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Oh Love (Song of the Week)


pasalaska

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Song of the Week this week is the brand-spanking-new Oh Love, originally released earlier today, causing Green Day fans to explode with squee world-wide. Oh Love is the first song to be released off the up-coming trilogy ¡Uno!, ¡Dos¡, and ¡Tré!.

From what I can tell from my few hours of listening to Oh Love, Billie’s lyrics are a calling to a lost or unrequited love; a sort-of loss of control after trying to supress those feelings for some time and moving on with life (“oh life, please don’t pass me by”). That sudden loss of control seems to have come from a night of drinking and reflection: “waste away tonight, tonight my heart’s on the loose”. The third verse seems to suggest that he’s trying to pull away from falling deeper in love with this person (“talk myself out of falling in love”), because he knows they don’t feel the same, but at the same time he’s enjoying the feeling of being in love. Obviously he’s been through this cycle before, saying it’s the “same old story”, but that’s not a strong enough deterrent, as he still longs to be “close to you”.

Here’s a live audio recording of Oh Love, from the secret Green Day show at Red 7 in Austin, Texas in November of 2011. Thanks to GDCer LouLou for live-streaming this audio from outside the venue.

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOnQYCrB8nc

Lyrics:

Oh love, oh love

Won't you rain on me tonight?

Oh life, oh life

Please don't pass me by

Don't stop, don't stop

Don't stop when the red lights flash

Oh ride, free ride

Won't you take me close to you?

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

I'm wearing my heart on a noose

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

Tonight my heart's on the loose

Oh lights and action

I just can't be satisfied

Oh losers and choosers

Won't you please hold on my life?

Oh hours and hours

Like the dog years of the day

Old story same old story

Won't you see the light of day?

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

I'm wearing my heart on a noose

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

Tonight my heart's on the loose

Talk myself out of feeling

Talk my way out of control

Talk myself out of falling in love

Falling in love with you

Oh love, oh love

Won't your rain on me tonight?

Oh ride, free ride

Won't you take me close to you?

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

I'm wearing my heart on a noose

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

Tonight my heart's on the loose

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

I'm wearing my heart on a noose

Far away, far away

Waste away tonight

Tonight my heart's on the loose

Tonight my heart's on the loose

Tonight my heart's on the loose

*********************************************************************************************************

You can nominate songs for discussion as Song of the Week in the SotW Nominations and Archive thread, which contains links to each previous Song of the Week in its first post.

Also thanks to Alex for helping me decipher some of the meaning in the lyrics.

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Excellent song of the week choice! :D

I love this song, I really do. I feel like it's a really uplifting song that's actually a great choice for a first single. I know there have been mixed reviews, but doesn't Green Day get that with everything they do? It wouldn't be Green Day if they didn't stir up a little bit of controversy along the way. :P

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Wow Pasalaska that is a great description and interpretation of the song, better than I could do!

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Nice choice for song of the week!

It's like the song has just been born and already made it as a superstar :P (metaphorically speaking)

I really love the song and its dynamics. How it builds up towards the chorus and the beautiful climax in the solo.

And now that I slowly start to understand the meaning of the lyrics, I am falling in love even more with this song.

Funny how there lies such deep meaning in such simple lyrics. The power of Billie's writing.

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I'm going to be honest, when I read the short interview Billie did with the Rolling Stones Magazine (I think it was Rolling Stones) where he says the band was heading in a more power-pop direction with these albums, I was pretty doubtful. However, after listening to Oh Love over and over and over again, I've fallen completely head over heels for the song and I am so much more pumped for this trilogy :dance:

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I'm going to be honest, when I read the short interview Billie did with the Rolling Stones Magazine (I think it was Rolling Stones) where he says the band was heading in a more power-pop direction with these albums, I was pretty doubtful. However, after listening to Oh Love over and over and over again, I've fallen completely head over heels for the song and I am so much more pumped for this trilogy :dance:

Billie described 21cb as power pop too. I'm not worried about what the music is classified as cos it will rock regardless, besides the guys can pretty much pull off anything.

