Come On Home - Indigo Girls. That’s a live version from a cam at a concert, so doesn’t sound as good as the album version, but it’s all I could find. Lyrics
I don’t know that it’s a standard love song, per se, but it’s about helping your partner battle their internal demons. Resonates with me as someone, like you, who’s stuggled with depression and anxiety and has an unbelievably supportive husband.
On a lighter note:
The Woman With You - Kenny Chesney. Lyrics
Enormously different, as I bet you figured!
Anna Begins is about young man contemplating being in love. A serious love of the sort that leads to marriage and kids and life and such. But he’s scared of it and eventually his being scared loses him his opportunity with her.
Maybe it’s showing our differences. I’m, apparently, about 10 years older than you and male. If you, at your age, were thinking about ‘should I have sex with this guy’ at the same time in my milieu my cohort was thinking ‘Am I ready to be this committed to this girl?’. Frankly, that’s far more terrifying and confusing at 27 than anything about sex is. We’d conquered that particular issue by then and were confronting others.
Feh, either interpretation could be right. But Anna Begins, like Time After Time before it, hits the right level of late night, stare-at-the-ceiling emotional upset.
“Just the Way You Are” - Billy Joel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G5SK2S/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk6 -Ordinary Man by Bill Miller. wonderful song.
also http://www.amazon.com/Whereve-You-Been/dp/B000WGUYAS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1275318291&sr=8-4 Where Have You Been - great song,
Oh my goodness. Thank you everyone for the varied and wonderful suggestions. I have gone through every song reccomended here, and have been pleased to find some really unique artists I’ve never heard before.
Oh, oh, oh, this is a beautiful song. I love Roseanne Cash and had never heard this one before. It’s definitely going on the list.
Your one suggestion is one of the best love songs I have ever heard. It’s going on the list.
Ha, I’d forgotten about this song. I might put it on there just for fun. BNL is one of those bands that writes realistically about relationships in general.
No, this song is perfect. I worked at a nursing home last year and talked with him often about coming to terms with the reality of aging and death, and how he would probably die first (statistically speaking.) We’ve also had many conversations this year about our changing ideas about religion and god. There is so much in this song that feels personal to our situation. It’s going to be the last track on the slow disc.
I don’t know if I’m going to include it, but I love ‘‘Feel Like Making Love.’’ I think it’s one of the sexiest rock songs ever.
As for Lovesong, that has to go on there, but it has to be the 311 cover, because it was the 311 cover I heard while shopping for art in Mexico on our 1 year anniversary, and therefore the version of that song I associate with that period of our relationship (as well as the painting I bought.)
Great suggestion, great song. I may have used this song for the first mix CD I made him. I think I’m going to have to sneak around and figure it out somehow so I don’t do any repeats.
Hahaha. I am seriously considering using this one.
Now, to be fair, it made me remember Zeppelin’s ‘‘All My Love’’ which is a gorgeous, appropriate song and might make the list.
Wow, yeah. The Indigo Girls song… definitely hits home. To me it reads exactly like living with a partner who has PTSD. I’m still thinking about whether or not to include it, but really that’s very powerful.
As for Kenny Chesney, I totally love his music (he did ‘‘Don’t Blink’’ right?) Sr. Olives has a degree of respect for country music but he doesn’t have the same connection with it that I do. I can really relate to that song, though.
Okay, guys, I now have 30 amazing ballads (to narrow down to 12-15) and only a handful of the uptempo stuff. Can anyone recommend some badass throw-down rock songs that also happen to be amazing love songs?
Your love is like bad medicine - Bon Jovi
I was just listening to Power of Two, also by the Indigo Girls. To me, it’s wonderfully loving, but also feels like making up after a fight, and a promise to always be there.
I had a lot of good suggestions when I was looking for songs for our 25th anniversary:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=473162&highlight=anniversary
At the end of the thread was the list of songs we actually used. Many were ones we already had, others were easily obtained from iTunes.
