> You know, these songs and many rock songs have a kind of self-absorbed maudlin quality after a while... The Scorpions ballads hit it off the most with me, more for the music and voice than the actual lyrics.

Mmm. "Wind of Change" (singular ;-}) is a particular favourite of mine. Some ballads, though, are distinctly not love songs: Poison's "Something To Believe In," por ejemplo. Though I must say, in all honesty, my absolute favourite is "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," also by Poison. In fact, for all classic movie buffs (heh), when Bill and Ted were required to provide some wisdom before they could get into Heaven ("Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey"), the wisdom they used was the refrain from "Every Rose." Now that's pretty cool, right there.