Songs Of Lament

A number of tunes have been rolling around in my head of late, some in the genre that's least typical for me, that is, Country. (God, these ginger snaps are U 238 snappy!) But, hey, listen, if it's good enough for Robert Plant (Raising Sand) and Elvis Costello (The Delivery Man), it's certainly good enough for me.

It's no myth that the majority of popular music over the centuries has to do with love, loss and lost love. Okay, Frank Zappa may be the exception, but that's not really pop, anyhow. We shout into the steering wheel and showerhead with laments that express the joy, frustration and loss at, and of, love. Country music happens to do this very, very well. For instance, Willie Nelson, who wrote "Crazy," which was sung by Patsy Cline to hitdom in the early '60s, also wrote:

It's not supposed to be that way.
You're supposed to know I love you
It don't matter anyway
If I can't be there to console you

Willie knows the truth about love, alright. In this song, it's clear that there's a mixture of lament and warning by the spurned lover amounting to, "go ahead and leave me, stomp on my heart, but you ain't gonna like it, mark my words."

In America's country rock hit, "Sister Golden Hair" produced by Beatles ex-producer, George Martin, the lament is more of a negotiation and an explanation for the lack of attention Mr. Man is providing to his love interest:

Well I tried to make it Sunday, but I got so damn depressed
That I set my sights on Monday and I got myself undressed
I ain't ready for the altar but I do agree there's times
When a woman sure can be a friend of mine

Well, I keep on thinkin' 'bout you, Sister Golden Hair surprise
And I just can't live without you; can't you see it in my eyes?
I've been one poor correspondent, and I've been too, too hard to find
But it doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind

This could be any man's lament, but I claim it as mine, okay? But wait, as the now quite dead Billy Mays would say, there's more. Another tune, this one written by Fred Rose and famously performed by Willie Nelson (yeah, so I think he's pretty damn good - got a problem with that?) that really hits me in the gullet because of the poignant resignation in the tone of the poetry is "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain":

In the twilight glow I seen her
Blue eyes crying in the rain
When we kissed goodbye and parted
I knew we'd never meet again

Love is like a dying ember
And only memories remain
And through the ages I'll remember
Blue eyes crying in the rain

Someday when we meet up yonder
We'll stroll hand in hand again
In the land that knows no parting
Blue eyes crying in the rain

This song is far less direct and is subject to all kinds of interpretation. Did she leave him? Did she have a night job working at a smelting plant and fall into a vat of molten steel? Is it about his Mom? Perhaps it's about all those things, and more . . .

Like love, love songs represent many aspects of desire and compromise. In Elvis Costello's "I Want You" from Blood and Chocolate, one can imagine the stark confrontation that's punctuation with the begging "I want you" answering each line:

Oh my baby baby I love you more than I can tell
I don't think I can live without you
And I know that I never will
Oh my baby baby I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than "I love you"
Everything else is a waste of breath
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall
I want you
I woke up and one of us was crying
I want you
You said "Young man I do believe you're dying"
I want you
If you need a second opinion as you seem to do these days
I want you
You can look in my eyes and you can count the ways
I want you
Did you mean to tell me but seem to forget
I want you
Since when were you so generous and inarticulate
I want you
It's the stupid details that my heart is breaking for
It's the way your shoulders shake and what they're shaking for
it's knowing that he knows you now after only guessing
I want you
It's the thought of him undressing you or you undressing
I want you
He tossed some tattered compliment your way
I want you
And you were fool enough to love it when he said
"I want you"
I want you
The truth can't hurt you it's just like the dark
It scares you witless
But in time you see things clear and stark
I want you
Go on and hurt me then we'll let it drop
I want you
I'm afraid I won't know where to stop
I want you
I'm not ashamed to say I cried for you
I want you
I want to know the things you did that we do too
I want you
I want to hear he pleases you more than I do
I want you
I might as well be useless for all it means to you
I want you
Did you call his name out as he held you down
I want you
Oh no my darling not with that clown
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
No-one who wants you could want you more
I want you
Every night when I go off to bed and when I wake up
I want you
I want you
I'm going to say it again 'til I instill it
I know I'm going to feel this way until you kill it
I want you
I want you 

Listen to the performance. It's frightening, threatening and sad. What's worse, I can relate. All too well.

God, this is getting depressing. Now where's my copy of "Walkin' On Sunshine"? Ba ba ba di bop. Yeah.