A little light culture: The Power of Love

Here folks, is what six million pounds will buy you:


(If that embedding doesn't work, you can also watch it here.) I'll be honest,  I don't think they got their money's worth. They should have spent less on production and  more on the script.

That said, let's stop and think about what is going on here. I know, it's tempting to brush it off by saying, "Cheap emotional manipulation, that's what is going on."And it is. Any grade Grade 6 class in the land could come up with something like this.

The power of love
A force from above
Cleaning my soul
The power of love
A force from above
A sky-scraping dove

Flame on burn desire
Love with tongues of fire
Purge the soul
Make love your goal

But here is the thing, it works. You may say, "It didn't work on me," but that will only be because you saw it coming and chose to put up barriers. This sort of stuff will always work on some and, even if you choose to be cynical, one day something like this will catch you off guard and you'll be swept away by it. And then you'll be a little bit embarrassed because you won't be able to explain it to anyone else. They might laugh at you.

The song is old enough now that you may never have heard it. The original was by a group called Frankie Goes to Hollywood who had very, very brief fame in the mid-1980s. Their biggest success is the song "Relax" which has been aptly described as instructions for how to do anal sex. Yes, really. You can see it here if you want. By contrast, the original of "The Power of Love" video featured a Christmas Nativity theme played absolutely, if you'll pardon the expression, straight.

This is only one of a number of songs called "The Power of Love" and it isn't the crassest by a long stretch. That honour goes to a song by that name by Jennifer Rush. Most people will be more familiar with the version by Celine Dion. It's much loved and DJs at weddings get asked to play it for the couples first dance all the time.

It's a song about a girl losing her virginity. No, I am not making that up. Read the lyrics and weep. The key moment begins at 2:49.





Actually, "losing her virginity" is too kind. It's really a song about a girl putting out for the first time and I put it that way because we know this won't the last guy she puts out for.

I love the line, "Whenever you reach for me, I'll do all that I can," because it's such a transparent lie. Yeah, Saturday morning when you feel like sleeping in and you're mad at me because of something I said that embarrassed you in front of all your friends last night and, besides, you have a headache and you're not in the mood, but you'll do all that you can just because I reach for you? There isn't a pick up artist anywhere on the planet, crass, cheap or unoriginal enough to spring a line like any of the lyrics of this song on a girl and yet millions of women bought this single and ate that steaming pile of horseshit up like it was chocolate pudding.

It's a funny contrast. Here is what the guy who wore leather, did poppers and had sex so casual it was anonymous says about the power of love:

I always felt like The Power Of Love was the record that would save me in this life. There is a biblical aspect to its spirituality and passion; the fact that love is the only thing that matters in the end.

Here is the climax of the Jennifer Rush song:

The sound of your heart beating
Made it clear
Suddenly the feeling that I can't go on
Is light years away 

Who ya gonna choose?

I think the key question is that if you really believe that love is the only thing that matters in the end, you also want to ask, "Whose love?" and, on that point, I'm going with Jesus myself.