Crying in the Rain

day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

I am not really one to cry much at movies or songs; books now, they can send me over the edge to a weepy mess faster than you can say it, but songs and movies not so much.  Perhaps because written words are a medium for my own expression, I feel emotion more when I supply it than when it is forced upon me.  Who knows?  But that is not to say that certain songs do not send me over the edge to a weepy mess.

My husband recorded a song for me one Valentine's Day, but since that is for Lynn only, we will hardly count that one as one that creates an emotional storm in me.

As far as mainstream songs, most recently, Kathy's Song by Simon & Garfunkel does it for me.  I can just get through the song without falling to pieces.  I do not remember hearing the song before I heard Garfunkel performing it in concert when I saw them live.  That does not mean that I had never heard it before, just that I have no conscious memory of it before that moment sitting in the Rod Laver Arena.  As I said, I heard Garfunkel singing it live at the Old Friends Australian/Pacific concert tour and a version sung by Garfunkel is on the Old Friends Live on Stage album.  And it is this version that makes me cry.  I am not sure if it is Garfunkel's voice, or the powerful emotion conveyed by Simon's simple-sounding lyrics.  I am not as fond of the versions where Simon sings, so it must be the combination of Simon's lyrics and music and Garfunkel's voice that does it.  But the song hits home for me, having been separated from my love for the better part of our relationship.  I can feel the longing in the song and the unique sadness of being separated by an ocean or more.  Being apart from the one you love is never easy.  The song puts into words the desperate loneliness that comes creeping in as night falls. 

I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls

It is even more poignant for me, as both my husband and I love great, grey, drippy days.

My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day.

The distance and time between us, means that these lyrics are too true, as we each begin our days as the other is finishing theirs.

The song hits home in a big way for me, and even sitting here telling you about it brings feelings of emptiness and longing for my dearest.  It's an emotional roller coaster of a ride for me.

I read one of those awful lists, you know the kind, the ones that serve only to generate controversy - greatest songwriters of all time or some such, and Paul Simon was on it.  At the time, I did not know of Kathy's Song, and while I did not question his inclusion on that list, I now know that his ranking on that list is right.  Anyone who can stir as much emotion in stony-faced me with simple words deserves whatever accolades he has received for it.  He is a true craftsman and artist.