“For Today” by Netherworld Dancing Toys
An odd name for a group. Netherworld Dancing Toys
The band was formed in 1982 in Dunedin, New Zealand, and was popular amongst students at the University of Otago. Boisterous and fun-loving, their work dealt with themes popular amongst young adults, and this 1985 song, about smiles and relationships, is a cherished favorite of mine. It also won several awards and has been used in advertising campaigns, most notably by New Zealand Post.
The vocalist talks about preferring his own company, but realising that ”there’s a hole in my well-being so big you could drive a truck right through,” he tells the listener, “I think you should know, that you are the one who could probably fill it for good.”
Isn’t this the very heart of love? Another human being makes you complete. Without them, you are empty. No satisfaction, no pleasure, nothing compares to the company of your lover. Together, you are one, you are Yin and Yang, you fill each other up completely.
And overflow. There is a sweet excess about lovers. You hold hands, kiss, gaze into each other’s eyes, and onlookers smile in recollection of their own loves. Perhaps they head to the post office to whip off a hot letter to a past flame.
“For today, I remember your smile.” That line, repeated over and over, is the chorus, the core, the couer of the song. Love is pleasure, laughter, shared joy, smiles and happiness. That’s what distinguishes love from sex. Without love, sex is merely the friction of parts; a mechanical satisfaction as routine as consuming a hamburger.
Love is the sauce, love is the spice, love is everything that makes the mundane into magic. Without love, we are just going through the motions. With love, the stars themselves twinkle for our personal pleasure, the birds sing, the world revolves and people smile at us. All is good.
“For today, I remember your smile,” the song continues on and on. There’s a yearning there. The lovers are apart, memories of past smiles the only solace. Until that joyous moment when the arms open, the lovers embrace, the lips meet and the smiles return.
“All I want to do is be with you, and everything else seems unimportant compared.”
There are other, more famous love songs, but for me, this bright smiling song sums up everything in love. I hear it, I think of the joyful face of my lover, and I smile in happy memory.
And, when at last we are in each other’s arms again, nothing else matters. Not even the best love song in the world.
–Guysezual
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