February 9, 2009: LOVE

It seems as if we came full circle tonight. We started with one favorite definition of love — ”To love someone is to learn the song that is in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten” — and ended with an actual song:

 

In between, there was another musical take on love —

 

Anyone have any others they’d like to add? We can have quite a playlist for Valentine’s Day. Here’s one from our November gathering, and another that just came to mind:

(From “It Happened at the Hotel Du Cap,” Vanity Fair, March, 2009 — an article about the affair that Joseph Kennedy and Marlene Dietrich began on the French Riviera in 1938. Their liason took place under the noses of spouses, other lovers, and children, including the future president of the US who had his own tryst with Dietrich at the White House in 1963. The story picks up at a summer ball in 1938 that both families attended when Jack was 21: 

Jack would always remember that evening, too, but for another reason. He danced with Marlene to ‘Begin the Beguine’ and she was ‘holding me so tight and then she slipped her hand down my trousers.’ Years later,   . . .  Jack wondered if his father had put Marlene up to it, but grinned when he remembered her ‘terrific perfume.’

 

Thanks for a great evening everyone.

 

Diane: 

I know Valentine’s Day is for romantic love (or, as an ex-boyfriend used to tell me, a day to honor a celibate saint), but a song that I connect with love is “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree …” My dad has had dementia for several years now, but whenever I sing this song to him he perks up and sings along. So that is my favorite love song for now.

 

Lauri:

 

Alan:

Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis is not your typical love song, but it did play constantly in the background the week my wife and I fell madly in love. We met as potential housemates and within 24 hours, the platonic nature of our relationship went out the window. Being Jewish and someone whose musical taste at the time tended either toward Dylan and the Band, or Hindu kirtan, I had never heard anything like it before my wife introduced me to it. Enamored of her and swept away by the exquisite beauty of Tallis’s masterpiece, I felt like I was in heaven. It certainly helped that I didn’t understand a word of Latin. Some excerpts below:

 

Bill:

I thought the meeting was wonderful — so many great stories and insights — what a great group. I forgot to read the poem I had brought with me so I am posting it here. It was written at a poetry workshop that I attended a couple of years ago in anticipation of my upcoming high school reunion. The poem was dedicated to my first love who I expected to see for the first time in over fifty years.

OVERTURE

Last night I googled the girl in the yellow sweater.

In an instant her name was scattered across the screen, like the stars on that cool autumn night long ago.

Strange verb, google, sounds like giggle or cuddle.

Plenty of that going on, buried in the hay that night.

And kisses too, sweet , sweet kisses, as the hay wagon rumbled over the country roads.

INTERMEZZO

Last night I googled the girl in the yellow sweater.

Brown and burnt were the California hills the summer it ended.

High above Balboa Bay, the white boats strewn like lily pads on the blue water.

Letters scribbled furiously by lantern light in a green musty tent.

Missives of longing and desire, while our song, ‘Vaya con Dios’ played like a soundtrack in my mind.

CODA

Last night I googled the girl in the yellow sweater.

Does she love Mozart and Shakespeare, candlelight and wine?

After half a century, four marriages, and a constellation of lovers, does she dream that she forever owns a piece of my heart?

***********

One of my favorite love songs would have to be the above mentioned “Vaya con Dios.” It was a huge hit that summer. The artists were Les Paul and Mary Ford:

 

Another of my pop/jazz love song favorites would have to be “My Funny Valentine” especially the version by Chet Baker:

 

My very favorite love song would have to be the trio from the first act of “Cosi fan Tutte,” my favorite opera, by my favorite composer, Mozart. In fact, this is my favorite piece of music in the whole world, the one piece I must have on the fabled “desert island.” The trio is sung by the sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella and their friend, Don Alfonso as they wave farewell to the lovers of the two sisters. The trio is known as “Soave sia il vento.” The text and translation are:

Soave sia il vento (May the wind be gentle)

tranquilla sia l’onda (May the wave be calm)

ed ogni elemento (and may every element)

benigno risponda ai nostri desir
(respond benignly to our wishes)

Here are two versions:

**********

In closing I would like to share a quote I ran across recently. It speaks to the intoxication of love in a very romantic and poetic manner.

”We are all
mortal until the
first kiss and
the second glass
of wine.”

Eduardo Galeano

***************

all my love to the noodle talk folk,

Bill M

 

Jim:

This session brought to mind my first serious date. It was to the 8th grade dance. We had a reunion recently and I ran into her. She showed me what I wrote in her graduation book prior to the dance:

Roses are red .

Violets are blue.

Corsages cost $10.95.

Will dandelions do?