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Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits, Patsy Cline
Decca, March 13, 1967
Track Listing: 1. Walkin’ After Midnight, 2. Sweet Dreams (of You), 3. Crazy, 4. I Fall to Pieces, 5. So Wrong, 6. Strange, 7. Back in Baby’s Arms, 8. She’s Got Yo, 9. Faded Love, 10. Why Can’t He Be You, 11. You’re Stronger Than Me, 12. Leavin’ on Your Mind
It just ain’t right that all this loneliness and heartbreak, all this pain and sorrow, should be so mesmerizingly beautiful, and yet, how lovely it is. It is the sweetest caress. A voice lamenting love lost mixes with timeless, tranquil melodies, reassuring you that you are not alone in your epic heartache, that you’re not the only one off on a mad dash into the moonlight desperate to rediscover any trace of the past.
“I’m always walking, after midnight
Searching for you”
-from “Walkin’ After Midnight”
In her songs, piano keys trail off gently like the faint trickle of summer raindrops falling delicately upon skylights that frame the endless possibilities of the night. Each tap is a gentle reminder of a memory that remains, refusing to be washed away.
“Why can’t I forget you and start my life anew
Instead of having sweet dreams about you?”
-from“Sweet Dreams (of You)”
After all that has been said and done, it remains a mystery how the past continues to bewitch, but there’s no use trying to comprehend the absurdity of the human heart. Explanations escape logic faster than days vanishing from view.
“I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I’m crazy for loving you”
-from “Crazy”
The phantasm remains. That soft, impossibly smooth skin, that unforgettable first embrace when you first peered into the window of eyes burning holes into your soul, body to body, toe to toe, the shock of being electrified by that random and unexpected assault on predictability, all are merely shards of an illusion that slice through you now.
“You want me to act like we’ve never kissed
You want me to forget, pretend we’ve never met
And I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I haven’t yet”
-from “I Fall to Pieces”
Simply put, the heart wants what the heart wants.
“He loves me too, his love is true
Why can’t he be you?”
-from “Why Can’t He Be You”
Why was it just a fleeting moment in time? Why just a summer fling? Was it a nudge from the cosmos to remind you that even now you’re capable of being lit by the voltage of love? Or was it a parallel universe that you secretly stumbled upon? Whatever the reason, whatever the explanation, the fantasy remains albeit dimming now in the shadows of October’s cool and assured approach.
“With every heartbeat, I still think of you
And remember our faded love”
-from “Faded Love”
It is well understood that with every beginning, there is an ending. But while some endings are written just as they were meant to be written, it goes without saying that others are horrific and tragic, never meant to be understood. The sting of anguish and the dull ache of regret join together in chorus, and the music is all that is left of (and for) us now.
“I’ve got the records that we used to share
And they still sound the same as when you were here”
-from “She’s Got You”
-G |
