Results for “patience and persistence”

Songs

Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience

Parquet Courts

This is really two linked songs stitched into one track: an anxious, stuttering account of near-violence and existential…

urban anxiety exhaustion of patience alienation and numbness

Rome Wasn't Built In a Day

Nick Lowe

A patient seducer's pep talk to himself, dressed up as courtly persistence rather than creepy fixation. Nick Lowe uses the…

patience and persistence romantic pursuit self-delusion vs. sincerity

New York Comeback

Lucinda Williams

A defiant address to an audience already heading for the exits, built around the insistence that the performance—and the…

persistence late-career resilience performance and audience

It's Going to Take Some Time

Carole King

A quiet post-breakup meditation in which the narrator refuses easy resolution, choosing patience over self-pity. Carole King…

heartbreak recovery self-forgiveness patience

Run to Me

Dionne Warwick

A plainspoken offer of shelter to someone recovering from heartbreak, built almost entirely around a single repeated invitation.…

emotional availability rebound love self-doubt in courtship

Breaker

Deerhunter

Breaker is a survivor's song, written by Bradford Cox after a near-fatal car accident, that treats staying alive as an act of…

mortality and survival fate versus agency spiritual ambivalence

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Carly Simon

Carly Simon splices the nursery rhyme about the persistent spider into the title track's refrain from her own 'Coming Around…

resilience cyclical hope romantic disappointment

Bagful of Boogie

Canned Heat

A talking-blues shuffle about a broke, hopeful musician who's landed in Hollywood with nothing but talent and determination.…

chasing the American dream poverty vs. ambition outsider in the big city

Conventional Wisdom

Built to Spill

A short, circling meditation on how received wisdom persists even when it no longer fits reality. Built to Spill uses plain,…

conformity vs. change epistemic humility the persistence of habit

Easy, Easy, Got to Take It Easy

Teddy Pendergrass

A slow-burning seduction ballad built almost entirely around a single piece of self-advice: don't rush. Teddy Pendergrass…

patience as desire vulnerability in intimacy self-restraint

I'm a Ram

Al Green

This is a lean, driving groove song built almost entirely around one animal metaphor: the singer as a ram, butting persistently…

persistence in desire masculine self-assertion obstacle and pursuit

Shut Up Kiss Me

Angel Olsen

A driving, garage-pop declaration of romantic persistence, in which the narrator refuses to let a faltering relationship end…

romantic persistence refusal to quit desire versus communication

Take Our Time

TLC

This CrazySexyCool deep cut is a slow-burn seduction song built almost entirely on repetition, asking a partner to slow down and…

patience in intimacy trust between lovers sensuality

Rock Me Baby

Big Mama Thornton

A direct, unhurried blues plea for physical and emotional satisfaction, built from the double meaning of "rock" as both comfort…

sexual desire bodily surrender patience and pacing

Waitin' On You

En Vogue

A woman sits alone past the hour her partner should have returned, cycling between desire, doubt, and the slow recognition that…

romantic neglect patience and its limits loneliness and longing

I Want Your Sex, Pts. 1 & 2

George Michael

George Michael turns a single, blunt demand into a sustained argument about desire, patience, and monogamy, dressing up a simple…

sexual desire and frustration persuasion and rhetoric monogamy versus promiscuity

Kokomo, IN

Japanese Breakfast

A song written from the point of view of someone left behind by a person who's moved on to a bigger life, framed as a letter of…

unrequited devotion being left behind longing and patience

Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Annie Lennox

A domestic warning delivered as slow-burning soul: a woman absorbs quiet humiliation night after night until patience curdles…

repressed anger domestic betrayal the limits of patience

The Panties

Mos Def

A slow-burn seduction song built almost entirely on repetition and murmured reassurance rather than narrative incident. Mos Def…

seduction and patience presence over words physical intimacy as the only true communication

