rendition of a man's will before he dies. Beautiful.

Give this ring to my lover.
I was scared and stupid not to ask
For her hand long before.

Sam Beam (who performs under the stage name Iron & Wine) are beyond original in the folk world.

But i'd always prefer some incubus songs like 'Here in My Room' and 'Anti-gravity Love Song'.

With lyrics such as :-

This party is old and uninviting,
Participants all in black and white.
You came in full blown technicolor.
Nothing is the same after tonight.

And on 'Anti-Gravity Love Song' :-

So I call you on the thin can phone.
We rendezvous at a quarter-two, and make sure we're alone.
I may have found a way for you and I to finally fly free.

But as i said before, nothing beats the Beatles. They have achieved the zenith of song writing, and to be stamped in history as one of the greats just shows their musical panache. 'Something' just blows me away, although surprisingly it is not written by Lennon or McCartney, but by Harrison, the underdog in the band.

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover,
Something in the way she woos me.

So yeah, i do waste my time understanding the poetry behind the music. And at times i laugh at the idea of love itself. But now i find love laughing back at me.

Love is certainly one funny thing. All i could say is, i've been there, done that.