Rufe 1 Marissa Rufe Ms. Daniela Jauk Introduction to Sociology 4 February 2013 Love and Lyrics What is love? Love is a journey and a risk. It is difficult to maintain and easy to mistake. It is not always simple for someone to know when they have found love. When asking the question “When do you know your in love?” there is a common response of “When you are you will know.” That is a very frustrating response; it is far from concrete and can easily drive a person mad. Love is life’s mystery that everyone wants to experience. The love song, “When a Man Loves a Woman” (1966), by Percy Sledge can just about sum up being in love and the many ups and downs in less than three minutes. The woman’s love is all he needs but she can break him and “play him for a fool” and “he’s the last one to know”. This kind of love is near slavery in the control that the woman holds over the man. The line, “She can do no wrong” proves that the man is blinded by his love. Love hurts, especially when it is one-sided. There are no limits of what a man would do when he loves a woman. When Sledge wrote this song if he was not in love at the time he definitely knew what it was like to be ruled by love for a woman. The pain that you can hear in his voice tells it all. He has been there and that love was right in-between heaven and hell. “Maybe I’m Amazed” (1970), by Paul McCartney is a very simple love song with lyrics that hold a lot of meaning. McCartney’s approach to love in this song is humble and naturally, amazed. He is shocked that a woman can have such an affect on him and that she can love him so much when he is, as all humans are, far from perfect. Every now and then he shifts from

Rufe 2 “maybe I’m amazed” to “maybe I’m afraid” because it is all too true that love is scary. He expresses an extreme dependence on the woman he loves when he says, “maybe I’m amazed at the way I really