Song I couldn't live without

The song that I have chosen to qualify as a song that I could not live without hearing would be a song written by the rock band Van Halen on their album “Balance” that was released in 1995. The song is titled “Don’t Tell Me (what love can do)”. This is a song that touches many dimensions of modern reality and has limitless applicability in everyday life. In my opinion this song was one of the last songs written by the brilliant musician and songwriter Eddie Van Halen before he took yet another deadly plunge into indulging in illicit habits that once again began to ruin not only his career but the high quality of musicianship that he brought into his music, to which the evidence to solidify this claim lies entirely in the 3^rd wave of Van Halen with the short lived tenure of singer Gary Cherone to replace Sammy Hagar.

The first major theme expressed in the music video was symbolically mixing the struggle one must experience when love has placed them in a vulnerable and desperate state to being similar to that of someone desperate enough to turn to crime. The video follows the arrest of a young man to being incarcerated for some crime where not only did he make a bad choice but now has to survive the misery of paying for his decision. This makes me feel sorry for some of the wrong things I have done in my past (non-criminal behaviors, of course) merely because when I had to answer for my actions I felt in some ways just as that guy did in the video. Though the consequences of my actions were unpleasant, seeing this video also makes me reflect later upon the necessity of hurt. Without the pain there is no lesson, thus no motivation to stimulate a change towards a more positive way of living.

The second theme referenced in the lyrics that really makes me feel like I am apart of this song is the referencing of God in this video. In the beginning lyrics it is about being entirely in control of your life for yourself, with no consideration for anything else in the world. As the song progresses, the lyrics then suggest that through prayer and surrendering your decisions to serve a higher purpose for God than yourself with all of the effort that you possibly can in order to find something better to live for. This message can be confused easily because the chorus, emphasizing not to tell what love can do, sounds as though it is rejecting the entire notion of God being able to save you and living for yourself. The video illustrates the opposite. It is artistically saying that you will fall away from God and act on your own, but that when you are desperate and mess up again that God is still their for you waiting for you to change your life more for him. Also, that by asking for help you are not merely given the help, but must go through trials and tribulations to truly receive what God is trying to instill in your life.

A third theme present within the song is really how cruel the world can be to somebody that messes up. You take somebody who is struggling and put them through a tough environment and they do not always merely find God. Some of them harden up to their environment during the tough times only to become worse off then they are before. I have seen good people go bad from punishments simply because the punishment was too harsh. I have experienced such a devastating loss a little over a year ago that if I would not have had the love of some of the people that I have in my life I am certain that I would not be here writing this blog. I could easily have been a different person if I did not have the help I received when devastation entered my life. I could not imagine how much pain I would still struggle with in my life, what kind of a terrible mother I could have become, what kind of poor decisions I could have made, or how unhappy I could have been feeling if it were not for love.

Though I have said a lot already, an effective closing is deserved out of my respect for this song. “Don’t tell me (what love can do)” is one of the most real songs written, especially in the 1990’s, when rock began mutate and take up so many different forms. This song is actually considered one of the best songs put out by Van Halen with Sammy Hagar. It was a wake up call to the fact that we all need to embrace love in a way we have never embraced it before and live our lives in a manner that is more compassionate to those on their way to desperate circumstances. It also echoes that though punishments are necessary that the limits of acceptability for punishments need to be more thought out, rather then merely acted upon.