Making love out of nothing at all

Question:
Hi

I first heard this song when I saw the film:’Click’. Its name is’ Making love out of nothing at all’. I have liked it since then. I like the melody and I found the lyrics meaningful. I have always thought that’ making love out of nothing at all’ in this song means: to make a love from nothing at all. But unfortunately, yesterday when I looked up in the’ oxford dictionary for advanced learners’, ‘make love’ has only one meaning:’ to have sex’! So the phrase means: ‘to have sex for no reason’? In my culture, it is quite offensive if you use that word in a song.. I was really disappointed and upset, as with that meaning the song means almost nothing to me. Moreover,in my opinion, if that phrase refers to ‘have sex’, it doesn’t match with the rest of the song. Could you please tell me what does the phrase and the song mean. I really don’t want to be rude, i just want to know exactly what the artist want to say.

Ans 01:
I know this is an old post, but I thought it would be fun to answer it. I’m originally from the U.S. Love is something that is misinterpreted from country to country. I spent some time traveling to other countries. In America love can be taken two different ways. Love is seen as “sex” or it can be “a strong emotion of regard and affection.” The second meaning is what is used in this song. In other words, love is a feeling. So in this song “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” means that he fell in love with her and she didn’t do anything to make it happen…it just did. He doesn’t understand how he fell in love with her when she did nothing to try to win his affection. If you watch the music video it starts off with a guy who is a musician and a girl. They are both saying goodbye because he has to go on tour with the band. He wants her to go with him but she refuses to come. I won’t spoil the rest of the video. Just search online and you will find it. He truly loves her, but she doesn’t see a point in having their relationship continue because they are both leaving.

This is a highly romantic 80’s song that is still cherished to this day by love birds. I hope I cleared this question up. This is just my interpertation of the song. Someone else may have a different opinion.

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Ans 02:
This song is about a singer loves his girlfriend but he has to leave her all the time because he is traveling (on the road) playing shows with his band. He loves her and asks her to come with him on the road, but she refuses, but still she loves him. He is saying that she “making love out of nothing at all” meaning that he is never there for her, yet she still loves him. “making love” does mean having sex, but in this song you could interpret it as “making our love out of nothing at all”. It is a song about love, not sex. Emotion: smile

10th August 2012

Ans 03:
Hi,

I know this is an old post, but it looks like it hasn’t really been answered yet. You’re asking two questions–what does “making love” mean in the song, and what does the song mean.

First, in this song, the phrase “making love” is a little bit misleading. Although “making love” does mean having sex, that phrase isn’t actually in the song. What he is saying in the song is what he actually means. Making–love. In other words, creating love. If there is nothing between us, how do we make feelings out of nothing? Does that make sense? He’s not saying, “having sex out of nothing at all.” He means it literally-making feelings of love when there is nothing between us. Of course there is a little bit of a play on words there–obviously anyone hearing the song will think he is talking about sex, but that isn’t at all what he actually means. (Although, “making love” does not mean exactly “having sex.” To an English speaker, “making love” is the opposite of “having sex.” “Having sex” is sex without feeling. “Making love” is having sex WITH feelings. You hear all the time a woman say, “I want to make love, not have sex!” And in older times, “making love” actually meant romancing a woman, TELLING her you love her, telling her how pretty she is, how she makes your heart swell with passion, etc. That would have been called “making love” 100 years ago. But none of that is what the song about.

I absolutely love this song, because it is VERY negative. It’s brilliant, because people think it is romantic, but it is the opposite of romantic. When he says “nothing at all” he means there is nothing at all inside him. No feelings at all. Not for anyone. He is a robot–he knows how to FAKE emotion, everything is fake. You have to listen to the lyrics really carefully to understand this. He says, “I know just how to whisper, and I know just how to cry, I know just where to find the answers and I know just how to lie.” He means he knows exactly what to do to make her love him. He knows just what to say, just how to act, to PRETEND he loves her, to get her to love him. It’s really bitter and negative.

BUT, there’s a problem. Even though he doesn’t really love her, it’s all an act, still, something is wrong, he doesn’t know how to leave her, and he doesn’t know how she does it, making love when there is nothing there.

It’s a song of redemption. He is bitter and jaded and never has feelings for anyone. Yet somehow he cannot explain, he has feelings for her.

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Ans 04:
I’m guessing from a position of sublime ignorance – I know nothing of Air Supply or this song – but I found the lyrics HERE.

I am sure I don’t need to explain what Making Love usually means, so I won’t. But I suggest that in this particular context it actually means something more like “conjuring up the sense that you are in love”.

The important point about the phrase is that “making” in many other contexts requires some materials out of which to “make” whatever it is.

So, the “out of nothing at all” means something like “without any real basis in what I have said or what I have done”.

So, the old cynic suggests that this song title actually means:
Creating the delusion of an emotional attachment in the absence of any behavioural foundation.