Autumn’s here, and I long to wake up before the sun rises and listen to piano music, or walk in the woods as the sun sets. Some songs I hold close to me. And listen during these times. What I listen to when the sun rises will remain private. But here are the ten love songs I am listening to at dusk this year. There is a sadness in each of them. I don’t know where it came from. I’m still trying to find out, so I can fix it.

1. Club 8. When Lights Go Out
I’ve always considered this my beloved love song. Something that I would pick as that one song that I am particulary close to. It has everything I would ever want to say in a love song. Just listen to it, the words, the music, the tone, and everything will unfold before your ears.

2. Cowboy Junkies. Mining for Gold / Misguided Angel
There are certain songs that need to be listened to as a couplet. These two by Cowboy Junkies, recorded in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, is the closest I’ve come to experiencing that rare magical feeling when I’m around a man I am attracted to. The chemistry creates an electrical sizzle in the air. There’s that special quality of a true love song, where Mr. Right isn’t always Mr. Winner. And I think it’s this quality of human imperfection that makes any love song shine.

3. Francoise Hardy. Dans Le Monde Entier
I’ve always adored Francoise Hardy’s singing in this song. One day, I came upon the full English translation of this piece, and it’s so gorgeous, I think I’ll post it here in it’s entirety.

English translation of Francoise Hardy’s Dans Le Monde Entier

all over the world
people must meet and part
there’s someone like me
feeling a pain in their heart

some may meet again
under that same bright star
if maybe some night
you come back from afar
who cares if tonight
I don’t know where you are

are you thinking of me now
missing having me around
if you have forgotten me
my world will come tumbling down

all over the world
others are sad tonight
there’s someone like me
watching the sun’s fading light

all over the sky
there is the same warm glow
here under that star
I’m wanting you to know
wherever you are
that I still love you so

4. Roberta Flack Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
For me, if there was one song that symbolizes the fall in Autumn, it would be this one. I first heard, “The First Time EverI Saw Your Face” in the Marlon Riggs documentary Tongues Untied about interracial gay couples. There was an account of a man getting beat up in Central Park. And a stranger, walking by, came to his rescue. I found it one of the most romantic stories I’ve ever heard, because as you may already know, I’m a sucker for stand-by-me moments. So when I went out and picked up the record, one gem after another came out of the speakers. Ballad of the Sad Young Men is the finale, closing out the album. It always reminds me of how little time we have to make the most of our lives.

5. Glenn Gould J.S. Bach: Concerto In D Minor After Alessandro Marcello, BWV 974: II. Adagio
When I first heard this, I thought it was a soundtrack from some romantic Italian movie. But if you listen closely, Gould’s beautiful humming comes in in the background. What a lovely piece to accompany the melancholy leaves blowing along the empty streets at night while we sleep.

6. Keith Jarrett. Expectations
As a teenager, this was the type of music I listened to when daydreaming about that flash of tenderness within Mickey Spillane novels. Because come on! Which girl doesn’t want a slow drive uptown on the bench seat of old sedan snuggled within the arms of a big brute! Any careful reader of Spillane will understand the warmth in this imaginery soundtrack for a New York City romance.

7. Miles Davis. It Never Entered My Mind (Blue Note Recording)
You always hear all these horror stories about Miles. But the sign of a true musician is his ability to blow away all the gossip with one note from his instrument. This is my favorite Miles Davis song. It’s extremely delicate, like an empty egg shell that can crack at any measure.

8. Isobel Campbell. Poor Butterfly
I know music has done its job when no written description is adequate. It’s something inside. The uncommunicable.

9. Chet Baker. Time After Time
I fell in love with Chet’s androgynous voice watching Sharky’s Machine as a kid. This song always reminds me of what being in love should be like. The joy, innocence, and grace of it all. That’s what being in love is.

10. Ruth Laredo. Rachmaninov transcription of Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid
I picked this piece because there’s a passage later in the song (3′47″-4′07″), that’s just gorgeous. I picked up a copy of the songsheet just to see those measures in print. I was astounded that so much life and the love of it, can be expressed within just a few measures. And much like that passing precious moment that is an illumination, a joy, it quickly disappears within a tumultous swirl, and becomes, suddenly, a memory of time lost.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2005 at 1:31 am and is filed under 10 Things. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.