SAD SONGS ON SUNDAY? PERFECT

Sad Songs by Elton John on Sunday:

If someone else is suffering enough oh to write it down
When every single word makes sense
Then it’s easier to have those songs around
The kick inside is in the line that finally gets to you
And it feels so good to hurt so bad
And suffer just enough to sing the blues

Write it down. That’s the rule of writers, and should be everyone else’s too.

Write it down, text yourself, just do what reminds you of a moment.

When sad songs hit just right, remember where it came from.

Before you squeak in a higher than normal voice with, “What’s THAT even supposed to MEAN?”

I’ll tell you what it means.

This is what good bloggers do, explain things in a way that makes you smarter without feeling stupid.

Bad writers start off making you feel stupid, create a need for themselves, and pull you along.

Okay, not so much ‘bad writers’ but predictable writers with:

“You suck and you know it. But did you know you don’t have to suck? Sign up for my online course to learn how.”

That line is over there, the one labeled “Why Do I Suck?”

My motto is “If you’re reading boomerpdx it’s impossible to suck as much as you think you do.”

Leave a comment for extra credit. Lol.

Tell me why sad songs are your best friends.

Why Singing Sad Songs Feels So Good

Why does it feel so good to sing a sad song?

Because you’re either not as sad as the song and you gain perspective.

Or, you feel worse than the sad song and decide to re-write it on the spot.

Either way, something happens.

After an eternity captured in three and half minutes you feel the singer is a fake, or you’re a fake. Not a bad trade off.

In baby boomer lingo, it’s groovy, man.

How Sad?

Right away I tune the dial to pathetically sad.

There’s the song about a drifter and his girlfriend. She gives him the choice to settle down with her, or keep drifting.

He drifts away moaning how he’d, “give all my tomorrows for a single yesterday holding Bobbi’s body next to mine.”

Does the singer regret drifting off, or just dreaming of the booty call they’ll never again make?

Is it better or worse than the pathetic, “I get this feeling I may know you, as a lover and a friend. This voice keeps whispering in my other ear, I may never see you again.”

This time the singer started with liking a woman’s sparkling earrings laying against her skin so brown. Then they have a one night stand in the desert and ditch each other.

Happy ending? Do tell. Or just another drifter lamenting another lost booty call from their past?

The answer lies with, “I found out a long time ago what a woman can do to your soul. She can’t take you anywhere you don’t already know how to go.”

If you agree with this, you’ve never been anywhere, Drifter.

But there are people out there who have been around the block a time or two and decided enough with the drifting lifestyle.

They sing sad songs with conviction.

Drift Away?

I’m a married man with one wife for over three decades. I’ll do the math: 30 years.

Longer than thirty years.

I wasn’t married in my twenties. Neither was wifey.

But we both had prospects, and since then we’ve both had people come through town who wanted to ‘get together and catch up.’

I’m not a fan of getting together with former flames who think life has passed them by, but that’s just me.

Don’t call me for a cup of coffee, iced or otherwise. There are exceptions. This wasn’t one of them:

A guy called my wife to get together and catch up. He was on the final leg of a long roadtrip.

He was special to her in her twenties. Back then they made plans and took trips up and down the west coast.

I’d never met the guy, but heard enough to know he was an important part of her life at one point.

2

Her: Leonard called. You remember Leonard? We met in college. He’s going to be in town and wants to stop by and say hello.

I’d heard enough about Leonard not to be worried they might strike it up again and flame on like they did when they were younger.

What did bother me was some guy ruining what’s always sounded like a sweet hippie love story of smart people with the world at their feet.

Then she met me and that world changed.

Could a thrice-divorced man passing through town be more pathetic than calling old girlfriends for some tea and sympathy?

Could an insecure husband be more pathetic than denying his wife a chance to touch base with her past?

I explained why I thought it was a bad idea. Meeting at our house was a bad idea. Going anywhere to see him was a bad idea.

Was it a bad idea for me to speak up?

We talked until I wasn’t the biggest jackass, then I said I’d to along with her if she needed to see the man who could have been the father of her children instead of me.

If he wasn’t a punk.

Sad Songs

Me: Honey, remember when we saw Bruce Springsteen? When I was the only one in the building disappointed in his show? And it took me a few years to be a fan again?

Wife: Yes. He was great.

Me: He was something. I think seeing your old boyfriend might have the same effect on you. You remember him one way. Why not leave it alone. Why not preserve the memory.

Wife: What does that even mean?

Me: What if he’s a mess? What if he’s a fat loser who ruined marriages with three women on his way to chronic rehab?

Wife: He’s trying to make his life better.

Me: And you’re a part of it? Is he making your life better, too?

Wife: No one could make my life better as long as I have you.

Me: I love you too, honey, but this guy sounds like a small problem waiting to get bigger with someone. Why you?

Wife: What do you think is going to happen?

Me: I think you’re going to be disappointed. Maybe regret that you two didn’t try harder, that if you did he would have a happier life. And you might blame yourself, and he’d agree.

2

Wife: Do your trust me?

Me: I do. If you want to go, then go. Then you and I will end up talking about it longer than I’d want.

Wife: You don’t want to talk about it at all.

Me: Let’s talk about you and I, not you and some yahoo.

Wife: He’s not a yahoo, he’s a doctor.

Me: And I’m an Army medic. If he screws up with you, he may need an Army medic’s attention.

Wife: Okay, okay. I won’t meet him.

Me: Neither will I.

Wife: Are you happy now?

Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironin’ out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it’s times like these when we all need to hear the radio
‘Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know

I’m pretty happy, but there’s always more to do, more sad songs to sing.