Music Fridays # 83: Love (Valentines Week)

Well, here we are the final article of Valentines Week and what better way then to close out with some Love Songs.  Now these won't be A Whole New World or Kiss The Girl.  No because, instead, like when I did my Music Fridays for the World,  I'm taking a look at Disney songs that use the word Love in their title. With that out of the way, let's begin.




Love Is A Song








The first song here comes from Bambi's opening credits and it is Love Is A Song.  The big thing I get from this song is how it's trying to capture the essence of love by describing love as a song. Not an unusual comparison as I've heard it many a time before and it always makes me think of Love Sonnets.   So, while on the short end, I think this song does an admirable job in capturing the feeling of love.




Love








Our next song simply titled Love comes from Robin Hood and perhaps the truest Love Song, I'll be looking at here.   I like this song, it has a very lullaby feel to it and while short, that isn't a bad thing and as for how Love works in this song, well this song is just simply about Robin Hood and Maid Marion falling in love. Really, nothing more to it then that.




If I Can't Love Her








This is easily my favorite song from the stage production of Beauty and The Beast. This song in my opinion gives more humanity to The Beast and makes him seem more unsure of himself.   He does want to fall in love but he doesn't know if he can.   This song comes at a point where Beast overhears Belle say something mean about him out of frustration and it hurts him because he wants to try to be  better and he does want to reform.    So in this sense, Love represents something that Beast wants to obtain but he doesn't think he can.





If I Can't Love Her (Reprise)







Now I'd remiss if I didn't talk about the reprise for If I Can't Love Her.   The reprise takes place after the dance and Beast has obtained Belle's love and he lets her go because Maurice needs Belle's help.  With this reprise,  we see how much Beast loves Belle and that he is willing to let her go, when someone else needs her. Even if he knows that it means that he will forever be The Beast but he is willing to live with that sacrifice.   He was willing to sacrifice his chance at being human again for the needs of Belle.   He finally learned what it meant to love at this point.   The biggest difference from the first song here in how Beast feels is that while he still hurts,  he hurts because he knows Belle can't be with him right now.





I Won't Say I'm In Love







As I've said in the past, this is my favorite song sung be female Disney character and in some ways, you can compare this to If I Can't Love Her.  Both songs are about being scared to love.  The biggest difference is that Meg is trying hard to fight her feelings. Even though she knows she loves Hercules, she doesn't want to admit it because of her past of being hurt by her old boyfriend.  While Meg is fighting her feelings, the Muses are trying get her to wake up and realize that it's okay to fall in love.  And there's nothing wrong with being cautious but sometimes, you just have to give love a chance.




When She Loved Me







Ending things on a bit of a sad note but people often overlook the other side of love.  That being love loss.   In this song, we hear Jesse recall her days with Emily and how much they're time together meant to her and having Emily throw her out left a hole in heart because she still loves Emily and for the longest, didn't think she could live without her.   Love can be tragic sometimes and as we see here, it doesn't even have to be a couple.  Though this song has been used that way quite well before but getting back on track, I find it important to showcase this type of song because while the others may have been about  capturing, fighting for or resisting love, this shows how losing love can crush someone's whole world.  It's sad but true.  And that is why it's my favorite Pixar song, because it's the most honest of any Pixar songs.






There you have it, our close to Valentines Week with a look at these songs that used Love quite well. I hope you all have enjoyed this special week.