Melanie (i.e., Melanie Safka, but she is/was Melanie the way Cher Bono = Cher), “Together Alone”.
Probably youtubable.
Good Lord, that’s a love song?
Wow! Just reading the lyrics literally brought a tear to my eye - and I’m a grizzled 40+ dude. I will definitely be visiting iTunes store when I get home from work.
but this CD is considered by some as the best album of love songs ever done:
You go to your I-tunes; type in “love” in the search; then sort by genre and by year, and find the rock songs in the 70’s 80’s & 90’s category. Pretty simple. 
Today is the day!
T minus one hour until the anniversary gift exchange, and I just finished. I want to thank you all for your wonderful suggestions.
Here are the final results (with some commentary)
LOVE IN THE TIME OF GRAD SCHOOL, FAST SONGS:
Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi (totally an inside joke referencing our great move east… our moving van broke down… halfway there… when this song came on the radio. So even though we were stranded, we just laughed and enjoyed the delay by singing loudly at the top of our lungs.)
Never - Heart (I just really like Heart)
Automatic - Weezer (love this song, and it really speaks to where we’re at right now.)
All the Small Things - Blink 182
These Days - Alien Ant Farm
(These days I’m great. There’s work to do. Would you like to work with me? I’d love to work you. These days are great. And so are you. I think it’s something positive, and negative too.)
Float On - Modest Mouse
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground - White Stripes
(One of the best love songs ever written if you ask me. And every breath that is in your lungs is a tiny little gift to me.)
The Middle - Jimmy Eat World (Hey, don’t write yourself off yet. It’s only in your head you feel left out and looked down on. He really needs to hear this message right now. Also we had a blast dancing to this at our wedding.)
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers (another fun song from our wedding.)
Talking in Your Sleep - The Romantics
Let My Love Open the Door - Pete Townshend (he’s a Who fan.)
Come Sail Away - Styx (We are both fans of the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks. He often sings this song to me as ‘‘Come Snail Away’’ because I like snails. So I wrote it as ‘‘Come Snail Away’’ in the playlist.)
LOVE IN THE TIME OF GRAD SCHOOL, SLOW SONGS (AKA, bring on the tears)
Love Song - 311 (On our one year anniversary, I was in Mexico, in a little artisan village, looking at paintings. And I found the perfect most romantic painting at the exact moment this song came on the radio. The painting is now hanging over our sofa, and that moment is forever etched in my memory.)
The Wheel - Roseanne Cash (I can’t BELIEVE I’d never heard this song before. It is amazing.)
Swing Life Away - Rise Against
Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
Shut Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
Come on Home - Indigo Girls (I think he is going to cry when he hears this song. It’s the most painful part of us. The lines that hit the hardest are there is fire, there is lust, but some would trade it all for someone they can trust)
You Rise and Meet the Day - Dar Williams
How Can We See That Far? - Amy Grant (An old favorite of mine about having faith in an uncertain future. Like your Daddy says, the same sun that melts the wax will harden clay. The same rain that drowns the rat will grow the hay. And the mighty wind that knocks us down if we lean into it will drive our fears away.)
Vision of Love - Mariah Carey (there is so much joy in this song, I love it.)
Dear Life - Anthony Hamilton (thanks for this recommendation. So beautiful.)
I’ll Stand By You - The Pretenders
This Will Be Our Year - The Zombies
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie.
I didn’t know Droid had a Rhapsody application, but it does! I am testing the playlist out as we speak – so far it’s pretty awesome. I put the songs on a mix tape memory stick. They didn’t all fit, but it’s a great presentation. Ultimately I think we’ll just transfer the playlist from Rhapsody onto his MP3 player. He is going to love it. I think it’s exactly what he needs right now.
Thanks again!
I adore Swing Life Away 
Me too!
Just as I predicted, he loved it! We listened to it all in the car on our way to dinner and a movie.
He got me a new digital camera. Our old one we got when we married four years ago, so yeah, it could use a little updating!