Love songs are my favorites. As a die-hard romantic, I go crazy for everything that’s corny, cheesy, oozing sap, or despicably cliche. That’s why I love the song She’s Like the Wind by Patrick Swayze. It’s so intense, romantically! Well, it doesn’t hurt that the song was featured in Dirty Dancing, which is the best movie ever and also stars Patrick Swayze. Of course, that’s a bit off topic, as the song actually came before Dirty Dancing, and the themes of the song and the movie can only be compared very loosely. I won’t go on any more about spectacular movies, though. The message of the song is what’s important right now. The speaker is talking about the girl he’s in love with. It’s a sad song, because he is singing about how he doesn’t think he’s good enough for her, and I have to say, there’s nothing like good, solid tragedy portrayed in the crooning voice of Patrick Swayze to make a girl swoon. Or want to watch Dirty Dancing until her brain rots and oozes out of her ears in slimy, quivering globules of romance-fried jello. Either one.
Unfortunately, this brain-ooze worthy, epic romantic song that is good enough to have been included in the best movie of all time begins with the line, “She’s like the wind through my tree.” Yeah. I promise it gets better, okay? As long as you’re wiling to overlook that unfortunate simile, it’s a great song! See, the next line is, “She rides the night next to me.” Notice the clever rhyming!
Okay, so maybe I’m not presenting my case very well. But when you listen to the song, the rhythm makes up for the lyrics, and with the next few lines, it’s actually a very pretty verse. He explains how he spends the nights with a girl who “leads [him] through moonlight, only to burn [him] with the sun.” In the night, when they’re alone together, everything seems great, but when it’s daytime and people are around, it’s clear to him that their lives are too different, and he can never be with her without holding her back. She thinks they will find a way to be together, but even though he’s in love with her, he knows there’s no way their relationship can last. God, this song is depressing.
After the first verse is done, we hear the chorus: “I feel her breath on my face/ her body close to me/ can’t look in her eyes/ she’s out of my league/ just a fool to believe I ahem anything she needs/ she’s like the wind.” This chorus is lovely, and it really puts emphasis on the song’s message. The speaker says he’s close to this girl, but he’s too ashamed to look in her eyes. He can’t stand how selfish he’s being by staying with her. I love the assonance in the next lines, “Just a fool to believe/ I have anything she needs”. They flow like one line, but a caesura after believe separates them. Aside from the flow, in the line itself, it’s just so tragic that he knows eventually he will have to leave because he can’t give her what she needs. At the same time, though, it’s so romantic that he knows that and still can’t leave.
After the chorus, we hear the next verse, which shares the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the first verse, and basically repeats the main message. It goes: “I look in the mirror/ and all I see/ is a young old man/ with only a dream.” Basically, he is still young, but he’s going nowhere in life. He may have a dream, but he doesn’t have the opportunities or motivation to make it happen. Then he says, “Am I just fooling myself/ that she’ll stop the pain/ living without her/ I’d go insane.” The girl he loves, though, is different. She is going places, as long as he doesn’t hold her back. Even so, he can’t live without her.
The song goes on to repeat the chorus many, many more times. The main message is reiterated a lot, which doesn’t surprise me as pop isn’t the most subtle music genre. The lyrics aren’t exactly deep, but it’s deliciously tragic and soap-ish, while being desperately romantic in that, despite the fact that the speaker hates himself because of it, he can’t leave this girl. Ultimately, the song is fairly lightweight. However, one can appreciate it for what it is: catchy, marketable, wonderfully sappy, and, all in all, a very pretty song.