Love Lines
Discover and explore powerful lyrics from some of the greatest love songs. Hosted by critically acclaimed writer, Acamea Deadwiler, each episode combines storytelling with music commentary.
Love Lines
1+1 by Beyoncé
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Beyhive, this one is for you.
Love Lines from ‘1+1’ by Beyonce
My favorite part of “1+1” is the closing guitar solo. When Beyoncé takes a break from words and lets the music speak. The guitar is passionate, fit to accompany the steamiest love-making scene in any movie. It is strong but not overpowering, like Mrs. Carter’s distinctive voice.
Though the moaning guitar at the end of “1+1” is what sends me over the edge, Beyoncé takes me there with potent language leading to this climax.
As always, Beyoncé executes flawless runs and hits notes with a power that makes me believe my vocal cords might pop if I tried foolish emulation. Even on a ballad, she sings with an urgency evoking all the feels. “1+1” is a testament to red love—aggressive with barely containable desire that tightropes the border of madness and sometimes steps over. It’s what the Ancient Greeks would call Eros, a love distinctive from other forms in that it is not playful or responsive to reason.
The love expressed in this song is serious with talk of death, apocalypse, and even math—hence the title. The lyrics are intense and enveloping. Beyoncé presents each referential scenario only to shoot it down. She doesn’t care how little she’s left with as long as her beloved is by her side.
In real life, the most awarded artist in Grammy history and her husband enjoy abundant fortune. Destitution is probably not something the Knowles-Carter family will need to worry about for generations, if ever. Still, what the singer suggests in “1+1” is that all they have, all anyone has amounts to irrelevance in the absence of love.
Not just any love. But the kind you know must be protected at all costs. The type of love for which you are willing to do almost anything even as you’re relieved it hasn’t come to those things. Such as what Beyoncé expresses with these lines:
I don't know much about fighting but I
I know I will fight for you (Hey)
And just when I ball up my fist, I realize
I'm laying right next to you
The beauty is rooted in how Beyoncé delivers these lyrics. There is a resolve in her rhythm. A haunting earnestness in her tone.
A recurring plea runs through “1+1.” Make love to me. It is to say that any worry and fear are small matters in the face of mutual reverence. So, may as well focus on the latter and do this instead.
That “1+1” concludes with the guitar fading out is fitting. It’s as though Beyoncé has left the room. Like she rides off into the sunset or surrenders at world’s end after having made her point, “We ain’t got nothing but love.”
