I Want To Know What Love Is

Foreigner, Released in November 1984. From their fifth album: Agent Provocateur Writer: band member Mick Jones

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

I gotta take a little time
A little time to think things over
I better read between the lines
In case I need it when I'm older

Now this mountain I must climb
Feels like a world upon my shoulders
Through the clouds I see love shine
It keeps me warm as life grows colder

In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
Can't stop now, I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life

I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me

I'm gonna take a little time
A little time to look around me
I've got nowhere left to hide
It looks like love has finally found me

In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
I can't stop now, I've traveled so far
To change this lonely life

I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
I wanna feel what love is
I know you can show me

I wanna know what love is
I want you to show me
And I wanna feel, I want to feel what love is
And I know, I know you can show me

Let's talk about love
I wanna know what love is, the love that you feel inside
I want you to show me, and I'm feeling so much love
I wanna feel what love is, no, you just cannot hide
I know you can show me, yeah

I wanna know what love is, let's talk about love
I want you to show me, I wanna feel it too
I wanna feel what love is, I want to feel it too
And I know and I know, I know you can show me
Show me love is real, yeah
I wanna know what love is...

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When this particular song released, to tremendous fanfare I might add, I was out of the country. For this reason the band, Foreigner, (named because it contained both British and American members) was not well known to me, even though by that time it had been around about seven years.

My problem now is that this particular song, perhaps up there with John Lennon’s ear worm Imagine, is that it is still played constantly, and at least for me at work, there seems no escape. So I have listened to this one, over and over for a long time. Long enough to select it as my personal winner in the PopLove Hypnotic Manipulation Category - the one that attempts to tell someone else that they hold the key to both the forlorn singer’s greatest happiness and insights into the deepest mysteries of the universe.

This of course means that, for the one who this song is targeted at, it would probably be a high crime against humanity to turn down such a sincere request to provide healing from all past pain along with enlightenment once and for all about what love really is.

If this song has been a favorite of yours I hope you never hear it the same way again. In spite of its title, it has nothing to do with what True Love is actually about.