Botti is also a former radio host. His show, called "Chill with Chris Botti," focused mainly on "chill" music, which is described as "smooth jazz with a touch of cool jazz."
You Don't Know What Love Is
Chris Botti Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
You don't know what love is.
You don't know how lips hurt
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Do you know how a lost heart fears
At the thought of reminiscing,
And how lips that taste of tears
Lose their taste for kissing?
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that can, not live yet never dies.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
You don't know what love is.
Chris Botti's song, "You Don't Know What Love Is," is a poignant ballad that speaks of the harsh realities of love. The heartwrenching opening lines "You don't know what love is, until you've learned the meaning of the blues," suggest that the singer is addressing someone who is naive about the emotional toll of love. The blues imply sadness and melancholy, and the singer is saying that one cannot truly understand love until they have experienced the pain and suffering that comes with it.
The next line, "Until you've loved a love you've had to lose," suggests that the singer has experienced heartbreak and has become wiser for it. Loving and then losing someone can be an incredibly painful experience, but it can also teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and about the nature of love.
The second verse speaks of the physical pain that can come with love in lines such as "You don't know how lips hurt until you've kissed and had to pay the cost." The singer is suggesting that love isn't just an emotional experience, but a physical one as well. When we love someone deeply, our emotions and our physical bodies become intertwined, and the pain of losing that person can be overwhelming.
The final lines of the song are particularly moving, as they speak of the all-consuming nature of love. "You don't know how hearts burn for love that can not live yet never dies, until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes, you don't know what love is." The imagery of facing each dawn with sleepless eyes suggests the all-encompassing nature of love, and how it can consume our thoughts and emotions completely.
Overall, "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a beautiful and haunting song that speaks to the universal human experience of love and loss.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't know what love is
Love is not just a word or feeling, it takes a lot more to understand the depth of it
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
You need to go through rough patches in life and experience pain to understand the true essence of love.
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
Unconditional love requires giving everything you have, and losing it all to understand the true meaning of it.
You don't know how lips hurt
Kissing someone you love comes at a price and can be painful during a loss.
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
Kissing someone you love will come with a cost and pain if something goes wrong.
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Losing someone you love will hurt so much that you will feel as if someone flipped your heart inside out.
You don't know what love is.
Without going through the pain of losing someone you love, you will not be able to understand the true meaning of love.
Do you know how a lost heart fears
After losing someone you love, your heart will be full of fear and uncertainty that you never thought was possible before.
At the thought of reminiscing,
Memories of the one you loved will bring fear and pain, especially when those memories come flooding back unexpectedly.
And how lips that taste of tears
Crying so much in pain will cause your lips to taste of salty tears.
Lose their taste for kissing?
After tasting the saltiness of tears, a person may not even want to kiss someone they love as that would mean opening up the floodgates of tears again.
You don't know how hearts burn
Loving someone with all your heart can leave you feeling burning from the inside out.
For love that can, not live yet never dies.
The love you have for someone who has passed away will never die and you will always remember the love you had for them.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
After losing someone you love, every morning will be a new day to face, and sleep will seem like a distant memory.
You don't know what love is.
Without going through the pain of losing someone you love, you will never truly know what love is.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind