International Orange, "Afraid of Love"

International Orange was an Indie Rock band that was together for a couple of years in the Chapel Hill area when I was in college. It was a trio composed of Robert Sledge (the bassist from Ben Folds Five), Django Haskins, a singer-songwriter with whom I was unfamiliar, and Snuzz (Brett Uzzell I believe is his real name), a local singer-songwriter indie rocker I liked. I saw them several times and they had very catchy, quirky, nice harmony type songs. Several of them were songs that I knew from Snuzz or former B-sides from Ben Folds Five that were written by Sledge (including “Prince Charming” which has somewhat of a cult following among the hardcore BFF fans).

My favorite song by IO is “Afraid of Love”, and a Google search did not turn up the lyrics to this song which is a shame. I don’t want that to ever happen again, so here they are.

There are many people here who’d love to see you fail
They would gather up the clippings from the daily mail
And savor every whispered word in sad detail
‘Cause they’re afraid of love

There are many people here who’d love to see you cry
It would make them feel better ’cause they never try
They think they’re living but they only just survive
‘Cause they’re afraid of love

Now foreign wars and blood and gore don’t phase them
For they have grown accustomed to the sight
The tender words and open hearts amaze them
And terror turns their muddy cheeks to white

They all scoff when whooping cough assails them
And pneumonia they would happily endure
But when the heart’s the body part that ails them
They scour the heavens looking for a cure

So many lonely people guard against the slightest touch
They swear they’re satisfied but they protest too much
But darling we could never let that bother us
Don’t be afraid of love
No darling we could never let that bother us
Don’t be afraid of love

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