David Bowie – Soul Love

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  General Comment:"Soul love, the priest that tastes the word and told of love and how my God on high is all love, though reaching up my loneliness evolves by the blindness that surrounds him."
  
  I was brought up a Jehovah's Witness, brought up to believe in Jehovah and to put my faith in doing his work on Earth. When I was about ten, I came to the realisation that I could never be that person. The dilemma wasn't one of belief. At the time, I still believed Jehovah to be my God, still believed in Paradise and Armageddon. Now, I don't discount it as the truth, but nor do I consider myself mature enough or well versed enough to make that decision. The very simple fact of the matter is that I cannot devote myself to one cause, cannot blindly trust, cannot forget every other thought and philosophy and creative yearning that wells up within me. I could not at ten, and I cannot now. At the same time, I long for some sort of spiritual connection. I am reaching up for faith and love, but inside I feel isolated and strange. What others can see clearly, I am made blind to by way of an overstuffed soul. It isn't a matter of belief. Were I to fully believe in God and Paradise and Armageddon all over again, I would be faced with the same impossibility.
  
  "All I have is my love of love, but love is not loving."
  
  Being "in love" with love is very much the same as being "in love" with anything or anyone else. It is selfish, possessive, obsessive, torturous, degrading and always unrequited. Even if the one you are in love with appears to return your corrupted love, the love will remain unrequited because neither of you truly love each other. You love with a cold fire, passionate yet demanding. True love is bittersweet and compassion, a giving and a receiving, and a timeless codependence that transcends all other sentiments. Moreover, being in love is alienating. It turns the person you are in love with into some form of effigy, a golden calf to dance madly round. Loving in its purest form becomes a faint connection, a tangible bond and then a complete union.
  
  Perhaps the singer of this song is in love with love, or indeed in love with anything. They are not loved and they have not loved, yet like every human, they have in innate need to be so and do so.

  Flag NellieWhiskeyon June 19, 2010   Link

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    Hi there. Well i get, from what you wrote, that you are growing as a person. Perhaps growing spiritually, and that is usually a bit painful at times. I think God wants us to ask questions and look within, not only in a micro sense but also a macro, and that includes looking at the church we belong to. Do dare to risk asking tricky questions. God can handle it, even if we as a social group can't. As for love. Well 'love' can be a noun, but it is also a verb, and if I am living a life of love, it has nothing to do with the chemical reaction that comes from being in a romantic situation. In that situation, I could be defenseless, being subjected to the overpowering pull of chemical reactions in my brain. If God could direct Jacob while he was in Egypt and away from his brothers, He can guide you, even if you're not a part of the JW group. I think you've got too much belief. Empty yourself, get into the wilderness, let God deal with in the desert. There will be dry times, and also times by the water's edge, and who knows, maybe some milk and honey...

    Flag Robcraggson January 02, 2013  
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  My Interpretation:Well, I disagree with what most people here think of this song. To me, it always seemed that this was about how the occidental culture always puts its idea of "love" everywhere. Love is just another built concept that we use to interpretate our world. Seen with the eyes of an outsider, love is everywhere and its everything but at the same time it is many thing and nothing. I hope i can make myself clear... anyway, that's the way i like to see it.

  Flag aquarellaon August 25, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:"Inspirations have I none, just to touch the flaming dove"
  
  That line kills me with its awesomeness.

  Flag tehfailon January 25, 2009   Link

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    what do you think the 'flaming dove' is?
    
    

    Flag lcollingtonon March 05, 2009  

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    The flaming dove is a more or less obscure symbol for the Holy Spirit. Seeing as Bowie first uses the image directly before he describes the spiritual love between man and God, I think it's fairly safe to assume that religion is referenced here.

    Flag NellieWhiskeyon June 19, 2010  
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  General Comment:"All I have is my love of love - and love is not loving.."
  all he has is the love of love, but "love" can't love you back, like a person.

  Flag Franky-sanon September 28, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:He speaks to me with this song. I believe in One Love, the love of all. I can feel all this love for God and for life and everyone and everything that surrounds me. But I am missing being loved by one I love or a love I hope to find.

  Flag It_Is_Shiningon July 13, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:"stone love" = phsyical love...a love you can see and feel..."soul love" = something that you can not see...but you know in your heart that it's there

  Flag static_shadow48on March 13, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:"stone love" = phsyical love...a love you can see and feel..."soul love" = something that you can not see...but you know in your heart that it's there

  Flag static_shadow48on March 13, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:so much loneliness in this song! i love the first verse. the son probably went to war for a politician's cause ("slogan" or maybe a pun on slow gun?) and now this "slogan" cause is the gun that's separating a mother and her son.

  Flag hallospacegirlon September 06, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Oh, Bowie.
  
  How you speak the truth.

  Flag zeppelinfreakon July 20, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:"Love is careless in its choosing...Love decends on those defenseless..."
  
  How true and tragic. And then comes to those in need not at all.

  Flag tintineton May 01, 2006   Link

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