This is the first tune that really hit me as a bona fide, lay it all on the line, love song love song. I heard it for the first time back in high school and was struck by how completely earnest it is. That’s actually a quality Cat Stevens brings to most of his work, but this song in particular.
I suppose these lyrics describe an unrequited love, or at least a long-distance relationship. In that sense it definitely has an aura of melancholy, which Alex should appreciate because she is always pointing out that I am drawn to the melancholy in music and film.
OK, now we’re talking. After a long dry spell and a lot of good-not-great movies, I’ve seen a batch of films in the past few weeks that boost 2008′s quality level substantially. And my favorite of all these movies — indeed my favorite of the year so far — is Slumdog Millionaire.
OK, I’m throwing caution to the wind and going with my third theme week in a row. And the unsentimental among you might want to skip the next seven days.
I’ve always been fascinated by the writing arrangement between Elton John and Bernie Taupin, wherein John writes all the music and Taupin all the lyrics. It’s hard to imagine the lyrics of ‘Your Song’ or ‘Daniel’ being written completely unaware of the melodies that would one day support them. And it’s equally hard to imagine the music of ‘Levon’ or Tiny Dancer’ being written with no clue what words would fill their spaces.
