Brianna Lane

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Minneapolis writer and musician Jim Walsh (The Mad Ripple) asked me and several of his musician friends to write about “… their favorite love and/or loss song of the moment…” and although I hate Valentine’s day, I still love a good love song and so I wrote…

Josh Ritter has a song called “The Temptation of Adam” (found on “The Historical Consequences of Josh Ritter”) that caught up with me slowly. I would listen to the record over and over again and that song would pass me by, easily pushed into the background. Then I took the time to actually listen to the words and now it slays me every time I hear it…every single time! Josh Ritter weaves war and love together brilliantly as the song takes place between two soldiers stuck underground in a missile silo, “If this was the Cold War we could keep each other warm…I never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the bomb…” It’s a tragic and beautiful little story that makes me think of the a grade-school boy all up in love starry-eyed, gazing at the unknowing pale-skinned shy girl with the pig tales sitting at the desk in the back of the classroom. Aside from the ending (which I won’t tell you here- you’ll have to listen to it yourself) my favorite part of the song is the second verse when the narrator, the boy-soldier, is trying to win the girl’s heart, “We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside, What five letters spell “apocalypse” she asked me, I won her over saying “W.W.I.I.I., She smiled and we both knew that she’d misjudged me…” Simple things in tragic times. All is well if you got love.