Daniel Levitin’s The World in Six Songs names love as one of the six archetypal song subjects (along with friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge). Certainly that’s my experience – particularly in pop, jazz, and other contemporary styles, love is the most consistently present theme in the music I program.
Here is a favorite; A Case of You is a complex, nuanced look at love from one of our greatest songsmiths, Joni Mitchell. This is her later version, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra with Vince Mendoza’s brilliant arrangements.
You are in my blood like holy wine,
You taste so bitter and you taste so sweet.
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I’d be on my feet–I’d still be on my feet.