Symmetry

Saba

"Symmetry" is a love song built around the idea of a soulmate as a mathematical match — two halves that complete a balanced…

soulmates and fate patience in love self-fulfillment

Another Believer

Rufus Wainwright

A buoyant, almost jingle-like pop song built around the simple hook of winning someone's trust back through persistence rather…

persuasion and persistence faith versus skepticism time and hesitation

Cool It Down

The Velvet Underground

A loose, easy-rolling shuffle about romantic patience versus urgency, dressed in vague hints of bureaucratic or criminal…

desire vs. patience urban anonymity casual detachment

Vienna

Billy Joel

A weary older voice counsels a driven young person to ease off the throttle, arguing that ambition pursued without patience…

ambition versus patience fear of mortality burnout

Tape Loop

Morcheeba

A hazy, low-tempo meditation on repetition and disillusionment, built around the image of a tape loop that keeps cycling without…

repetition and stagnation disillusionment patience vs. futility

One Step Too Far

Faithless

A spare, hypnotic track built around a duet between a weary addressee and a narrator who keeps circling back to the same stalled…

emotional exhaustion codependency unrequited devotion

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

If It Takes a Lifetime

Jason Isbell

A recovering man tallies the small, unglamorous work of staying sober and rebuilding a life, using a job anniversary as a rough…

recovery and sobriety patience versus instant redemption estrangement from home and self

Waiting In Vain

Annie Lennox

This is Annie Lennox's reading of the Bob Marley & the Wailers song, retooled from reggae original into a slower,…

unrequited devotion patience versus self-respect power imbalance in courtship

Cold

Chris Stapleton

A straightforward heartbreak song built almost entirely on a temperature metaphor, where sudden emotional withdrawal is rendered…

sudden heartbreak emotional abandonment disbelief

Never Enough

Groove Theory

A mid-tempo R&B ballad about a relationship running on fantasy rather than substance, where the narrator's waking life keeps…

emotional neglect fantasy vs. reality self-worth and ultimatums

The Ballad of Love and Hate

The Avett Brothers

The song stages an allegorical confrontation between Love and Hate as two characters moving through a single day, culminating in…

love versus hate as personified forces forgiveness and unconditional commitment self-destruction and recklessness

The Way You Look Tonight

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson takes the well-worn Kern-Fields standard and slows it into something closer to a devotional murmur, letting the…

devotion memory as comfort aging and constancy

Lay Lady Lay

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes takes Dylan's spare, folk-country invitation and rebuilds it as a slow-burning soul seduction, stretching the…

seduction and invitation patience and waiting domestic intimacy

Can I Sit Next to You

Spoon

A propulsive, repetition-driven track built around a simple invitation that doubles as a plea for closeness and renewal. Spoon…

longing for connection exhaustion and recovery persistence through hardship

Mushaboom

Feist

Mushaboom is a domestic daydream sung from the gap between a cramped present and an imagined rural future. Feist narrates a life…

domestic fantasy vs. present reality aspiration and patience rural retreat

What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?

Nick Lowe

A plainspoken protest song built around a single rhetorical question that turns weariness into gentle defiance. Nick Lowe's own…

disillusionment with the world longing for peace and unity cynicism versus idealism

Thrill Me

The Undertones

A compact pop-rock song about loving someone who gives little back, where the title phrase works less as celebration than as…

unrequited devotion self-delusion emotional dependency

Not Fade Away / Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad

Grateful Dead

This live-staple medley grafts a Buddy Holly love song onto an old Appalachian/blues lament, turning a simple declaration of…

endurance and persistence escape from mistreatment romantic devotion

I Want You (Vocal)

Marvin Gaye

A slow-burning plea for mutual desire, built almost entirely on repetition of a single wish stated and restated until it becomes…

unreciprocated desire longing for mutuality vulnerability in seduction

Treat Me Right

Pat Benatar

A direct ultimatum song in which the narrator catalogs a partner's contradictory behavior and announces she's done tolerating…

romantic ultimatum self-respect power imbalance