Musical ponderings, as Valentines Day approaches

It was Shakespeare who called music the food of love, and I suspect he captured one of the constants in the human condition. Whether it's tunes strummed along with a Roman banquet, Renaissance madrigals, operatic arias or today's top 40, the minute someone combines words and tunes the topic is usually love. Songs of heartache, desire, euphoria, longing ... anyone who's ever been emotionally fragile (and who hasn't been?) recognises the danger of turning on the radio.
The playlists on my iPod are all named after locations, with "The Lakefill" being my best love songs mix. That was the strip of parkland running between Lake Michigan and Northwestern's campus, and the location you inevitably headed to, bag of M&Ms in hand and sorority sister at your side, to discuss the trials and tribulations of your latest passion. Two decades later it lives on as the digital location I visit when my heart needs more attention than my head.

A funny thing happened to that playlist a few months ago. I fell in love. In a proper, grown-up, pain free manner that was completely mutual. And it was time to mix up the tunes. Because, you see, for years "The Lakefill" has been populated by poignant ballads of longing, unrequited desire and unfulfilled hopes. Here was its Top 10, pre-October:

You don't know me ... Michael Buble
The man I love ... Peggy Lee
I can't get started with you ... Barry Manilow
Let's be friends ... Bruce Springsteen
Got you under my skin ... Frank Sinatra
Open your heart to me ... Madonna
I try ... Macy Gray
In the wee, small hours of the morning ... Carly Simon
Something to talk about ... Bonnie Raitt
When I fall in love ... Nat King Cole

Admittedly, there are some toe tappers in here. But listen to the lyrics and the overall tone is pretty somber. Great music. Music that captures a mood and wraps itself around your heart. But this is a list of frustration, hunger and emptiness, to which more than a few tears have been shed over the years.

And then I re-arranged that playlist. The melancholy longing of "You don't know me" got kicked right out of The Lakefill, as did almost everything else on the list. Here's the new Top 10.

I got the world on a string ... Frank Sinatra
Blue Skies ... Bobby Darin
Walking on Sunshine ... Katrina and the Waves
Almost like being in love ... Gene Kelly (from Brigadoon)
Ain't that a kick in the head ... Dean Martin
So in love ... Harry Connick, Jr.
All this I give to you ... Jeremy Northiam (from the Gosford Park soundtrack)
'Swonderful ... Ella Fitzgerald
Waiting for tonight ... Jennifer Lopez
You're my home ... Billy Joel

Now that's an upbeat list. Listen to these lyrics and you'll wallow in joy, contentment, satisfaction ... even glee. The very best of the human condition. I will confess to have found myself skipping down the South Bank on the way to work, silly grin on my face as earphones pump these delightful tunes through my soul. Undignified? Yes. I don't really care. Music is indeed the food of love, and at the moment I'm eating well.

Poor Count Orsino. You may remember that he was the one who spoke those Shakespearean lines. And he was quite depressed when he did so. Languishing in unrequited passion, he said:

"If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die."

Of course Orsino realised that you can't have too much of a good thing. He learned instead to change the direction of his desires, and found a love that was right for him. No doubt, had they had iPods in 16th century Illyria, he would have been shuffling his playlists, too.

Happy Valentines Day to all.