Words to live by in the lyrics of a song
Life has theme music.
While everyone else was contemplating the significant shift in geopolitical power bases, the morality, the hypocrisy, the affect on lives and families — I had a tune spinning in the back of my head. One of those you can’t quite place and can’t get rid of. You simply must remember it … or else your head explodes.
This is not to diminish the importance of Sen. John Ensign announcing his affair and all that it implies, but generations of Americans have lived their lives with the radio playing in the background during good times and bad. During love. During emergencies. During tragedy. Sometimes the tune is appropriate, usually not.
On trash day we hum a few bars of “take out the papers and the trash, or you don’t get no spending cash.”
What song is the theme for professing adultery? A dirge? A Portuguese fado of love’s lament. Rock? Folk? Jazz?
In my head I kept hearing the baritone musings of Joe Williams along with a snatch or two of lyric. It took all afternoon, but I found it.
“Can't you see
“What love and romance has done to me
“I'm not the same I used to be
“This is my last affair …
“I'll make a vow
“No more to love's shrine will I bow
“I've crossed my heart and I'll seal it now
“This is my last affair.”
Now that’s a promise to keep.
Here is a bit of Joe’s version:
