I came across a song yesterday that I hadn’t heard in years. It’s called I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt and is a melancholy love ballad. Now, I’m a sucker for love stories, love poems and love songs no matter the circumstances or the outcome. They could end in tragedy where I ball my eyes out or they could finish in a cheesy cornball finale leaving me with a wide-tooth stupid grin on my face.
So hearing this song and listening to the lyrics made me take pause. If you have ever heard it, you know it’s about a lover who realizes that the one they love no longer feels the same way and that their love affair has reached its conclusion. Pretty sad, huh? Nevertheless, the story is fantastically written. The words are right on and you have no doubt the pain the person feels in their realization.
Of course, Bonnie Raitt’s voice adds color to the story, but if you look at the lyrics without the music, it seems to read like a poem. I wonder if songwriters write poems? I’m sure they do, as it seems to go hand in hand with songwriting.
Don’t you love a good song? One that is simple, to the point and you don’t need a video to figure out what the hell they are trying to say. Since I deem myself a music head *chuckles*, I know that there are loads of good songs out there that can stand alone as poems. Continue reading
M. Kinnel, Writer 