Results for “desire/surrender”

Songs

No Surrender

Bruce Springsteen

A road-tested anthem about clinging to youthful vows of loyalty and defiance even as adulthood erodes the certainty behind them.…

youthful idealism versus adult disillusionment friendship and loyalty as survival strategy nostalgia for adolescent certainty

Sweet Surrender

Tim Buckley

A confession of infidelity spirals into a bargain: if both partners can stop guarding themselves and give in to feeling, the…

infidelity and justification sexual and emotional immaturity mutual hurt in a relationship

Just Like Water

Lauryn Hill

Performed live and introduced almost as an experiment in vulnerability after the confrontational 'Rebel', this song builds an…

surrender spiritual longing conflated with romantic desire purification

By the Rivers Dark

Leonard Cohen

A short, incantatory prayer-song in which the speaker surrenders the illusion of being the one who loves and comes to see love…

surrender of ego divine or transcendent love exile and punishment

Glory Box

John Martyn

This is John Martyn's reworking of Portishead's 'Glory Box', stripped of its trip-hop menace and turned into a weary, aching…

exhaustion with games surrender to desire gender roles and reversal

The Main Thing

Roxy Music

A short, hypnotic track built almost entirely around a single repeated phrase, using minimal lyrical content to evoke a mood of…

obsession romantic devotion ambiguity of desire

Like Sugar

Chaka Khan

A pure dancefloor invitation built on a single sensory equation: funk equals sugar equals irresistible pull. Chaka Khan spends…

physical pleasure dance as surrender desire

You Move Me

Cassandra Wilson

A slow-burning soul-jazz meditation on physical intimacy, built almost entirely around a single sensation: being moved, bodily…

sensual intimacy vulnerability through touch memory and desire

Suzanne

Leonard Cohen

A meditation on grace and surrender disguised as a portrait of a woman by a river, Cohen's song moves from intimate seduction…

spiritual longing disguised as romance the sacred in the everyday trust and surrender

Black Maria

Todd Rundgren

A blues-drenched confession addressed to a personified nocturnal terror—likely obsessive desire or a destructive relationship…

obsession fear and desire intertwined loss of control

Whatcha Gonna Do

Smokey Robinson

A late-career Smokey Robinson seduction song built almost entirely on anticipation rather than consummation. The singer catalogs…

desire and anticipation physical fixation seduction as performance

Honey

Robyn

"Honey" is a slow-burning dance track that turns sensual invitation into a philosophy of pleasure and self-repair. Built from…

desire and surrender self-care as sensuality the gap between want and need

Because the Night

Patti Smith

A co-write between Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen, this song turns nighttime into a sanctuary where desire overrides doubt…

desire as sustenance night as refuge doubt versus surrender

The Lady Don't Mind

Talking Heads

A breezy, mid-80s Talking Heads pop song built around a woman who slips through logic and expectation without apparent friction.…

surrender to irrationality enigmatic femininity detachment vs. desire

I'm Your Baby Tonight

Whitney Houston

A dance-pop declaration of instant, total surrender to a new love, built almost entirely around one repeated vow of…

instant attraction surrender and devotion desire framed as fate

You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)

Patsy Cline

This is a classic Tin Pan Alley standard reworked through Patsy Cline's country-pop phrasing, built almost entirely around a…

reluctant surrender desire versus resistance emotional vulnerability

Remedy

The Band

A late-period Band track that dresses up desire as desperate need, using the language of addiction and salvation to describe…

romantic obsession as addiction powerlessness and surrender spiritual language repurposed for desire

Lunch With Gina

Steely Dan

A comic-paranoid narrative about a man trying to evade a woman he finds both terrifying and, eventually, magnetic. Steely Dan…

obsession and avoidance paranoia as comedy ambivalent desire

Mighty Wings

Cheap Trick

A pulsing arena-rock anthem built for a movie about jet pilots, this song trades Cheap Trick's usual wit and irony for…

risk and ambition transcendence through flight smallness of earthly life

Rock Me Baby

B.B. King

A twelve-bar blues built almost entirely on a single sexual metaphor, this is B.B. King working the oldest trick in the blues…

sexual desire longing and satiation blues tradition and formula

Crazy for You

Madonna

A slow-dance ballad built around a single moment: crossing a crowded room toward someone and closing the distance between…

infatuation vulnerability physical desire

Oh!

