Love Love Love

Album: The Sunset Tree and Come, Come to the Sunset Tree

Lyrics

King Saul fell on his sword when it all went wrong[1]
And Joseph's brother sold him down the river for a song[2]
And Sonny Liston rubbed some tiger balm into his glove[3]
Some things you do for money
And some you do for love love love

Raskolnikov felt sick and he couldn't say why
When he saw his face reflected in his victim's twinkling eye[4]
Some things you'll do for money
Some you'll do for fun
But the things you do for love are gonna come back to you
One by one

Love, love is gonna lead you by the hand
Into a white and soundless place
Now we see things
As in a mirror dimly
Then we shall see each other
Face to face[5]

And way out in Seattle, young Kurt Cobain
Snuck out to the greenhouse and put a bullet in his brain[6]
Snakes in the grass beneath our feet
Rain in the clouds above
Some moments last forever
But some flare out with
Love love love

Banter

This is kind of like 'Cubs in Five', if it were a serious song about death. (2005-10-17)
Peter Hughes with one of my favorite bass lines of all time. (2009-12-01 Webster Hall)
It's not hard to make those of you who don't come from houses like mine uncomfortable, but, uh, I wrote this when my abuser died and it felt good. (2017-06-28)
I know what I wanna play next, it's a quiet song, and I was like, oh yeah, let's do this one. [LOUD electric guitar chord] (2023-10-03 The Belasco)

Live Performances

Footnotes

1. King Saul is a figure in the Tanakh and Old Testament who was anointed the first king of Israel, uniting disparate groups under one ruler. When the Philistines and Israelites clashed at Mount Gilboa, the Israelites were defeated and King Saul fell on his sword, dying to avoid being captured. Incidentally, all but one of his sons were captured and executed, so fair play. 2. Joseph is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Torah and Old Testament, who was sold into slavery from Canaan to Egypt by his brothers for a small sum of money ("a song"). 3. Sonny Liston is not generally considered to be a religious figure. He was a champion boxer who was defeated by Muhammad Ali, in a fight where Ali accused Liston of putting an unspecified substance on his glove with intent to blind Ali. Liston died young of unclear causes - various conspiracies still circulate as to whether it was murder, opiate overdose, or heart failure. Tiger Balm is a muscle rub that contains menthol, camphor, and clove oil, and should not be applied to the eyes. 4. Raskolnikov is the narrator of Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, which explores his destructive spiral of guilt after murdering an old woman and her sister in cold blood. (If you have not read it, it's a fucking masterpiece.) 5. 1 Corinthians 13:12 - For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (KJV) Other translations use "see in a mirror dimly". 6. Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of grunge-founders Nirvana, who died by suicide in 1994 while suffering from heroin addiction.