“Like the Way I Do”

Melissa Etheridge

From the album Melissa Etheridge

1988

On this February day so chill

A good torch song, if you will,

Stokes the smoldering coals

Of love that obsesses souls,

When jealousy fans the flame,

Competition joins the game,

And love is not the same-

It’s searing pain….

“Like the Way I Do”

Is it so hard to satisfy your senses
You found out to love me you have to climb some fences
Scratching and crawling along the floor to touch you
And just when it feels right you say you found someone else to hold you
Does she like i do

Tell me does she love you like the way I love you
Does she stimulate you attract and captivate you
Tell me does she miss you existing just to kiss you
Like the way I do
Tell me does she want you infatuate and haunt you
Does she know just how to shock and electrify and rock you
Does she inject you seduce you and affect you
Like the way I do

Can I survive all the implications
Even if I tried could you be less than an addiction
Don't you think I know there's so many others
Who would beg steal and lie fight kill and die
Just to hold you hold you like I do

Tell me does she love you like the way I love you
Does she stimulate you attract and captivate you
Tell me does she miss you existing just to kiss you
Like the way I do
Tell me does she want you infatuate and haunt you
Does she know just how to shock and electrify and rock you
Does she inject you seduce you and affect you
Like the way I do

Nobody loves you like the way I do
Nobody wants you like the way I do
Nobody needs you like the way I do
Nobody aches nobody aches just to hold you
Like the way I do

Tell me does she love you like the way I love you
Does she stimulate you attract and captivate you
Tell me does she miss you existing just to kiss you
Like the way I do
Tell me does she want you infatuate and haunt you
Does she know just how to shock and electrify and rock you
Does she inject you seduce you and affect you
Like the way I do

Is it so hard to satisfy your senses, she asks. 

Their love was a struggle at first.  But just when

 it felt right, her lover found someone else.  Now

her passion is an inferno of questions, reasoning,

and accusations, belted out in Etheridge’s throaty

alto voice, with her acoustic guitar accompaniment.

“Like the Way I Do,” from Etheridge’s debut

album, remains my favorite of all her poem/

songs.“  The song is actually a poem, and

a dramatic, passionate poem at that, with

hyperbole and intense emotion throughout.

“Don’t you think I know there’s so many others

 who would beg steal and lie, fight kill and die

 just to hold you like I do.”   

The chorus is a litany of passionate questions:

Tell me does she love you like the way I love you
Does she stimulate you attract and captivate you
Tell me does she miss you existing just to kiss you
Like the way I do
Tell me does she want you infatuate and haunt you
Does she know just how to shock and electrify and rock you
Does she inject you seduce you and affect you
Like the way I do

I love the internal rhymes and line end rhymes in the

chorus.  Etheridge makes them sound unforced and

effortless, singing these poignant lines in a lusty snarl.

The bridge of the song is the voice of reason; she points

out that nobody loves, wants, or needs the lover like

she does; “nobody aches, nobody aches just to hold you

like I do.”

.

The chorus follows this passage, sung with intensity,

 the final line ending in a choked sob which never

fails to bring me to tears. 

“Like the Way I Do” by Melissa Etheridge is a blues

rock masterpiece which she has stated reflects her

own experience.  This song resonates with many a listener.