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Great choice for song of the week!

This is really one of those songs that will grow on you the more you listen to it. The pace is a little slow, but I think it's because all of Green Day's first singles were loud, fast, and super energetic, so the change is a little unexpected. But I like it. I was already singing along by the third time I head it!

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Billie described 21cb as power pop too. I'm not worried about what the music is classified as cos it will rock regardless, besides the guys can pretty much pull off anything.

Did he? 21CB is not something I would classify as power pop :lol: But yeah, I agree, they can pull of anything and somehow make it sound good.

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For some stupid reason, me and a couple of friends decided to stay up till 9AM to listen to this.... It was worthy, it's a really catchy song, the guitar solo was great and the lyrics are amazing. And I think I've listened to this about 15 times today :lol:

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what an appropriate choice for song of the week :lol:

and an very interesting interpretation, too. I think there's a lot of ambiguity in this song, so it depends on what the listener takes away from it. I love the line "I'm wearing my heart on a noose". It's such a powerful metaphor; it's like he's taking a risk by putting his heart out there on the line to see where the night itself takes it.

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So it's basically a glorified 1039/smooth song?

i was actually thinking about that, too. the topic fits perfectly! but again, you can see billie's further development when you're considering the lyrics and billie's writing style.. same topic but Oh Love still differs a lot from the ones from the 39 era. but of course that's no wonder now that over 20 years have passed :D

BJA - god of lyrics!<3

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So it's basically a glorified 1039/smooth song?

No, other than that they both deal with love. Early Green Day love songs were very, very explicit and simple in the lyrics. This is much more vague and open to interpretation.

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Agreed. 1039 songs were always like "I looked at you, you were with your boyfriend, it made me sad." Here we're talking about fucking nooses and dog days :P

I really like your interpretation Aska. And considering how many times Billie used the words "sexual tension" to describe these albums, I'm sure you've hit the nail on the head about lost love and whatnot.

A lot of people were convinced the Red7 lyric was "don't stop under my touch," because it sounded just like that, and were sad that it was changed to "don't stop when the red lights flash," but now that you posted the Red7 version again, I realize it was ALWAYS red lights flash. Ah well :lol:

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Haha this is just great! I think this is the only Green Day song i will listen to all week, so, that fits well :P

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I see this song as 1039/smooth-21stCB-Dookie mixed together with that touch of maturity that makes it unbelievably perfect. It's like I can't find words that are strong enough to describe it. I used to think (from the live recordings) that this wasn't the right song for the first single, but GOD I was wrong, I don't think any other song would make me more eager to hear more of ¡Uno! than this.

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Wow, what an idea! The song of the week is the single released earlier the same day! :D

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What better song to choose then the one released just yesterday!

And I think I finally get the meaning now. xD

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New and already sotw! :rolleyes:

But it's great, can't complain 'cause I enjoy it so much, I'm not listening to it the 24 hours, but a couple times yesterday... :shy:

Anyway, a love song... if the "falling in love" part wouldn't be on the lyrics, from my perspective the song would be about something completely different to love someone. But idk. We all have our own interpretations.

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No, other than that they both deal with love. Early Green Day love songs were very, very explicit and simple in the lyrics. This is much more vague and open to interpretation.

I also took in notice the solo. Something that was standard on 39/smooth.

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Brilliant choice for this week, I'd say :P In my opinion, this is an amazing song. Seems like some sort of the perfect crossover between the early and the latest Green Day years. And I have to say, Aska, that your interpretation is definitely the best one I've read so far! You seem to have a talent for this!

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I have to admit, Green Day have not made me... emotional? in a long time, but yesterday when I heard this for the first time they did :wub: They made me feel like I was 12 again and just listening to them put a silly grin on my face :D It was 8 years ago when I was 12, so for them to be able to do that after all that time is impressive. I can tell that I am going to cry when I next see them in concert :lol:

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