Friday, September 11, 2009

Why Not The Y's?

I'm getting really close to the end of my little project - I'm in the Y's now and how many songs can I have that begin with the letter Y? Forget that, how many songs can I have that begin with the letter Z? Okay, forget that. How many versions of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go?" Two, actually. One my Mr. Dylan himself and a jazzy one by the lovely Madeleine Peyroux. A more jarring juxtaposition of tunes I can hardly imagine.

A word about Peyroux' version. I first heard it a couple of years ago on a sunny Spring morning in a bookstore in Dallas. All of our trips to Dallas are fine ones but to hear Peyroux' delightful version on such a lovely day lifts my mood to that morning just by thinking about it. While Dylan's is as bright and bouncy as Dylan can be, Peyroux' jazz twist brings something else to it and I had to look for more of her music. That's how she ended up on my iPod and that's how I've preserved that day in amber. And isn't that what we ask music to do for us? Isn't that why we listen?

Not long to the end of the line. Oh, it'll be anticlimactic to be sure, but I still wonder how it'll end. What will be the last song? I have no idea. That's part of the fun.

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