Long Ago - Far Away

In the evenings, after supper, hubby and I go our separate ways. I go upstairs to my screen and he goes from whatever aggravating news show we had on during supper to Hee Haw reruns. It’s a happy arrangement, one replicated throughout the country, I’ll wager.

So last night for some reason, the new  year maybe, I wanted to listen to a few tunes before I went to Netflix. I craved something with a snappy Latin beat and there was one zipping around in my brain that I couldn’t remember the title of or the group that sings it. So I settled for some oldies. Oh, boy.

Lenny Welch – Since I Fell for You. This throws me back to my lovelorn teen years when I imagined I was destined to love . . . oh, who? Tommy, Vito, Roger, Clarence. It wasn’t the guy, but the image of the guy that mattered. You know how romantic teenage girls are. Anyway, Lenny croons out this song with heartfelt emotion  in a crystal clear voice with enough of a catch in it to wrench the heart of every sixteen year old Juliet in the land. Sigh. Love it.

Harry Nilsson – Remember. I first heard this song in my favorite of all time romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail. It’s played while Meg Ryan is decorating her little book store for Christmas and imagining her long gone mother. There’s even a filmy scene in the background where her little girl self dances with her mom. You can’t think too hard about the lyrics while this one is playing. Harry gets it so right about what remembering is that tears threaten on the precipice and will ruin your mascara if you let your mind go there. It’s that powerful.  

Timi Yuro – Hurt. Man, could that woman belt out a song or what? For sheer drama in a relationship go find this one and listen to it. It’s one of those oldies where the singer stops in the middle and speaks a few lines to the egregious offender. You  wonder after he heard this song how he could stay away from her for long, the big dope. One imagines he comes speeding back with roses and a ring, but that’s the romantic teen in me speaking, I guess. I also wonder how many current pop stars have taken a page from Timi’s style book and imitate her powerful delivery. Oh, wait. You could understand all the word’s in Yuro’s songs so maybe not. A little 'old lady snark' there. Heh, heh.

There were  many others I listened to and then the nostalgia wave passed like last night’s burrito and I went on over to finish up the last episode of Parenthood on Netflix. But looking back is a worthy exercise and if you can keep from feeling like some kind of stone age cartoon character for doing so, I have to tell you, it’s good for the soul. Yes, it is.

Image: Free Digital Photos