Friday, November 22, 2013

After posting about Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty"

I thought immediately of Tim Hardin's great song, "Reason to Believe," because of the echo in "Running on Empty" of the lyrics. This is not a song about a happy or even hopeful relationship:
 
If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe

But I think we've all been there at one time of another.  I think I first heard in on the radio in late 1965 or early 1966, and I bought the album (Tim Hardin 1) in the summer of 1966.  One of the (unsurprising) reasons that the song has remained in my memory is that someone had more-or-less done that to me.  I learned something from it, maybe not the right lesson, and one I eventually un-learned.  I told myself I'd never care that much about anyone ever again (easy to say when you're 18), but (of course, and I am awfully glad) I did, and more than once.

Someone like you makes it hard to live
Without somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
Never thinking of myself


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