Results for “teenage devotion”

Songs

Denis

Blondie

"Denis" is a girl-group pastiche dressed up in new wave attitude: a breathless, repetitive crush song built almost entirely…

infatuation teenage devotion nostalgia/pastiche

Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (I Love You Baby)

Lauryn Hill

This is Lauryn Hill's faithful cover of the 1967 Frankie Valli pop standard, tucked into The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a…

romantic infatuation gratitude vulnerability

Until You Came Into My Life

Ann Peebles

A gratitude song built on a rescue narrative: the singer describes emerging from despair into a redemptive love, framing the…

romantic salvation gratitude rebirth/renewal

Baby, This Love I Have

Minnie Riperton

A love song built around the anxiety of being misunderstood -- the singer insists that her feelings are genuine even if her…

communication and its failure reassurance devotion

Gloria

Bonnie “Prince” Billy

A quiet meditation on walking alone toward some unnamed threshold, framed as a kind of secular hymn. The repeated invocation of…

solitude and pilgrimage devotion without doctrine mortality and departure

You're the One for Me (feat. Joss Stone)

Smokey Robinson

A straightforward duet declaration of romantic certainty and fidelity, built around a duet pairing Smokey Robinson's classic…

romantic devotion fidelity certainty in love

Superheroes

Ethan Whitney

This is a straightforward pop declaration of devotion that borrows superhero mythology to dress up a fairly conventional promise…

devotion and support escapism fantasy of destiny

God Only Knows

The Beach Boys

A love song that opens by admitting its own limits "" the singer won't promise permanence "" and then spends the rest of its…

conditional devotion dependence and identity uncertainty as a form of honesty

Christmas In the Room

Sufjan Stevens

A quiet domestic love song that strips Christmas of all its commercial and social trappings and relocates the holiday's meaning…

intimacy vs. commercialism presence over spectacle domestic love as sanctuary

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Roberta Flack

A slow, hymn-like ballad that traces one relationship's progress through three ascending intimacies: first sight, first kiss,…

awakening love cosmic/natural imagery as emotional scale vulnerability and surrender

Flagship

Jason Isbell

Isbell uses a fading hotel as an extended metaphor for a long marriage at risk of going stale, watching an older couple's silent…

marital complacency the labor of sustaining love aging and decline

You've Got a Friend In Me

Randy Newman

Written for the animated film 'Toy Story,' this is a plain-spoken pledge of loyalty from one companion to another, stripped of…

loyalty reassurance humility versus devotion

In the Street

Big Star

A teenage hangout anthem reduced to its essential ingredients: boredom, minor mischief, and the pleasure of doing nothing with…

adolescent boredom small-town restlessness friendship/companionship

Yesterday

Donny Hathaway

This is a live soul reinterpretation of the Beatles standard, in which Donny Hathaway strips the song of its chamber-pop…

loss and regret nostalgia as refuge romantic bewilderment

The Kiss

Judee Sill

Judee Sill's 'The Kiss' fuses erotic and devotional language until they become indistinguishable, imagining spiritual union as a…

sacred and profane love transcendence death as release

Wade In the Water

The Staple Singers

This is the Staple Singers' rendition of the traditional African American spiritual, built almost entirely on call-and-response…

deliverance and salvation collective faith and community crossing over / transition between states

In Every Dream Home a Heartache

Roxy Music

A deadpan monologue delivered by a wealthy consumer who has replaced human intimacy with a mail-order inflatable doll, framed as…

consumerism alienation artificiality vs authenticity

All the Young Dudes (David Bowie & Ian Hunter Vocal)

Mott the Hoople

A glam-rock anthem that assembles a cast of disaffected, gender-bending teenagers and hands them a vague, urgent 'news' to…

generational rupture glam identity and androgyny disaffection with 60s idealism

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Nirvana

Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough single is a rock anthem built on refusing to say anything anthemic. Over a four-chord riff that…

adolescent apathy and boredom the demand to be entertained self-loathing and self-sabotage

Because the Night

Patti Smith

A duet between erotic urgency and something closer to faith: the speaker asks a lover to take her as she is, and then defends…

erotic desire as sustenance night as sanctuary from harm doubt and belief