Valentine’s Day, to my mind, brings three distinct reactions among Americans. To my reckoning, a small minority really do accept it as a legitimate day of loving expression towards their special someone. A much larger group simply maintains, allowing for the existence of the day, reacting to it with a half-hearted rose purchase from an online flower site, perhaps paired with a greeting card found at Walgreen’s that morning; even the most-cynical can appreciate that type of self-preservation/antipathy. And then there’s that vocal minority, shrieking about capitalism and insincerity and the like; boy, what an annoying group!
As (ahem) a committed member of the latter, I mused about doing a special “Love Songs” edition of the program Silver Tray this week. Admittedly, the show’s coming a day before Valentine’s Day, but it’s definitely within “holiday”-themed striking distance. And, sure, it’s a cliche, so shoot me.
Glancing quickly at the CD stacks in the house, I began grabbing discs at random. The first selection was “Braille” by the Detroit bliss-pop band Calliope. What a boon! Track two: “Love=Energy.” Score. And track nine?: “Love is Gonna Get You.” Bonus. After two CDs coming up love-free, New Order’s “Substance” (disc one) yielded the alt-rock classic “Bizarre Love Triangle.” Four discs, three songs.
Even before walking to the stacks, I could summon obvious contenders, such as The Cure’s “Lovesong.” Or, their “Friday, I’m In Love.” There’s Peter Murphy, with a “Strange Kind of Love.” Is the Silver Tray audience secretly wanting to hear a vinyl-version of “Love is a Battlefield”?
In a world full of Facebook games dedicated to matching songs to your life, there might even be an already-dated thread going around about this very topic. Even if not, programming this show is going to take about 10-minutes, tops.
Gag yourself on perfect pop confections this Friday at noon. They won’t break the show’s usual format, but they may give you cavities.