time washes clean love’s wounds unseen/
That’s what someone told me but I don’t know what it means.

“Long Long Time” by Linda Rondstadt and the Stone Poneys is a fantastic song, and it is well deserving to be on this list. It would be more interesting if Linda Rondstadt wrote her songs, because the message of this song is so different from her other hit “Different Drum” some five years or so before. With Different Drum she wasn’t in the market for a boy who wanted to love only her.  In Long Long Time she is doing everything she can to try and make him love her…but she is failing.

“Long Long Time” follows the Different Drum script of backing her with an orchestra. That sounds much better than she did with just the Stone Poneys. Her voice is powerful, and it needs the full wall of orchestra sound behind her to compliment her. At this point in her career she was gigging with an interesting session band. On the drums were Don Henley and on guitar was Glen Frey. Two nobodies, at the time.

Long Long Time Lyrics

Love will abide, take things in stride,
Sounds like good advice, but there’s no one at my side.
And time washes clean, love’s wounds unseen.
That’s what someone told me, but I don’t know what it means.

‘Cause I’ve done everything I know,
to try and make you mine.
And I think I’m gonna love you,
For a long long time.

Caught in my fears.
Blinking back the tears.
I can’t say you hurt me, when you never let me near.
And I never drew, one response from you.
All the while you fell, all over girls you never knew.
‘Cause I’ve done everything I know, to try and make you mine.
And I think it’s gonna hurt me, for a long long time.

Wait for the day,
You’ll go away.
Knowing that you warned me of the price I’d have to pay.
And life’s full of flaws,
Who knows the cause?
Living in the memory, of a love that never was.

‘Cause I’ve done everything I know, to try and change your mind.
And I think I’m gonna miss you, for a long long time.
‘Cause I’ve done everything I know, to try and make you mine.
And I think I’m gonna love you, for a long long time.

written by Gary White