Love Like Ghosts

Credited to Frankie Lou, **"Love Like Ghosts"** is a wistful song incorporating ethereal sounds with 60s-era song structure. She compares love to being haunted, and sings to a lover, believing they don't want her, begging them to explain why they are leaving. Whether this is actually about Lou's experience or mysterious past is unclear, but it is clearly an emotionally-affecting song about unrequited love. The simile that "love is like ghosts" speaks to a feeling that you can believe in something, even think you have seen it, but you do not necessary know that it is real, and not everyone will believe in it. The lyric "few have seen it but everybody talks" suggests the singer is surrounded by people who talk about love, or by culture that focuses on it, but that few people are truly in love.

"What ain't living can never really die" may refer to her belief that her lover never loved her, so that love can't die, as it never existed. Nevertheless, she wants "ours to be an endless song", and she loves them so much she believes they can do no wrong. She explains that she doesn't "feel it till it hurts sometimes so go on, baby, hurt me tonight," perhaps cajoling them to end the relationship with her so she really feels it is over.

She ends the song with the repeated outro: "I sing all day and I love you through the night," suggesting even though she knows the relationship is toxic, she cannot help but keep loving this individual.

## Background and influences

There is a quote by French author François de La Rochefoucauld:

"Il est du véritable amour comme de l'apparition des esprits: tout le monde en parle, mais peu de gens en ont vu."
This translates from French to: "True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen."

The song "Love Like Ghosts" appears to expand on this concept.

Given the information revealed in *Vide Noir*, it is likely that Lou wrote this song about a relationship with Z'Oiseau. She reflects on the way he treated her, saying he was just using her and she didn't realize it until much later. If this is the case, the cover art of the song may depict Lou witnessing Z'Oiseau with another woman.

## Trivia

There is a Love Like Ghosts brand gin in the bar in "Fool for Love."

## Annotated lyrics

The lyrics for *Strange Trails* were never officially released, these lyrics are a transcript:

Yes I know that love is like ghosts

Oh, few have seen it, but everybody talks

Spirits follow everywhere I go

Oh they sing all day and they haunt me in the night

Oh they sing all day and they haunt me in the night

Yes I know that love is like ghosts

Oh, and what ain't living can never really die

You don't want me baby please don't lie

Oh but if you're leaving, I gotta know why

I said if you're leaving, I gotta know why

Oh I sing all day and I love you through the night

Yes I know that love is like ghosts

Oh and the moonlight baby shows you whats real

There ain't a language for the things I feel

And if I can't have you then no one ever will

Oh, if I can't have you then no one ever will

I don't feel it till it hurts sometimes

Oh go on baby, hurt me tonight

I want ours to be an endless song

Baby in my eyes you do no wrong

I don't feel it till it hurts sometimes

So go on baby hurt me tonight

All the spirits that I know I saw

Do you see no ghost in me at all

Oh I sing all day and I love you through the night

## Potential lyrical references

Frequently, Lord Huron's songs explore similar themes, sometimes they have stories that are covered by more than one song. These lyrical connections are merely for reference:

1. ↑ Frankie Lou's "Meet Me in the Woods" - "There ain't language for the things I've seen"

## Sources

1. ↑ *Strange Trails* CD
2. ↑ Kim Berens - graphic design work for Lord Huron music videos

"**Love Like Ghosts**" (Francine Lu)
"Until the Night Turns" (The Phantom Riders)
"Dead Man's Hand" (Buck Vernon)
"Hurricane (Johnnie's Theme)" (The Phantom Riders)

"La Belle Fleur Sauvage" (Remy Fusil)
"**Fool for Love**" (Buck Vernon)
"**The World Ender**" (The Phantom Riders)
"Meet Me in the Woods" (Francine Lu and Claude Fox)
"The Yawning Grave"

"Frozen Pines" (H.W. Justine)
"Cursed" (Buck Vernon)
"Way Out There"
"Louisa" (Buck Vernon)
"**The Night We Met**" (Francine Lu)