This started out as such an ambiguous song, asking many questions. Of course it is about longing, desire, love - but what does it say about that?
There's a protagonist talking about, or to, a woman who split up with her guy. He's been behaving childish, egotistical - and although she loved him, she decided to send him away. Moment of steel. With dry eyes. As it goes.
Now what?
The song's protagonist asks her 'whatcha gonna do?'. Will she remain unhappy about her love lost, will she give in to destruction?
"Cry love". Is that an imperative? Who are the angels, the doves who cry tears, spilling on her heart? They usually stand for 'goodness' and 'peace'. What what have they got to do with love's misery?
Here comes a clue. Is she going to give in to alcoholism and self-destruction (cop a little misery at the corner store)? Hiatt knows what he's talking about here. His train of pain did not want to stop no more either, but thank god and the AA he saved himself.
By crying love. By yielding to angels and doves, that are just as real or unreal as love is. By being honest, stop being cynical, stop hurting yourself and the people around you. By crying 'love'. And starting to be deserving of love.
The last original lines of the song (before earlier lines are repeated) go: "The heart will remember the burning fire, the next time you feel the flame of desire". That fire IS ambiguous, as love is. It is the fire that drives you to love, and the fire that burns you down when love is lost. You'll remember them. Both. Every time when love calls.
This is like Jacques Brel singing "Je sais, je sais, que le prochaine amour sera pour moi la prochaine défaite" (I know, I know, that my next love will be my next defeat). but you cannot deny the fire, and we cannot deny love.
Love, and its misgivings, they are unevitable and healthy - as long as we don't use them for self-destruction. That's the Hiatt song 'Cry Love' for me.
This started out as such an ambiguous song, asking many questions. Of course it is about longing, desire, love - but what does it say about that?
There's a protagonist talking about, or to, a woman who split up with her guy. He's been behaving childish, egotistical - and although she loved him, she decided to send him away. Moment of steel. With dry eyes. As it goes.
Now what?
The song's protagonist asks her 'whatcha gonna do?'. Will she remain unhappy about her love lost, will she give in to destruction?
"Cry love". Is that an imperative? Who are the angels, the doves who cry tears, spilling on her heart? They usually stand for 'goodness' and 'peace'. What what have they got to do with love's misery?
Here comes a clue. Is she going to give in to alcoholism and self-destruction (cop a little misery at the corner store)? Hiatt knows what he's talking about here. His train of pain did not want to stop no more either, but thank god and the AA he saved himself.
By crying love. By yielding to angels and doves, that are just as real or unreal as love is. By being honest, stop being cynical, stop hurting yourself and the people around you. By crying 'love'. And starting to be deserving of love.
The last original lines of the song (before earlier lines are repeated) go: "The heart will remember the burning fire, the next time you feel the flame of desire". That fire IS ambiguous, as love is. It is the fire that drives you to love, and the fire that burns you down when love is lost. You'll remember them. Both. Every time when love calls.
This is like Jacques Brel singing "Je sais, je sais, que le prochaine amour sera pour moi la prochaine défaite" (I know, I know, that my next love will be my next defeat). but you cannot deny the fire, and we cannot deny love.
Love, and its misgivings, they are unevitable and healthy - as long as we don't use them for self-destruction. That's the Hiatt song 'Cry Love' for me.