this entry comes into existence as a reply to Lyn's query after Chem whether i could recommend any sad songs. the songs i have selected are melancholic and achingly sweet ones. you will notice i have included the songwriters' names in brackets and the name of the artiste, who to my impeccable(!) taste, gives the song the most emotive treatment compared to others. now, go download the following songs by these fellas so that the lyrics i have transcribed won't have to be so lonely on this screen!

Hmm, everyone seems to be in a depressed mood. Everyone, that is Lyn, Pin, and I. Okay, so not everyone shares our sorrow, which by the way is caused by different things, but I love the hyperbole there. For to have everyone understand your misery is quite the thing, as the first song goes:

Only The Lonely
(Roy Orbison & Joe Melson)
Roy Orbison, #2 1960

Only the lonely,
Know the way I feel tonight,
Only the lonely,
Know this feeling ain't right.

There goes my baby, there goes my heart,
They're gone forever, so far apart,
But only the lonely—know why—I cry,
Only the lonely.

Only the lonely,
Know the heartaches I've been through,
Only the lonely,
Know I cry and cry for you.

Maybe tomorrow, a new romance
No more sorrow, but that's the chance
You've gotta take, if your lonely heart breaks
Only the lonely. _END

Hmm, yes only the lonely know just how I feel. And the following is a most wistfully romantic piece that sums up how I feel about *her*, >sigh< ... maybe I'll sing this to *her*, by the sea,

The Shadow Of Your Smile
(Paul Francis Webster & John Mandel)
Tony Bennett, #95 1965
- won the Academy Award in 1965 for
best song from the movie "The Sandpiper"

One day we walked along the sand
One day in early spring
You held a piper in your hand
To mend its broken wing

Now I'll remember many a day,
And many a lonely mile,
The echo of the piper song,
The shadow of her smile.

The shadow of your smile,
When you are gone,
Will colour all my dreams,
And light the dawn.

Look into my eyes my love and see,
All the lovely things you are to me.

Our wistful little star,
Was far too high,
A teardrop kissed your lips,
And so did I!

Now when I remember spring,
All the joy that love can bring,
I will be remembering,
The shadow of your smile. _END

But if I sing, won't it rain? No not the happy tune 'Singing in the Rain'. Anyway bak pepatah "katak memanggil hujan" I think the rain I call will serve its purpose to help me do my...

Crying In The Rain
(H. Greenfield & Carole King)
The Everly Brothers, #2 1962

I'll never let you see,
The way my broken heart is hurtin' me,
I've got my pride and I know how to hide,
All my sorrow and pain,
I'll do my cryin' in the rain.

If I wait for cloudy skies,
You won't know the rain from the tears in my eyes,
You'll never know that I still love you so,
Though the heartaches remain,
I'll do my cryin' in the rain.

Raindrops fallin' from Heaven,
Could never wash away my misery,
But since we're not together,
I'll look for stormy weather,
To hide the tears I hope you'll never see.

Someday when my cryin's done,
I'm gonna wear a smile and walk in the sun,
I may be a fool but till then
Darling, you'll never see me complain,
I'll do my cryin' in the rain,
I'll do my cryin' in the rain,
I'll do my cryin' in the rain. _END

Say, we can't have rain all the time, and I can't have that song playing all day long. So when night falls, and I feel blue...

All I Have To Do Is Dream
(B. Bryant)
The Everly Brothers, #1 1958

Dream, dream, dream, dream,
Dream, dream, dream, dream
When I want you in my arms,
When I want you and all your charms ,
Whenever I want you,
All I have to do is dream,

Dream, dream, dream,
When I feel blue
In the night and I need you
All I have to do is dream

I can make you mine,
Taste your lips of wine,
Any time, night or day,
Only trouble is, gee whiz!
I'm dreaming my life away.

I need you so, that I could die,
I love you so, and that is why,
Whenever I want you,
All I have to do is dream,
Dream, dream, dream, dream... _END

Heck, when I lie on my bed, I'll most probably reach for a book of poetry to knock me off to dreamland. All the old stuffy Shakespearean sonnets, Byron's bleeding-heart poems, Herrick's half-dirty ones, Blake's songs (of Innocence, Experience, &etc.), ack! the list goes on and on. Nothing like poetry to send a lad to sleep. Not that I dislike it, I love poetry, but it requires you to be in the mood to read, else you'll just drift off to sleep. Speaking about poetry, there's one country singer-songwriter who, in my opinion, writes wonderful poetic lyrics for his songs, almost in the vein of all the old masters I've already mentioned. A personal favourite of mine the following song is, with a very, very, very sad instrumentation to back up the already sad lyrics:

The Last Farewell
(Roger Whittaker & R.A. Webster)
Roger Whittaker

There's a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbour,
Tomorrow for old England she sails,
Far away from your land of endless sunshine,
To my land full of rainy skies and gales,
And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow,
Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell.

For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell,
For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell.

I heard there's a wicked war a-blazing,
And the taste of war I know so very well,
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising,
Their guns on fire as we sail into hell,
I have no fear of death; it brings no sorrow,
But how bitter will be this last farewell?

For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell,
For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell.

Though death and darkness gather all about me,
And my ship be torn apart upon the sea,
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands,
In the heaving waves that brought me once to thee,
And should I return home safe again to England,
I shall watch the English mist roll through the dale.

