Oh for the songs of ‘50s and early ‘60s when life was simple and so were the songs. Before The Rolling Stones burst on the scene with "Let's Spend The Night Together", the advent of drug culture and protests over the Vietnam War, all in the second half of '60s, songs were just pure expressions of love from the songwriters and the singers, straight from the heart. There was a song for everything from falling in love, holding hands, a kiss, misunderstandings, heartbreaks, to wanting to make up.
Bing Crosby professed "True Love". The song has a special resonance with me as it brings to mind the lengthy arguments I used to have with my coursemate and shipmate on Betwa in 1967, Bobby Bhandoola. "True Love" for me meant platonic love and I would argue in its favour while Bobby maintained that it did not exist!
Other notable songs of that genre had Elvis Presley wishing to be his love’s “Teddy Bear”, Herb Alpert declaring “This Guy’s In Love With You”, The Beatles simply wanting to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong asking for “A Kiss To Build A Dream On” and Tom Jones leaving it to his love to do as she pleased with “Help Yourself.”
As love progresses, so do problems. When going away for a while, Perry Como cautioned “Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”, Dean Martin said, “Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder, For Somebody Else”, Pat Boone sang “I Almost Lost My Mind” at the possibility of losing his love and The Equals pleaded “Baby Come Back.” The point of no return reached in Frankie Sinatra or Eddie Fisher's "I'm Walking Behind You" 'on your wedding day'.
So that that stage is not reached, two songs sound the warning bell. The first is about hurting the one you love through hasty and thoughtless words which is something most of us could be guilty of at sometime or the other. Ponder over the words of The Mills Brothers' bittersweet song from way back 1948:-
“You always hurt the one you love
The one you shouldn’t hurt at all
You always take the sweetest rose
And crush it till the petals fall.
You always break the kindest heart
With a hasty word you can’t recall, so
If I broke your heart last night
It’s because I love you most of all.”
For good effect, sung thrice!
In similar vein, Neil Young sang-
"The saddest words of tongue and pen
Are these four words, 'It might have been'.
We had big dreams, We made big plans,
How could they slip, Right through our hands.
Instead of tearing our romance to pieces,
Why don't we try to right what we've done wrong.
It's not too late, To set things straight,
Let's never say, 'It might have been'."
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