Unrequited Love

One-sided love is a kind of love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such by the beloved.  The beloved may not be aware of the admirer’s deep and strong romantic affection, or may even consciously reject it.  If you are in love with someone, but she doesn’t love you back, or even really know that you exist that can be very painful.  A line in the song ‘Every Breath You Take’, by the Police says, “I feel so cold and I long for your embrace”, which reflects a feeling of an admirer’s deep and strong romantic affection toward his beloved.  A love can be so strong and your need for her may be so great that it can get to a point of possession, where your heart and mind shout that she is yours and yours alone.  “Oh can’t you see, you belong to me?”  No matter how much you try to move on and find someone else who might possibly love you in return, it always comes back to her.  “I dream at night I can only see your face.  I look around but it’s you I can’t replace.”

This is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever.  It is about an obsessive stalker, but many people think that it is a love song.  Sting, the lead singer in the Police wrote it after separating from his first wife, Frances Tomelty.  Sting once said, “I think it’s a nasty little song, really rather evil.  It’s about jealousy and surveillance and ownership.”  Regarding the common misinterpretation of the song, he added, “I think the ambiguity is intrinsic in the song however you treat it because the words are so sadistic.  On one level, it’s a nice long song with the classic relative minor chords, and underneath there’s this distasteful character talking about watching every move.  I enjoy that ambiguity.”

Sting wrote the song in 1982 in the aftermath of his separation from Frances Tomelty and the beginning of his relationship with Trudy Styler.  The split was controversial, as Sting was already married to actress Frances Tomelty, who just happened to be Trudie’s best friend (Sting and Frances lived next door to Trudie in Bayswater, west London, for several years before the two of them became lovers.)  The affair was widely condemned and in order to escape from the public eye, Sting retreated in the Caribbean where he started writing this song.  Sting wrote this at the same desk in Jamaica where Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond novels.  Sting wrote the lyrics and Police guitarist Andy Summers made a significant contribution to the arrangement of this song.  I got the lyrics from Youtube.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I’ll be watching you
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me
My poor heart aches
With every step you take
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I’ll be watching you
Since you’ve gone I been lost without a trace
I dream at night I can only see your face
I look around but it’s you I can’t replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I keep crying baby, baby, please
Oh can’t you see
You belong to me
My poor heart aches
With every step you take
Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I’ll be watching you
Every move you make
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you
I’ll be watching you
(Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take)
I’ll be watching you
(Every single day, every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay)
I’ll be watching you
(Every move you make, every vow you break, every smile you fake, every claim you stake)
I’ll be watching you
(Every single day, every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay)
I’ll be watching you
(Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take)
I’ll be watching you
(Every single day, every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay)
I’ll be watching you
Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 9/3/17 by Helen Vahdati where the theme is breathing/breath.