Valentine's Day Blues

There are two men who could have been St. Valentine. Both of them ended bloody. One was a man helping Christian couples wed at a time when it was illegal. Emperor Claudius II had him beheaded. The other performed miracles and even healed the blind daughter of an official and sent a rose to her on his execution day with the message, "From your Valentine." Claudius II took his head off too.

And now it is more of a corporate and capitalist moment to get as many people to buy candy as possible.

So, my playlist is kinda crazy. And I have included a wide variety of songs from across time and genre. In no particular order, here are a few of my choice selections and why I included them in my list.

<b>These Boots are Made For Walkin'</b> - This is a classic. Nancy Sinatra emboldened women across America with this song and challenged them to leave the men who were cheating, breaking promises, and being no good. This was especially challenging at the time as women didn't often leave their men. Divorce was a scandal. But she proudly declared, "One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

<b>Before He Cheats</b> - I don't often delve into country music. But I remember when this song came out. It was everywhere. And every single woman who had ever been cheated on resonated with this song. A woman was at last getting violent with her soon to be ex. She was going to make him sorry that he dallied. And was going to use his precious truck to get her point across. Awesome.

<b>+DONE161201+</B> - For those of you not familiar with K-pop, CL is one of the veterans of the industry. She was the leader of 2NE1 and is currently a solo artist. During a break up with her company and many rumors, she released this song on her own. Every word of it proclaiming to the past men in her life, she was done. She was hanging up the phone. And she was walking away.

<b>Henry Lee</b> - Henry Lee appeared on the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album "Murder Ballads". As you can imagine, every single song on that album was about murder. And some were about wronged lovers. This was no exception. However, it was a little different. Most murder ballads involving lovers depict the man killing the woman. In this one, surprisingly, the woman kills the man and hides his body in a well. While the subject is violent, the song is beautiful. And the video of Nick Cave and PJ Harvey singing together is mesmerizing.

<b>You Oughta Know</b> - This was another song that I remember clearly when it came out. Alanis Morrisette was not crying. She was not whining. She was screaming. She was going to make sure that the man who had cheated on her was going to know what he did to her. He was going to understand the pain he had caused. And she was screaming it out to everyone.

<b>Since You've Been Gone</b> - Kelly Clarkson is another person I don't listen to very often. BUT, this was an awesome song. No longer sad, no longer angry, this girl was moving on. She had gained strength from the hurt she had felt and she was now determined to get excatly what she wants.

<b>Tangled Up in Blue</b> - I'll end my examples with one probably people are surprised by. Yes, a lot of the examples I gave, and indeed a lot of the songs on my list are by women. But men do write songs about their own broken hearts. Bob Dylan wrote this about a relationship that failed. They met again and got back together. But then it failed again. This is a scenario I have seen play out over and over again. We joke about the "Ross and Rachel" trope, but all tropes exist for a reason. They are often true to life.

For further listening, please check out my list below.

<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/1sdYsUAKa2IENbQdpHjasJ" width="300" height="380" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>