Sleater‐Kinney

A giddy, self-aware love song that keeps interrupting its own swooning with jolts of caution and self-mockery. Sleater-Kinney…

romantic infatuation self-control vs. surrender desire as destabilizing force

Water Curses

Animal Collective

A dreamlike wish-song built around water as an image of fluidity, ease, and self-erasure, drifting through loosely connected…

desire for formlessness/transformation mortality and impermanence creativity and artistic longing

The More I Get, the More I Want

Teddy Pendergrass

This is a slow-building declaration of romantic dependency, structured around a title phrase that works like a mantra rather…

romantic obsession addiction as metaphor for desire fear of abandonment

You Send Me

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin takes Sam Cooke's 1957 declaration of devotion and rebuilds it as a gospel-charged testimony of pleasure,…

romantic devotion desire as overwhelming force reclamation/reinterpretation

Devil's Spoke

Laura Marling

A folk incantation that reads like a spell against dread, moving from natural imagery of isolation into a defiant, almost ritual…

control versus surrender fear personified self-possession

Vampire Empire

Big Thief

A tense, sensual account of a relationship that runs on contradiction — intimacy that drains as much as it nourishes. The song…

toxic intimacy dependency and addiction desire vs. self-erasure

Jesus Is Waiting

Al Green

A soul plea that blurs the line between religious testimony and romantic confession, closing out Call Me's arc from carnal…

faith as refuge vulnerability and brokenness love as salvation

Faith

George Michael

A dance-pop declaration of self-preservation dressed up as a love song: the narrator is attracted to someone but refuses to hand…

romantic self-protection distrust of surface attraction patience versus desire

I Won't Dance

Frank Sinatra

A comic protest song in which the singer refuses to dance not out of reluctance but because dancing with this particular woman…

comic denial as flirtation physical desire disguised as reluctance control versus surrender

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Warren Zevon

A cover of Dylan's outlaw death-ballad, recorded by Zevon while he was terminally ill, so the song's fictional frame collapses…

mortality surrender acceptance

I Want

Chaka Khan

A straightforward declaration of romantic devotion and desire, built almost entirely on the call-and-response between the words…

desire devotion reassurance

Precious Lord

Al Green

Al Green's 1982 rendition of Thomas A. Dorsey's gospel standard is a plea for divine guidance sung from a place of physical and…

exhaustion and dependence faith as guidance death and crossing over

Rockin' After Midnight

Marvin Gaye

A late-night dance-floor come-on built almost entirely from repeated affirmations of desire, this track functions less as a…

desire nightlife/escapism romantic pursuit

Give Me Your Love (Love Song)

Curtis Mayfield

A slow-burning soul ballad built almost entirely around a single plea, this track works less through storytelling than through…

romantic devotion vulnerability refuge from hardship

Scandalous

Prince

A slow-burn seduction track built almost entirely around anticipation, in which the narrator promises total sexual surrender to…

erotic surrender impatience and urgency fantasy fulfillment

Touch Me I'm Going to Scream, Pt. 2

My Morning Jacket

A repetitive, ecstatic track built almost entirely around a single sensation of being overstimulated by connection or desire. It…

sensory overload desire and vulnerability spiritual/erotic conflation

The Kiss

Judee Sill

Judee Sill turns a love song into a devotional hymn, blurring the line between romantic union and religious ecstasy until the…

sacred and profane love transcendence mortality

In the Sun

Blondie

A breezy, almost novelty-pop daydream in which the singer imagines escaping gray urban New York for a sunlit, surf-and-luau…

escapism urban alienation fantasy vs. reality

Wild Thing

X

This is X's version of the garage-rock standard, stripped down and repeated almost to the point of incantation. Rather than…

infatuation desire uncertainty about love