Download “(Vows).mp3”
(Want the sheet music?)
The challenge?
To make it perfectly clear -- this SONG was written to be sung by two PEOPLE.
(THIS RECORDING does happen to be sung by two people who are both male. But that does not mean that the song was written to be sung by two males. The song was written to be sung by two PEOPLE.)
When I wrote Love, I wrote the lyric in the second person, and I only used two gender-specific pronouns in the entire lyric -- one “he” and one “she.” I did so intentionally. Love is universal. Love is not gender-specific.
When I wrote The Night Before, the lyric did not specify the gender of the singer’s significant other. All we know is that they have two children together, they love each other, and they love their children. That is enough.
I am not gay. Neither is the talented Kevin Savino-Riker, who honored me this time around with his collaboration. But we both believed enough in the universality of love to record this song with two male vocalists.
This song is about love. And commitment. And hope and joy. And it was written to be sung by two people exchanging vows -- regardless of gender. Yes -- if I sang it at my wedding, it would be with a woman. If Kevin sang it at his wedding? It would be with a woman. But the song is not changed or diminished or any less poignant if it is sung by two women. And this song’s sentiments are not any less resonant or heartfelt because it was recorded by two men.
But here’s the thing. Shortly after that recording was released, one of Edric’s friends (who shall remain anonymous) responded with the following assertions . . .
I would love to hear this done with a woman as the second voice; I know you stated that you intended it to be non-gender based, but since you presented it as you did it will always be “Edric’s Gay Love Song” to me unless I hear it another way.
Edric hopes that we can, as a species, get to a point where everyone would feel as revulsed by those comments as he does. For the implication is that, somehow, homosexual love is fundamentally different than heterosexual love. The comment suggests that a song like this cannot possibly speak to (or for?) both gay couples and straight couples -- it must be definitively labeled as one or the other, and neither the twain shall meet . . .
“Separate but equal” doesn’t strike Edric as ever having worked out very well in the past. But that’s simply because it’s bullshit. People are people. Love is love. And someday, hopefully, everyone can understand that. And act accordingly . . .
That is all.
Another graphical posting of the lyrics this time.
(Click on the icon to see the lyric . . .)
June 26, 2015
Every. Single. State.
#lovewins