The Songs We Will Sing.

#67: I Want to Know What Love Is: Foreigner: 1984

The British-American rock band, Foreigner, was formed in 1976 by English musician Mick Jones and fellow Englishman, Ian McDonald, along with American vocalist, Lou Gramm. Their 1984 hit, I Want to Know What Love Is, is their most popular song, topping the charts at #1 in both the UK and US. Lou Gramm sings this song beautifully but it was written and composed by Mick Jones, the band’s guitarist. Jones says the lyrics just came to him at 3.00am; I don’t know where it came from. I consider it a gift that was sent through me. I think there was something bigger than me behind it. I’d say it was probably written entirely by a higher force.” https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-i-want-to-know-what-love-is-by-foreigner. I have been writing this Songs We Will Sing blog all year and it is amazing the number of artists who say the lyrics for a particular song just dropped into their head and it was like they were simply being used to say something of value; to get the words out there.

The lyrics of this song speak of personal pain, of being heartbroken when one thought they were in love and thought they knew what love was, but then realised this just wasn’t so. Could they take the chance to love again? Was it really love this time? They wanted to know, and they wanted proof, they wanted to feel what real love was. I think many of us can relate to these fears and ask the same questions.

I really don’t know much and I think this is the big lesson of growing older, we realise that we don’t know too much at all- but I can tell you of a couple of my experiences in the past week. I hugged the husband of my dear friend as we said our last good byes to her. This man had loved, cared for and simply been there right to the heartbreaking end of his wife’s fight with Motor Neuron Disease. He told me she was the love of his life and he was so lucky to have ever met her – and he was right! Then we visited another couple where old age and ill health has turned strong, strapping and active people into frail shadows of their former selves, but their love, tenderness, strong bond and the memories they share are their anchor. When this husband looks at his wife he still sees the beautiful seventeen year old he fell in love with and through thick and thin, good and bad, he has never stopped loving.

I want to know what love is, I want you to show me; Well, this week, I have seen what love is and I can tell you, even in the midst of grief and difficulty, it is beautiful!