You Have Been Loved

I think this is very very sad song that can make me cry. It's about death and people struggling with dealing with the death of a loved one. In this case, George's partner and his partner's mother who has lost her son. I especially like "If it's God who took her son he cannot be the one living in her heart", because it shows how people can struggle with their beliefs after the death of a beloved one, especially a child who has died before their parents. So sad. It has a lot of religious undertones, but only in the way that people tend to contemplate what comes after when they are faced with death.

If I was weak, forgive me this song breaks my heart with every consequent listen. Hilarainbow nailed it, i think. Thank you very much. "These days my life has changed" I remember putting this song on the first disc I made for my ex-girlfriend. Of course, she liked it a lot but she rarely ever spoke of it. "my mother had a brother" is another great G.M track with similar sound but this one nails it.

I love this song so much. My fave one of George Michael - definitely.

As usual this is another beautiful song by the Genius, George Michael. In general terms, the song is mainly questioning the existence of God, when there is so much pain and suffering in the world. This song revolves around three people: The singer (George Michael) his lover (Anselmo Feleppa -who is dying) and Anselmo’s mother (the ‘she’ in the song.) The song starts with her walking pass the school her son went to as a child; a school that has not changed in all the years. Thus, her life has changed drastically because her son has died. Song then mentions the battles and struggles she had to win as any mother in raising her child that she loved so much. "That man, She loved that man, For all his life", describes how that mother loved her son. The mother and singer meet to take flowers to the grave. The next verse is so deep in meaning. “Pressing palms” is praying. The singer questions, “And only God knows why”, “bother when even with prayers, if the children still die in their mother’s arms?” What we have to learn is that life is cruel and full of heartache; we rarely choose to learn that. In other words, life’s harsh realities are just forced upon us. "So if it's god who took her son, He cannot be the one living in her mind", with this line the singer questions, even with believing and praying, if God still chooses to take her loving son away from her, then no point in believing in God.. Knowing the singer has lost all his hopes and beleives in God because of loosing his lover, She (Anselmo's mother) says, "Take care my love, Don't think that god is dead... you have been loved". Her meaning is that God exists because the singer has been loved; thus proving God’s existence. The next verse is the singer singing to his lover. Asking for forgiveness for being weak and not really able to cope during all the suffering his boyfriend was feeling while dying. He describes the love the boyfriend showed. Because of that love, his life has changed, but is filled with memories of love that will comfort him. Although the mother try to convince, the singer to believe in God, the singer can see her in another state of mind, where she who sits day after day ‘searching for her crime’ - wondering what she did wrong in the eyes of God so that he punished her with the death of her son. Here, the singer speaks directly to God. The singer asks: “What is the use in praying when you don’t even protect the love between a mother and a child?” The world is cruel and, because of that, God has so much to prove when it comes to being able and willing to protect those who believe in him and the second-coming. The last line in this passage is nothing short of ironic genius. It’s a wonderful play on words: “Heaven help the ones who wait for you” The singer has no sons or daughters, so cannot be subjected to this type of suffering. The final words are those spoken by his lover. Reminding the singer that he has been loved.

hilarainbow, great explanation. The ironic thing is that I was listening to this song when my mother died. I received a phone call and the bad news came. It's in fact a sad song. So sad is the feeling of this song that my favorte line is: "The kind that makes devils cry". As we all know devils and demonds are the root of evil. They rejoice in misery, but the sadness is so much and so deep, that even they get sad. This song will be part of my film "Only To Be With You".