One of my favorite songs ever,
The Way of Love, originally written in French by Jack Diéval, in 1960 titled "'J'ai le mal de toi' and then translated to English and performed by Kathy Kirby in the UK, but failed to make the top 50. There was another French version, but Cher's is the most widely known. Her version managed to stay three weeks in top ten of billboard hot 100 in 1972.
The Lyrics:
"When you meet a boy
That you like a lot
And you fall in love
But he loves you not
If a flame should start
As you hold him near
Better keep your heart
Out of danger, dear
For the way of love
Is a way of woe
And the day may come
When you'll see him go
Then what will you do
When he sets you free?
Just the way that you
Said goodbye to me"
You might not make much of the lyrics at first glance, but this song for it's time, (the 60's and 70's) was somewhat controversial.
Yes controversial to a certain degree, why? Because it was sexually ambiguous for its time.
In the lyrics, in the last stanza of the song, the singer says "what will you do when he sets you free just the way that you said goodbye to me?" Coupled with the first lines in the first stanza that says "when you meet a boy"
We can assume two things from this:
1. The singer (who we assume is female) is giving advice to somebody (who she is addressing here) at one time was her lover. Yet she says that when you meet a boy and he doesn't love you, you should stay out of it. We can infer that her lover was a gay man who did love her, and thus the line "but he loves you not."
2. Female singer is addressing another female, who at one point was her lover. Therefore, by the same lines "when you meet a boy... but he loves you not" is about giving advice to this person, for she at some point felt in love with this other woman she's addressing that never loved her.
It's a sexually ambiguous song, and I think Cher performs it better. I honestly like the first interpretation better. A woman falling in love and having a gay lover, and giving advice on her recent loss. But I also like that it could be about two female lovers.
Such simple, yet elegant and complex lyrics tbh.
Superb performance by Cher too, tbh.