On a recent three hour tour of the Nogglestead lawn, the local country and western station provided a point/counterpoint over the course of the afternoon.
Starting with Eli Young Band, “Love Ain’t”:
With its chorus:
Love ain’t you on a sidewalk in your new dress all alone
Love ain’t you callin’ me ’cause he ain’t pickin’ up his phone
The way you’re talkin’, sounds like he’s somebody you should hate
I may not know what love is, girl
But I know what love ain’t
That is, the poet/narrator admits not knowing what love is.
Later, we had Clay Walker singing “What’s It To You”:
With its revelation:
Love is the rhythm of two hearts beating
Poundin’ out a message steady and true
Talk to me baby, tell me what you’re feelin’
I know what love is, what’s it to you?
That is, the poet/narrator knows what love is.
Cue the Foreigner, I guess (“I Want To Know What Love Is”), but….
Is it just me, or is there a whole new subgenre of bro country where the poet/narrator exhorts a woman in a relationship to leave her partner (or maybe Old Dominion’s “Break Up With Him” is just in heavy rotation on a “classic” country station. I suppose it’s catnip to young ladies on the prowl who like to think their options are always open, but it kind of offends me.
At any rate, stay tuned for another rousing edition of “What song came on the (sixteen year old? already?) WorkTunes while Brian J. was mowing the lawn?” Because we’ve had rain in July, so I have at least one more mowing this summer–each time I mow in July, I think Is this the mowing that will turn the lawn brown? So far, it has not, but it’s going to get dry here sometime soon.
