Just What the Truth Is I Can't Say Anymore
I rolled my eyes. I didn't want to hear it again.
Because I grew up listening to FM radio. And if I haven't heard it a million times, it's probably in the tens of thousands.
And it's overblown. And overwrought. And has that line I've never been able to figure out. (I look it up every few years, then instantly forget it.)
"There's a reason these things are classics," she said to me.
And I sneered. (Inasmuch as I can sneer.) "Yeah," I said. "Because people years ago had no taste."
"Just listen," she said. And she lowered the needle onto the vinyl.
And I closed my eyes. And I forgot all the tens of thousands of times I'd heard it.
Forgot the early girlfriend who loved the song. And the later one who hated it.
I let go of all the associations.
And just listened.
"I know," she said when it was over. "I know."
And while I certainly don't need to hear it a million more times, I get it now. Again.
I understand why it's a classic.
Flaws and all.
Slumgullion
1 day ago
Posts
5 comments:
Great song!
Great timing Alex, as I am feeling a Moody Blues marathon coming on here at the house of Pleasant. I remember listening to this on FM radio back in '67 late at night. It certainly sets a mood.
Odd how things happen: A dancer on "So You Think You Can Dance" used a cover of "Nights in White Satin" last evening, and as I watched, I was thinking about digging out the Moody's version. And as I thought that, I also thought that I would find it a much better record than I remembered it to be. And that was true.
Oh, Alex. Oh. Oh dear. I'm speechless. When I was young, far too young to be doing what I was doing, I was sitting in an a-frame beach house staring out a large window. After awhile I had become one with the ocean which was playing with storm clouds. The surf rolled, the water receded exposing sand and driftwood. Someone, perhaps amused by the depth of my altered state gently put some earphones on my head and I heard, "Oh how I love you" for the first time. And with that moment, I developed what is now a lifelong love of the core 7 of the Moody Blues. Oh, Alex.
I am a sucker for the Moodies and always have been. Yes, their pretentiousness is hanging out there like a slow curve ball for all to see, but so is their sincerity as they say seek and find and convey core realities that most of us, so full of hipness and irony, are too cool to say but which in the end matter the most: "Lovely to see you again, my friend."
Post a Comment