Your First “Higher Love”: What Songs Did You Learn Because Of A Big Old Crush?

Lucas Jensen | February 5, 2009 5:00 am

eMusic has a charming piece wherein a number of musicians of varying notoriety reveal their different first crushes. We find out that Laura Ballance of Superchunk had things for James West of The Wild, Wild West, Robin, The Black Stallion, and Han Solo (as well she should have); Julian Koster of Music Tapes and Neutral Milk Hotel crushed out on a model of the city of Manhattan. And then there’s Sam Bisbee, who taught himself Kiss’ “Beth” in honor of a girl… named Beth:

My first crush was in 3rd grade. Her name was Beth Raymond, and she was also in the 3rd grade. I learned how to sing the song “Beth” by KISS, and I brought my little cassette player (monophonic) to school and stood in front of her and sang the song along with the track. This was before John Cusack did the same kind of thing in Say Anything. To put it bluntly, Beth was non-plussed, and didn’t seem to understand why 9 year-olds had any need for a significant other. So that was the end of it. I moved from Providence to Boston the next year. That wasn’t just my first crush, but my first live music performance – so it was all for the best. And “Beth” is still a great song.

Here is where I admit that I’m a tad girl crazy and am celebrating my 28th year or so (with some years semi-off for marriage and the like) of harboring futile, unrequited loves. One of my biggest early crushes revolved around a song—Steve Winwood‘s final goodbye to credibility “Higher Love.”

Lynn—last name unknown–-was in my swimming class at the Auburn Junior High School pool circa 1986. Funny that I don’t remember much about her now, but I know that she was taller than me, which is itself not much of an achievement. (I didn’t break five feet until I was 15 or 16.) She was leggy and slender, and the fact that we spent our short time together in bathing suits made an impression on me. She was two years older and about to go to high school, while I was preparing to plunge headfirst into the hell that was to be junior high.

I can’t recall what it was about her that made me like her so much—probably just the fact that she talked to me at all and was, quite visibly, on her way to womanhood. I ran home the first day of swim class, looked up her last name in the phone book (remember those?), found out where she lived, and made it my mission to stalk her. The next day, “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood came on the radio, and she said, “Ooh, I love that song,” and so I added learning “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood on some musical instrument to the mission parameters. I bought it on cassingle and listened to it over and over on one of those old one-speaker cassette players on which you record fake radio shows with your sister. I rode my bike to her neighborhood numerous times after swim class, unbeknownst to my parents who would have flipped out at the thought of me riding the four miles or so just to get there.

I had dreams of her catching me puttering around outside her house on my six year-old Huffy with coaster brakes. She would come outside and say “What are you doing here?” and I would say something suave like “I was just in the neighborhood,” which was a total lie, and then she would invite me into the house where I would play her “Higher Love” on whatever instrument it was that I learned it on, and then I would probably get to first or even second base, though, to be honest, I’m still not sure what bases mean which prurient act. I must have ridden my bike out there five times and conspicuously circled her neighborhood for an hour or so, humming Steve Winwood under my breath. Turns out she didn’t even live there anymore. Her family had moved to a neighboring town earlier that summer, but they didn’t want to waste the money they’d already paid on the class. I heard her tell someone this on the last day, which was also the same day that I muttered “I love you” to her under my breath, but I don’t think she heard it.

Anyway, the first song I ever learned to play on the piano was “Higher Love.” Coincidence? Maybe. (The chords aren’t very hard.) But now that I’ve opened up to y’all—I don’t know that I’ve ever told anybody about Lynn!—I have to ask: What songs have you learned in the name of love? The more embarrassing the better, obviously.

Indie Rockers Share Their First Crush [eMusic]

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