Tuning Out the Valentine's Day Hype

Feb. 14 -- Feeling more in the mood for the Grinch than Cupid? If so, this one’s for you.

The Valentine’s blues hits those single folks and couples who are unlucky in love. There’s no substitute for someone to hug. But there is an enjoyable way to wallow — musically.

For years, songwriters and crooners have lyrically expressed the downside of romance, squeezing memorable musical whines out of love’s sour grapes.

Topics like “Blues in the Night,” “Mood Indigo” and “Stormy Weather” were ’30s and ’40s fodder for what became jazz standards. It’s questionable if there’d even be a blues or country genre without jilted lovers, betrayed hearts and love gone sour. But it’s rock in all of its varied forms over the past 50 years that have thrust “Big Bad Love” (Alanis Morissette) into an inner circle of hell, upping the notch to more vituperative, in-your-face attitudes.

Add to the mix melancholic, self-effacing, angst-ridden melodies that make breaking up bearable, and you have rock-solid bottom gold.

If you’re enjoying a fine romance, you may want to stop here.

But if you’re not, you might want to read on to add grist to your hard-hearted emotions, perusing the depths of your loneliness, heartache and bitterness through song.

“Nothing could be sadder than a glass of wine alone./Loneliness, loneliness, it’s just a waste of your time,” the Stones sang in “Cry to Me” on their 1972 album, Exile on Main Street.

Use this as your guide, then sift through your CDcollection (and albums, if you still have them) ortrawl through Napster (if you still can) and puttogether a play list. Then crank up your stereo, kickback, and wallow.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

To set the mood, you might want to start by cuing upthe Derek and the Dominos’ classic “Layla.” Not onlyis this still one of the most recognized rock songsaround, but it also tells part one of a true tragiclove story. The angst expressed by British blues manEric Clapton was inspired by his love forBeatle George Harrison’s wife, Patti, whom he latermarried. Part two of the story: they divorced.