As I watch the way the people in my generation (Boomers) struggle with the rapid changes going on today it gives me some idea what it must have been like for someone in Eugene's generation, also known as the greatest generation to deal with the changes in the 1960s.

Probably the bggest disruption to them was in the area of sex as this was the time of what was referred to as the 'Free love Movement'.

This topic has been covered in many books and research papers, but the best way to really understand the time period may be to binge-watch Mad Men.

Eugene, as a song writer, explored this topic a lot, but as was done in those days, he used euphemisms, expressions with double meanings, and other ways of getting his message accoss, which brings me to a special favorite song of mine - Lovins Without Love.

One of the few ways that sex was mentioned in polite conversation was to say 'making love' (in hushed tones), which was understood by everyone to mean having sex, and was not said on TV, rarely used in songs, and only in movies that the Catholic Church listed as 'Morally Objectional for All' which were usually about as risque as a PG13 movie of today.

I mention this because of the different ways, Eugene uses the word 'love'.

The key is simple - if Eugene uses the word 'love' he is talking about love, and when he writes 'lovin' he is talking about sex, and when he says 'free love' he is also talking about sex, and if he talks about 'lovins' he is talking about having sex more than once, so the title of this song, Lovins Without Love is about having a sex partner without it being a love relationship, a concept that at the time was thought about constantly, mentioned rarely, and lied about always, with guys saying they did when they didn't and the girls saying they didn't when they did.

A few years ago I ran into an expression that was very close to the concept that Eugene was searching for in this song: 'friends with benefits'. I guess Eugene was ahead of his time.

The song starts off by expressing total disillusionment with the whole concept of love towards someone and then goes to 'can't we be friends', - which he is not using as that old lame breakup line, but rather as a request to be together without the problems of being in love.

He then doubles down and goes into a total rejection of love and attachment, and rejecting social norms about love and sex.

Then after making his heartfelt argument against love he finally gets to the point in the final line of the song - 'if you want me Baby, I'm lovin without love'.