Alex Turner The Hopeless Romantic: The Legend Of The Love Song

It is notoriously well known that musicians are rather skilled when it comes to 'wooing' the opposite sex, this isn’t there fault as women are naturally intrigued by musicians.
 
Now, I have never had one written for me personally, but I can’t imagine there being anything more romantic than someone putting pen to paper, for the world to hear exactly how they feel about you?
To hear the person you love, willing to dedicate a song to you that millions and millions of people will hear...must be pretty f*cking cool. Or just a great way to try and make money, as Adele's ex tried.
 
But have the days of true love songs written for love, and love alone been and gone?
 
Songs like Tony Bennett’s 'The Way You Look Tonight', Buddy Holly's 'Peggy Sue' or the late Etta James' 'At Last' these are real love songs, written by true musicians, and just a tiny example of what love songs used to be about.

 

So what has this century given us...?
 
One Direction's 'What Makes You Beautiful' sung by a group of boys who, let’s face it, have (probably) not been involved in a real relationship (unless you include their mums), so singing about needing a girl desperately, or asking her to see what only he can see, is kind of redundant. Now this is obviously nothing more than a marketing strategy from Sy-Co and his group of music crushing sidekicks, to cash in on a group of prepubescent boys. It worked as the X-Factor boy's single went straight to No.1, and became the third fastest-selling single of 2011...how I do not know!
 
I am in no way trying to single the boys out, there are thousands and thousands of so called 'love songs' that have been thrust into our faces over recent years, and it does beg the question...does real love exist anymore?
 
My rather old school version of love at its purist, is a vision of a couple separated by war and left with nothing but the odd letter, yet waiting till the day they are re-united.
 
It’s a rather extreme example of love I know, but the correspondence that passes between two lovers separated without warning, nor time span, yet willing to stand by the other is beautiful.
 
With that vision in mind, let’s take us swiftly back to the present day. Forget about The Titanic, both World Wars and even 9/11, these atrocities have nothing on what Dappy went through. The poor boy was left all alone after a girl me met in a nightclub left before she could take his number. In his words “I came so close, you touched my body.' It goes on, as Dappy reveal the struggle he had to endure trying to find his long lost love, “I was missing yesterday, I’m pissed I never took your number. I've been searching all over Facebook, but I can’t seem to find you, I really need to find you, baby I need you.”

 

Breaks your heart doesn't it...
 
So where has the love gone? Where has the true love song gone? Has it been sold to the leading record labels for them to just regurgitate?
 
If we dig a little deeper, there is still hope. An album that immediately springs to mind is Bon Iver' debut album For Emma, Forever Ago. A collection of utterly brilliant acoustic tracks, that has romance and love running through like the blood in Justin Vernon's veins. 'Can't Make You Love Me' is a beautiful piece of music composed by Vernon, and depicts true raw emotion and feeling, that is evident every time you hear the man perform. 

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun towards the end of last year, Arctic Monkeys front man, Alex Turner, admitted that he was a 'hopeless romantic.' He was asked how he wrote the slower, ballad type songs on the album; Turner replied “I am a romantic fool, no doubt about that. I can't help myself but write those songs. I spend a bit of time sitting on the couch with an acoustic guitar — taking breaks, having a cigarette, going to the window then going back. When you do that, you end up doing a lot more of that romantic stuff, probably too much."
 
This hopeless romantic side to Turners writing is summed up perfectly in the film Submarine, whose music was written by Alex. It includes beautifully written tracks, which while showing the romantic side to his character, still has the distinct northern feel to it.
 
 Maybe that’s what we need, more love struck fools that are willing to put themselves in front of a microphone, or a camera and declare their true feelings, to show the person they love how they really feel, and in some cases be willing to make themselves look like a complete twat...enjoy!