Perfect Love

Album: Marc Cohn (1991)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song tells the story of a couple whose love sustains them while the world changes around them. While it affirms Cohn's faith in love, it also reflects his beliefs that America is headed downhill socially and politically. In his 1992 interview with Q magazine, he explained that his favorite lyrics on the album are: "They worked one summer together/at the '64 World's Fair, They met Robert Kennedy there/ Well that was right before the fall." Said Cohn: "That's the season and the Fall with a capital 'F'. It's about my brother and his wife. It was a love story happening when America was falling apart at the seams. The assassinations, Vietnam, the race riots. Even when you were six or seven you felt it. To me now those people dying, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, was the beginning of the end for America. The first thing that opened my eyes about where America was going was when I was 13 and I campaigned for George McGovern. I went to this shopping mall outside Cleveland collecting money - and I got spat on. Just a kid and they spat on me! It's been a long time since there's been anybody who I've felt has spoken to me on any kind of level at all, politically, socially. That's very scary. It's strange such a young country should feel so old with the people we have coming in and out of office."
  • Why are the couple in this song hearing voices singing "it's a small world after all?" Because the popular Disney song "It's A Small World" was written for the 1964 World's Fair. And you know it's impossible to get that song out of your head once it burrows in.

Comments: 1

  • Volker from Hamburg"Loosely based on the arc of the love affair between one of my older brothers and his wife. The song follows them from Shaker Lake (in Cleveland where my family is from) to Rockaway Beach (where my sister-in-law grew up) to the '64 Worlds Fair (they really DID meet Robert Kennedy there), all the way to an autumnal country lane... somewhere in New England let's say." Marc Cohn on Facebook
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum

Gary Brooker of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.

Don Felder

Don FelderSongwriter Interviews

Don breaks down "Hotel California" and other songs he wrote as a member of the Eagles. Now we know where the "warm smell of colitas" came from.

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)Songwriter Interviews

Before "Rap" was a form of music, it was something guys did to pick up girls in nightclubs. Donnie talks about "The Rapper" and reveals the identity of Leah.

Al Kooper

Al KooperSongwriter Interviews

Kooper produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, played with Dylan and the Stones, and formed BS&T.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.