#hs3 lyrics

[bhaktijadeja12]

HARRY'S HOUSE

Harry's House

[hstylesnet]

ever since new york // golden // daylight

[indiaalphawhiskey]

Love of my Life, a (different) reading

I want to start this off by saying that I love the idea that Harry Styles wrote a song called Love of my Life about Louis Tomlinson. Love it, love it, love it; love anyone and everyone who interprets this song that way, and this analysis is in no way meant to invalidate that understanding of it.

This is just a personal interpretation, based on which parts of the song resonate the most with me, my understanding of Harry’s writing style, the theme of the album, and which lyrics/words/lines (and tenses) called my attention the most.

That said…

…is Love of my Life actually about privacy and freedom? (This is gonna get long, more under the cut.)

❣️Based on Harry’s writing style:

I spoke a little about Harry’s writing patterns and vocabulary, but one thing that we’ve also noticed over the last three albums is that Harry speaks about people in a very layered way:

‘You’ is usually used as a gender-neutral song subject.

‘She’ and similar words (woman, angel) are more often a reference to himself.

‘Him’ and similar words (boyfriends) volley between a reference to himself or to a possible third person.

It’s obviously not always the case (and we have no way to verify), but Harry hardly ever writes in a way that’s on the nose, so following this pattern, personifying things like privacy and freedom by referring to them as the ‘love of his life’ fits into his pattern of layered writing.

❣️Based on the themes of the album (self-reflection):

“He’s been thinking a lot recently about autonomy, ownership, privacy. About what he should be able to keep to himself, what he should be able to simply communicate through his music without follow-up questions or prying.”

— Better Homes and Gardens

❣️Based on verb tenses:

“You were the love of my life.”

Let’s assume, for the sake of this post, that it really is ‘were’ and not ‘are’. (I always hear ‘were’, myself, but I also don’t claim to have bionic hearing, so don’t take my word for it.)

Why would Harry write one line in past tense, and the rest of the lyrics in present?

There are two ways to read it. Either:

(i) the ‘love of his life’ (person) is no longer the love of his life, but is still currently present in his life, or

(ii) he’s speaking about the ‘love of his life’ (privacy/freedom) in a nostalgic way, as if it’s not consistently accessible/available to him in his current life, but rather something that comes and goes — that he’s only able to experience in small, finite increments.

And, finally,

❣️Based on lyrics: [lyrics in bold, interpretation in italics]

(Thank you @angelsueishome for the lyrics, although I changed ‘are’ to ‘were’ based on what I hear.)

Baby, you were the love of my life

Oh, maybe, you don’t know what’s lost ‘til you find it

— the common phrase is ‘don’t know what you have ‘til it’s gone’ and the direct reversal of those themes hints at Harry having found the love of his life (privacy/freedom) again in this new situation (lockdown)

Take a walk on Sunday through the afternoon

We can always find something for us to do

We don’t really like what’s on the news, but it’s on all the time

— if you read ‘we’ here as ‘Harry and his privacy/freedom’, the stanza is pretty straightforward

Take you with me every time I go away

In a hotel using someone else’s name

— ‘you’ as privacy/freedom, again the lines are straightforward

I remember back at Johnny’s place

It’s not the same anymore

— someone mentioned he has a childhood friend named Johnny (though I’m not sure how true), but if we read the line as his nostalgia for his life before fame and how that level of privacy/freedom isn’t accessible to him anymore, it makes sense

Baby, you were the love of my life

Oh, maybe, you don’t know what’s lost ‘til you find it

It’s not what I wanted, to leave you behind,

Don’t know where you land when you fly

But baby, you were the love of my life

— three things to note here: (i) resistance to leaving ‘you’ (privacy/freedom) behind, (ii)‘flying’ as a reference to his fame and the interesting use of ‘land’ (when usually, the opposite of ‘fly’ is ‘fall’), so there’s a connotation of positivity, control and even relief, in the come down to earth (from fame), and (iii) the use of ‘but’ for the first time, signifying the acknowledgement of yearning and slight regret

It’s unfortunate,

Just coordinates

— possibly a reference to how any knowledge of his location (by paps, by fans) is usually how his privacy/freedom is taken away from him

I don’t know you half as well as all my friends

I won’t pretend that I’ve been doing everything I can

To get to know your creases and your ends

Are they the same?

— two things to note: (i) ‘you/your’ as privacy/freedom and how there’s a difference between how he experiences these things (in finite amounts) versus how his friends are able to experience them (consistently), (ii) an admission that, for however much he yearns for it, he’s not ready to give up what he has (fame) to get it back, and (iii) questioning whether privacy/freedom looks/feels/is exactly the same as what it used to be to him.

— — —

Anyway, whew! That took a lot out of me.

TL;DR: I think Love of my Life is a song about Harry’s nostalgia for his privacy and freedom.

[ladychlo]

to know your creases and your ends are they the same?.

[sapphicgarlic]

[omegahrry]

he' s definitely the love of my life 💐🪴

[regular-another]

Daylight - Harry Styles

Printable poster here <3

Shirts, stickers and more with this design here <3

Physical posters with this design

[alarrylarrie]

@rbbtruther asked me if I thought the end of keep driving is snippets of text messages Harry and Louis sent each other and now I don’t hear the song the same way.

[swirlycandycane1]

"If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you

You'd be the spoon

Dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you"

Daylight•Harry Styles

[unbisoudelibby]

“Maple Syrup,

Coffee,

Pancakes for two.

Hash brown,

Egg yolk,

I will always love you.”

~ HS ‘Keep Driving’

[pleasing-louis]

☼ If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you. You'll be the spoon, dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you ☼

[bhaktijadeja12]

Harry's House Lyrics

[aestheteinreverie]

a visit to harry’s house is just a trip down the memory lane. it is nostalgia for a home you once had as well the one you never had but wish you did.

[indiaalphawhiskey]

Keep Driving, a fic prompt.

Still grief-stricken three years after losing his husband, famously reclusive author Louis Tomlinson finds himself seeking refuge from a sudden downpour in a quaint little BnB in the Middle of Nowhere, Cheshire. All but empty, the place is… quirky, to say the least (an adjective, Louis quickly realizes, is as befitting of the house as it is of the Harry residing in it).

With the roads washed out for a week, Louis, to his infinite displeasure, is forced to stay and endure the determined, er—hospitality—of what his lauded writing prowess can only describe as John Lennon and the Easter Bunny’s long lost love child.

But… could Harry’s House turn out to be his refuge for more than just a little rain?

Cue: sexy pond swims, too much walking in on each other shirtless, and, of course, maple syrup, coffee, pancakes for two.

[ladychlo]

WE MET IN A PECULIAR PLACE.

FOR @rainbowparadisebht.

[alwayslouxhabit]

WISHIN' I COULD BE THERE FOR YA

BE THERE FOR YA

BE THERE FOR YA, FOR YA

FOR YA, BE THERE FOR YA