"Down to You" was an extremely comforting song to me at the end, not the
beginning, of a relationship. While so well depicting the confusion of
looking for love in all the wrong places, it has an incredible sense of
agency missing from most breakup songs. "You can crawl, you can fly, too"
sounded to me like an invocation of possibilities from which I could
choose, to remember even as I crawled that flight was never far if I could
make my way to it. It is a beautiful, beautiful song--one of my most
favorite of hers--but also very complex and likely to be misunderstood.
Patrick L. and I have discussed what a gay song this is, too, particularly
because of its (I think) ambivalent take on one-night stands and singles
scenes. I believe it was featured in "Paved Paradise" to great effect.
--Michael
NP: Rakim, _The Book of Life_ (how am I only now discovering Eric B. and
Rakim???)
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I can't believe life's so complex
When I just wanna sit here and watch you undress"
--PJ Harvey, "This Is Love"
