One of the greatest love songs of all time is "Tender" by Blur. Written by Damon Alburn and Graham Coxon, inspired by Alburn's breakup with long-term girlfriend, Justine Frischmann.
How can a break up song be considered the greatest love song of all time? It's because you have to have been in love in order to write a break up song. If you have never been in love you cannot express the mental disquiet of losing that love? Even if it that love was only for a fleeting moment, or if it was for what felt like a lifetime, even if it was your first love that didn't last. It is a song you play on repeat after a bad day, or a fight with your significant other. Its a song that gives you the the chance to mourn that one love, and also makes you want to get up and try to move on.
It's a song that is full of imperturbable composure after a breakup and the anguish of trying to get on with life. You can hear the pain in his voice while he talks about how great love is and then the pain he suffers after it has ended, almost as if saying, "was it worth it"? When he cries out "oh my baby, oh my baby, oh why, oh my" you get that lump in your throat, holding back the tears with the hopes that it is in fact not over and everything is going to be ok, when in reality it is not and now you have to muster up the strength to keep going, and to find love again.
In the end you realize this song is celebrating the love they did have and the impact it had on his life, and maybe even knowing that you were in fact lucky enough to have experienced it at all. That its not something to be forgotten, but something that made your life blossom as the result of being with them for the time you did have.