For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell,
For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly,
More dearly than the spoken word can tell. _END

That song should be in a book of poetry! Anyhoo, let's drift off to another melancholic tune, one that has cuddly lyrics, that Perry Como gives a most tender reading. Surprisingly, for a croony tune, it was written by rock star Kris Kristofferson. By the time you get through it, you will definitely wish that this couple (in the song) will get back together! But not everything works out, so we will remember...

For The Good Times
(Kris Kristofferson)
Perry Como

Don't look so sad, I know it's over,
But life goes on and this old world will keep on turning,
Let's just be glad we had some time to spend together,
There's no need to watch the bridges that we're burning.

Lay your head upon my pillow,
Hold your warm and tender body close to mine,
Hear the whisper of the rain drops
Blowing soft across the window,
And make believe you love me one more time,

For the good times.

I'll get along, you'll find another,
And I'll be here if you should find you ever need me,
Don't say a word about tomorrow or forever,
There'll be time enough for sadness when you leave me.

Lay your head upon my pillow,
Hold your warm and tender body close to mine,
Hear the whisper of the rain drops
Blowing soft across the window,
And make believe you love me one more time,

For the good times,
For the good times... _END

It is a noble thing when a lover lets the other go, understanding that the other has another in mind. I haven't selected a song with that theme in mind. Okay, we know that no matter how understanding that noble person is, a big blue emptiness will undoubtedly reign, filled with more painful memories...

Blue On Blue
(Hal David & Burt Bacharach)
Bobby Vinton, #78 1963
Bobby also charted "Blue Velvet" @ #11 in '63

Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
Blue on blue now that we are through,
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
And I find I can't get over losing you.

I walk along the street we used to walk,
Two by two, lovers pass,
And as they're passing by, I could die,
'Cause you're not here with me;
Now the trees are bare
There's sadness in the air,
And I'm as blue as I can be.

Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
Blue on blue now that we are through,
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
And I find I can't get over losing you.

Night after lonely night, we meet in dreams,
As I run to your side,
You wait with open arms,
Open arms that now are closed—to me,
Through a veil of tears,
Your vision disappears,
And I'm as blue as I can be.

Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
Blue on blue now that we are through,
Blue on blue, heartache on heartache,
And I find I can't get over losing you. _END

So that means Gurney Drive, the parks, the sidewalk cafés, &etc. are all on my blue list.  >sigh<  Well, the next on my melancholic list is an early Sinatra tune. The version I have transcribed though, is a more emotive one from the legendary Jo Stafford, a songstress with a crystal clear voice whom most of the current generation have never heard sing. Josie's take on 'The Things We Did Last Summer' is a heart-wrenching one that aptly describes how I feel about the things I did with *her* last summer. If there ever was a song written to celebrate *our* on-off and uncertain-about-everything craziness, this is it:

The Thing We Did Last Summer
(Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne)
Jo Stafford

The boat rides we would take,
The moonlight on the lake,
The way we danced and hummed our fav'rite song,
The things we did last summer,
I'll remember all winter long.

The midway and the fun,
The Kewpie dolls we won,
The bell you rang to prove that you were strong,
The things we did last summer,
I'll remember all winter long.

The early morning hike,
The rented tandem bike,
The lunches that we used to pack,
We never could explain that sudden summer rain,
The looks we got when we got back.

The leaves began to fade ,
Like promises we made,
How could a love that seemed so right go wrong?
The things we did last summer,
I'll remember all winter long.

I've tried so to forget,
At times I do, and yet,
The mem'ry of you lingers like our song,
The things we did last summer,
I'll remember all winter long. _END

Of course I rang no bell for her, the PFS bell being out of my reach since I was already in KDU last summer. And obviously, no Kewpie dolls to be won at the funfairs here in Malaysia. I have already spent 4½ hours in front of the computer feeling all blue as I made this blog-entry while listening to the songs listed here.

To round it all off, I'll have to say 'Thanks for the Memory' to *her* one of these days when we are back on open-talky terms. Though Bob Hope made this song his signature tune in the 30s, Bing Crosby recorded a more sophisticated and more moving version in 1956, transcribed here verbatim:

Thanks For The Memory
(Leo Robin & Ralph Rainger, 1937)
Bing Crosby, 1956

Thanks for the memory,
Of candlelight and wine,
Castles on the Rhine,
The Parthenon and moments
     on the Hudson River Line,
How lovely it was!

Thanks for the memory,
Of rainy afternoons,
Swingy Harlem tunes,
Motor trips, burning lips,
     burning toast and prunes,
How lovely it was!

Many's the time that we feasted,
And many's the time that we fasted,
Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted,
We did have fun; no harm done.

And thanks for the memory,
Of sunburns at the shore,
Nights in Singapore,
You might have been a headache
     but you never were a bore,
So thank you so much.

We said goodbye with a highball,
Then I got as "high" as a steeple,
But we were intelligent people,
No tears, no fuss,
Hooray! for us.

So, thanks for the memory,
And strictly entre-nous***,
Darling how are you?
How are all those little dreams
     that never did come true?
Aw'flee glad I met you,
Cheerio, and toodle-oo,
And thank you so much. _END