I just got home from having needles poked into my big toes - SEXY. They call me Frankentoe. So now I'm all bandaged up after a little bit of surgery, and I'm hugging the bed.

I'm also hugging the Kenzie-Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane. It's quite excellent. I started with A Drink Before the War last night and now I'm on to Darkness, Take My Hand. This second one is supposedly the best one of the series. I read a customer review that it's even better than his Mystic River. So I'll take a swing at it.

I never talked about why I love this song so much. I will elaborate now, since I'm in a position to do so. My joy starts with the amazing piano intro that ends with a big crescendo, and his voice, at first, matching the volume of the piano but then down to quiet stillness in the second line. I LOVE THAT. I also think the composition is brilliant, with a perky type of upbeat pop sound that you think might just be a love song, and the lyrics almost convince you of that, but then suddenly, you realize, this is the kind of lover who shows up on your doorstep with drug-tainted chocolates and a crawlspace saved just for you.

I think they pussed out on the video though - I totally would have had the whole stalker fantasy play out until you see the guy's hands around her throat and then have him shake it off and you realize he's just watching her in a coffee shop or something. And then have her give him the look, you know - the over-the-shoulder look that starts it all up, thereby leaving us with the sick feeling that his fantasies might just come true. (Sorry, I've been reading a lot of crime fiction, and this latest is looking to be a serial killer story. Morbid. Sorry.)

Congratulations to Death Cab for creating the stalker anthem of this decade. It's utterly brilliant. Like the ones that have gone before.

Example, this song. Ahh Sting. In your heyday you could have stalked me all you wanted. This definitely reigns as the 80's stalker anthem.

And this song, from the 90s. Although a little more obscure, still along the same lines. I've always loved it because it reminds me of Browning's Porphyria's Lover (a poem I also love, and have written papers about, actually). Really - the lyrics are so similar to the story in that poem, I was impressed by how well-read the songwriter must be. But then I found out it was based on some serial murder incident in Texas or Florida (I think), and I was terribly disappointed with the horrible song title.

I'm not into stalkers. I just think these songs are awesome because of the twists they pull off. Sounds poppish, sounds fun, but the object of affection should buy a taser, just in case...

But to counterbalance these crazy stalker songs, here are the songs I rate as three of the best love songs ever written.

1.) Closer, Nine Inch Nails
I know: it's gritty, it's pulsating, it's fucking, it's throbbing, it's hot HAWT dirty sex. But listen to what he is actually saying - this is one of the truest, rawest love letters ever written. He's stripped bare and down to his basest instincts for this woman.

2.) In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel
This is the poet, the humanitarian, the gentleman in love. Beautiful, and of course reminiscent of one of my first loves.

3.) Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye
Now, I've debated on this one back and forth with myself for YEARS - is it love, or is it a line? Because a lot of it sounds like a line (a really good line that would TOTALLY WORK). But then listen to him screaming, and realize (as Garcia Marquez, Neruda, and, hell, even the true-Brit Shakespeare will tell you) only one thing in the world could cause that sound of inarticulated anguish. LOVE. LOOOOOVE.