Friday Song: “This = Love”

Just over a year ago, I featured a song by the Script, a popular Irish band that blends hip-hop, rock, rap, and soaring anthems with ballads — all to great effect. I’d just seen them in concert with my daughter, the person who introduced me to this band and their great music.

Last Friday, shock rippled through the music world as it was announced the band’s founding guitarist and a core contributor, Mark Sheehan, had died after a brief illness. He was 46.

Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins, was quick to release a statement praising the late musician:

It was a great honour and a privilege when I had the opportunity of hosting Mark and The Script when they performed at Áras an Uachtaráin (the official residence of the Irish president) in 2013 as part of my initiative ‘Glaoch – The President’s Call’, which celebrated Irish creativity and its reach and impact across the world.

Through their music, Mark and The Script have played an outstanding part in continuing and promoting this proud tradition of Irish musical success across the world.

Sheehan was a versatile and passionate performer, with a winning intensity that always seemed on the verge of igniting. Rapping, playing guitar, shifting to the mandolin, contributing beautiful harmonies, and engaging with the crowd, his thin beard, bald head, and stylish pants were part of the band’s image.

The news left me breathless for a minute. The Script has been scheduled to open for P!nk on her summer tour, and I was excited to see them get the crowd at Fenway Park going before P!nk took everyone over the edge of euphoria. Whether they will continue to tour, or even as a band, is unclear. Sheehan was absent for many 2021 and 2022 concert dates, citing the need to stay home with his family during a crucial period of his children’s lives, so the band has toured without him.

Which brings home the real tragedy — as the Script put it in their song “If You Could See Me Now” — which I featured a year ago — someone lost a father, someone lost a son. And the Script’s lead singer, Danny O’Donoghue, lost his best friend since childhood.

In Sheehan’s honor today, I want to feature another sensational song by the Script — one that always puts a lump in my throat whenever I sing along to it.

Entitled, “This = Love,” it is featured on the band’s excellent album, Science & Faith. The song is about that strange force that makes us go above and beyond, keeps us bouncing back, and protects us when we need sanctuary. The lyrics have lovely parallelism:

This is why we do it
This is worth the pain
This is why we fall down and get back up again
This is where the heart lies
This is from above
Love is this
This is love

Love is why we do it
Love is worth the pain
Love is why we fall down and get back up again
Love is where the heart lies
Love is from above
Love is this
This is love

Treasure your time here, and show those around you the love they deserve.

Enjoy!