Broken hearts and shelved promises
Of course, utterly irresistible to me, what with all the dust on my heart. This comes from Muzzle of Bees, and it leads off, sensibly, with Frank Sinatra and “The Way You Look Tonight.” The tenth and final track: “Song to the Siren” by Tim Buckley.
Insight within:
The real sadness of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” comes not from the fact this guy and girl are totally done, but that this guy is so sure they’re done that he’s decided to phrase everything in negative constructions: “It ain’t no use,” indeed. But beneath the bravado, there’s hurt in him, too. The line that’s always haunted me is “You could have done better, but I don’t mind,” which sounds like precisely the sort of self-preserving rhetoric one expects from a ten-year-old who is trying to dismiss the fact that you just stole his toy. Or, you know, a twenty-two-year-old kid who’s had his heart broken.
It doesn’t change so much in one’s fifties, either.