I Wanna Love Somebody Like You
Sometimes it's hard for me to understand
But you're teaching me to be a better man
- "Somebody Like You," Keith Urban
Baby, now I know how you feel
What I don't know is how you do it
- "Mister Mom," Lonestar
You're not just time that I'm killing
I'm no longer one of those guys
"Forever and Ever, Amen," Randy Travis
I started listening to country music awhile back, totally by accident. The day the music died on WHFS (a local alt-rock station that went Spanish language), I started hitting seek on the radio as I drove down the road. I came across a great 80s station - glam rock guitar riffs, pulsating bass lines, and lyrics bordering on the unbelievably stupid and yet capable of mashing all the emotional buttons. I was really rocking out, until the DJ came on and drawled, "Y'all are listenin' to double yew emm zee kyew!"
After I recovered from the shock, well, I just left it on. What the hell. The trauma of losing WHFS had reminded me of my first aural loss, WAVA. Sweet, sweet WAVA, home of top 40 in the 1980s. It was not quite as cool as DC 101 top 40, because 101 had Howard Stern. But it was still cool, and when it went CHRISTIAN LITE ROCK I thought I'd die.
So when I found essentially my lost 80s station, playing, well, pretty much what WAVA had been playing when it went off the air, I decided to give it a try. I've become a bit of a fan.
The one thing country does very differently from pop is the ballad. It took me awhile to figure out what it was. Both have overwrought lyrics, singers about to pop a vein from All That Passion, and minor keys when someone dies in the end.
But I think I've got it now. Pop romance is a man singing about love, as he feels it. Country romance is a man singing about love... as a woman wants to hear it.
Really. Look at any love song from Lonestar. Those guys have cornered the market on what women want to hear. "Oh, honey, you look nice dressed up and all, but I love you best in sweatpants with baby spit up on you, because by golly that's our baby. I've seen Paris, but nothing beats our toy-strewn living room with Nascar collectible plates. Boy, my job seems hard, but being a mommy is a million times harder and you're my hero. Gosh, I was a real mess before you met me, and you've just cleaned me right up. I don't know WHAT I was thinking back before you changed me into the man I am today. Lord, honey, if it weren't for you I'd just about be a bum on the street, probably choking to death on my own vomit."
Maybe not that last part, but the rest I think I've nailed for you.
And NO guy actually feels that way. Oh, sure, they get waves of affection for wives and babies and their homes, but given a choice between sweats and a merry widow, I have never met a man that wouldn't go for the lacy wired thing. Guys are more comfortable in their homes, because they are creatures of habit, but preferring a rut doesn't mean they actually think that rut is the best life gets. As for being grateful that a woman has wrought a great change... snort. I can't even get Guy #1 to stop wearing tightie whities, let alone change his nature. And if I did change his nature, I promise you, he would not be grateful, he'd dump me on my ass for someone that likes him the way he really is. That in fact would be why we got married - we liked the other person AS IS, NO WARRANTY.
Show me a man that says a mom's job is harder than being a cubicle jockey, and I'll show you a man writing a country love song.
But you're teaching me to be a better man
- "Somebody Like You," Keith Urban
Baby, now I know how you feel
What I don't know is how you do it
- "Mister Mom," Lonestar
You're not just time that I'm killing
I'm no longer one of those guys
"Forever and Ever, Amen," Randy Travis
I started listening to country music awhile back, totally by accident. The day the music died on WHFS (a local alt-rock station that went Spanish language), I started hitting seek on the radio as I drove down the road. I came across a great 80s station - glam rock guitar riffs, pulsating bass lines, and lyrics bordering on the unbelievably stupid and yet capable of mashing all the emotional buttons. I was really rocking out, until the DJ came on and drawled, "Y'all are listenin' to double yew emm zee kyew!"
After I recovered from the shock, well, I just left it on. What the hell. The trauma of losing WHFS had reminded me of my first aural loss, WAVA. Sweet, sweet WAVA, home of top 40 in the 1980s. It was not quite as cool as DC 101 top 40, because 101 had Howard Stern. But it was still cool, and when it went CHRISTIAN LITE ROCK I thought I'd die.
So when I found essentially my lost 80s station, playing, well, pretty much what WAVA had been playing when it went off the air, I decided to give it a try. I've become a bit of a fan.
The one thing country does very differently from pop is the ballad. It took me awhile to figure out what it was. Both have overwrought lyrics, singers about to pop a vein from All That Passion, and minor keys when someone dies in the end.
But I think I've got it now. Pop romance is a man singing about love, as he feels it. Country romance is a man singing about love... as a woman wants to hear it.
Really. Look at any love song from Lonestar. Those guys have cornered the market on what women want to hear. "Oh, honey, you look nice dressed up and all, but I love you best in sweatpants with baby spit up on you, because by golly that's our baby. I've seen Paris, but nothing beats our toy-strewn living room with Nascar collectible plates. Boy, my job seems hard, but being a mommy is a million times harder and you're my hero. Gosh, I was a real mess before you met me, and you've just cleaned me right up. I don't know WHAT I was thinking back before you changed me into the man I am today. Lord, honey, if it weren't for you I'd just about be a bum on the street, probably choking to death on my own vomit."
Maybe not that last part, but the rest I think I've nailed for you.
And NO guy actually feels that way. Oh, sure, they get waves of affection for wives and babies and their homes, but given a choice between sweats and a merry widow, I have never met a man that wouldn't go for the lacy wired thing. Guys are more comfortable in their homes, because they are creatures of habit, but preferring a rut doesn't mean they actually think that rut is the best life gets. As for being grateful that a woman has wrought a great change... snort. I can't even get Guy #1 to stop wearing tightie whities, let alone change his nature. And if I did change his nature, I promise you, he would not be grateful, he'd dump me on my ass for someone that likes him the way he really is. That in fact would be why we got married - we liked the other person AS IS, NO WARRANTY.
Show me a man that says a mom's job is harder than being a cubicle jockey, and I'll show you a man writing a country love song.
posted by Sanya at 11:47 AM
2 Comments:
Husbands, usually more the Husband/Father variety husband, prefer women in sweats over lacey things for three very important reasons:
Husbands/fathers know how much lacey things cost vs. a pair of sweats, and after they do the math, they are just grumpy at the extra expense, after all, the amount of time it stays on can be counted in half seconds.
Lacey wirey things take too much time in a world where you can figure out the wires or get to the fun bit, but not both, knowing that at any second, you'll be found....
***Husband/father men, knowing how much lacey wirey things cost, are no longer capable of just ripping the damn thing off... as much as the women might dream....
And really, a woman who goes through the trouble to put on a lacey, wirey, over-priced thing, might just excpect their husband/father mates to spring for some over-priced, over-dressed romantic dinner for two at a fancy place that only serves a quarter of the normal husband/father portions of food...
Hahaha, point.
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