Foreigner – I Want To Know What Love Is

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  General Comment:if anybody doesn't know the meaning of this song, you are just the dumbest person on earth.

  Flag quesomanon June 15, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:Great song from my generation of music. They lyrics will never be dated. Very poignant.

  Flag SillyCheekson March 14, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:For everybody who believes that this song is about divine love, I agree with you; for everybody who believes that this song is about romantic love, I also agree with you. In the Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim in Hebrew), divine love mirrors the romantic love between a man and woman. Foreigner's song has great imagery to highlight the love on both planes- on the "spiritual plane" we must fight to overcome our own loneliness and darkness that we must confront and banish with our own light. We must "climb the mountain" of our burdens, scale the ladder of our possibilities to find that the world is a good place, full of love and knowledge symbolized by light in the song. On the "romantic plane", we also must fight to overcome our own individual loneliness, darkness, and temptations to find the single source we were meant to find. Watch the youtube video of Foreigner singing this song: the very first thing the singer does as the song begins is to show the camera the wedding ring on his hand- this says it all- the song is about finding true, constant and real love which in the romantic plane can only be achieved through marriage, and on the spiritual plane by finding the single source above that illumines everything.

  Flag jmax1983on December 07, 2010   Link

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    You speak so eloquently about the song and about love, but have you ever felt true love...the kind where you know the other person inside out and vice versa. The kind of love where the highs feel as though you're touching the clouds, and the lows feel as though you are one with the devil. Have you ever wanted to wear someone else's skin...to bask in his/her warmth; to be his cheering section; to be there during the crappy times, and to cheer the loudest when s/he shines the brightest. To please him/her in bed like no other can and to share playful innocent moments like children. To grow old together as the years wear away at both the body and mind; to nurse him/her back to health when the flu visits; and to dance with him/her in the moonlight with a cold drink in hand. Have you ever wanted to dive into his/her mouth when s/he says something funny or just plain corny; to sit silently as you share a coffee at a quaint stop, but look up periodically to catch a mutual smile? Have you felt love, the kind that requires self-love first and trust in another? ...Sorry, I got carried away. I'm just curious because you interpreted the song so perfectly:)

    Flag SillyCheekson March 14, 2012  
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  General Comment:I believe this song is about divine love.

  Flag birdsofprey48044on July 03, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:This song relates to me. We can always find something to relate in the lyrics.

  Flag Anabelly8on March 22, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I've loved this song since the first time I heard it in my mums car. It's just.....I dunno other than such an amazing and moving song.
  
  I didn't know it was a gospel choir singing the chorus though =/ I just thought it was a couple of backing guests overlayed.

  Flag peterk5699on December 22, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the religious overtones of this song. I don't think it was an accident that the band used a gospel choir on the chorus. There's not one in this line that *has* to be about romantic love, rather than divine love, and the second verse sounds pretty spiritual to me:
  
  "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"
  
  My take on it is it's like a number of U2 songs, in that it is simultaneously both about romantic love and about finding God. FYI, I'm not Christian nor am I particular religious, myself...but this interpretation makes a lot of sense to me.

  Flag Alligator Boxeron September 10, 2008   Link

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    Hmmm, I think you may be on to something here. After all, Ted Haggard used to hum it while playing "hide the sausage" with teen boys.

    Flag JimmyJazz68on March 03, 2010  

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    U2?

    Flag kanzeion May 04, 2013  
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  General Comment:it's about healing from heartbreak and trying to start over again. oh god...it so fits for me... ;(

  Flag dark_eyez_666on June 28, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:this song fits for me, sniff, sniff. ;(

  Flag dark_eyez_666on June 28, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:i 1st heard it playing grand theft auto vice city. its a gr8 song i luvv it!

  Flag vampire_angelon February 07, 2008   Link

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