Sunday, June 17, 2007

Love is a Cheap Trick.

There was a pretty cheesy movie line that I heard once that said something like this. "I wish relationships could be simple, like a retro pop song. I want you to want me. That's it. But things are often much more complicated." Actually, that was Cheap Trick. But, I really do agree with the blonde teen-something who said that. Sometimes, I really do wish it was that simple.
Instead, we find ourselves swinging more easily to the tunes of Pat Benatar, "Love is a battlefield". But why, why must it be so strenuous, and so hard?
And why must I find it SO difficult to explain it to someone, why I play games to find out what someone is really thinking, throw out tests to see how much he cares, and give off fake signals to disguise the depth of my affection. Why can't I just say it? I want you to want me. I need you to need me. I'd love you to LOVE me. The lyrics are so easy, so complete. That really just says it all. If my life right now were a retro pop song, I think it'd sound a little more like this:

I secretly want you to want me, even though I pretend everyone wants me, and I'm used to it. I need you to need me. I want to need you, but I refuse to let you know that because I need no one. I'd love you to love me, but I refuse to be the first one to say it. The word always freezes at the tip of my tongue, though with fear of you or just the word itself I'm really not sure. I'm not that complicated, really. I just want you to look beneath everything I say and do to protect myself and realize that all I really want, all I really need is for you to want me.

Not very catchy, is it? Definitely not marketable to the general public in a musical sense. So why are we so afraid to just SAY what we WANT? Are we afraid that if we speak it aloud it might break? Or maybe then it makes it more real to us, and then we are forced to look at our deepest desires... and see that maybe they really are too good to be true? Or maybe we keep them in because they just don't rhyme.

4 comments:

Janell said...

Add some drawl and twang and it'd make a fine country song.

Or maybe let Justin Timerlake at it.

You forgot to mention the flattering yet unsatisfying, "Hello, I love you, Won't you tell me your name?" in the style of the Cure.

Sigh. Now I have the "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" song stuck in my head. "If you don't make your mind up we'll never get started. And I don't want to wind up being parted broken hearted." (For me it's a toss up to if I prefer the Geri Halliwell or the Cake version.)

Vandersun said...

I love the Cake version. Although, that song makes me think of nothing but ballroom dancing since past experience and a rather saucy routine O.U.A.T.

pinetree said...

I hate 80's music so much. 80's dancing is another thing altogether, but the music itself just kills me.

And I've been in Alaska. :)

Dice said...

Natural to test men... boys.. however you deem a significant other. I'm sure it's something to do with our fantasies of love and what we deserve...

AS far as I'm concerned you deserve a gold medalist in vero games... However....

You have to be authentic with them and yourself dear. I got some strange but alarming advice today from a close friend on the subject of relationships. They said that I needed to take what I needed and if they other were too stubborn to give something small, or give what I needed then that's that. You need what you need. period.

But it helps to sometimes inform them of what you need. loves.