I think you’ll do (just what) you choose to do/
And I will be alone again tonight my dear.

The narrator is tired of waiting patiently for his love and now he finds himself alone. We get the feeling he was more in love with her than she was with him. I don’t get the feeling that this is a situation like “Wonderful Tonight”, where he is complaining about being patient about her getting ready to go out to a party.  Here, he couldn’t wait any longer for her to love him and so it sounds like he left…and he’ll be alone tonight.

I would characterize “Alone Again Or” by Love as psychedelic rock- but you can see several different musical influences in the track. Of specific interest is the choice to use the Mexican trumpet for the solo. Flutes and guitars are big solo instruments in psychedelic rock. Perhaps experimenting with instruments for the solo is another characteristic we should add to the “characteristics of psychedelic rock” list we are developing.

This song has the layered vocals, the bridge that sounds so different it could be a different song, fanciful instrumentation….and it was written in the summer of love. A clear psychedelic rock classic.

Alone Again Or Lyrics

Yeah, I said it’s all right.
I won’t forget,
All the times I waited patiently for you.
I think you’ll do (just what) you choose to do.
And I will be alone again tonight my dear.

Yeah, I heard a funny thing.
Somebody said to me,
“You know that I could be in love, with almost everyone”.
I think that people are the greatest fun,
And I will be alone again tonight, my dear.

Yeah, I heard a funny thing.
Somebody said to me.
“You know that I could be in love with almost everyone”.
I think that people are the greatest fun,
And I will be alone again tonight, my dear.

Songwriters: Brian Maclean

We note our place with book markers/
That measure what we’ve lost.

The couple in Simon and Garfunkel’s “A Dangling Conversation” are intellectuals. Not just intelligent people, but the stuffy intellectual types who don’t own a TV, who talk about talking about intellectual conversation. They read literature because it is known it is “good literature”. You know the type.

High Society might look at these two and think they have it all: they speak of important matters like theater and philosophy and they are voracious readers—though it almost seems like a contest. But they seem out of sync.

It also appears that the couple in “Dangling Conversation” is slightly older: Simon speaks of kissing a shadow of a former person and how they are living the ‘border of our lives’. Was this once a young, passionate couple? Is Simon fretting about growing older and the superficiality of life once the passion in a relationship is gone? Or is he commenting– in particular–on the intellectual classes’ seemingly sterile relationships?

I like that this is a somewhat unique concept for a rock/folk song. It explores love and relationships from a new angle. All the while it still has the requisite Simon melodies and S&G harmonies that we have come to expect from the group. The orchestration sounds different than most of their other work. It sounds like it is going for a more classic sound. Note the large array of instruments used such as the timpani, harp and xylophone. It feels stuffy and uptight…like something the couple would be into.

The Dangling Conversation Lyrics

It’s a still life watercolor
Of a now-late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtain lace
And shadows wash the room

And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference, like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar

In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
The borders of our lives

And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our place with book markers
That measure what we’ve lost

Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time (in syncopated time)

And the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives

Yes, we speak of things that matter
With words that must be said
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”

And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow, I cannot feel your hand
You’re a stranger now unto me

Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives

Songwriters: Paul Simon

You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie/
‘Cause that’ll be the day when I die.

Buddy Holly recorded “That’ll Be The Day” solo and with The Crickets. His version with The Crickets is the superior version by far, but we don’t talk about The Crickets enough as a Great Band; we single out Holly.

Lead singers tend to get all the attention. However, listen to the difference between the two versions and you can see the difference that The Crickets made. Specifically, they added the backup vocals—which are such an important part of this song. Also, the intro guitar part sounds better, as does the solo: we can hear the two guitar parts.

I like the tongue-in-cheek message to his girl. He says he knows she’s lying about leaving him because it would practically be an act of murder because he would literally die that day. A lessor lyricist might have said “If you leave me I know I would cry, cause that would be the day that I died”, or similar. This was ground-breaking stuff in 1957, and it still sounds good today.

That’ll Be The Day Lyrics

Well, that’ll be the day, when you say goodbye
Yes, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry
You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie
‘Cause that’ll be the day when I die

Well, you give me all your loving and your turtle doving
All your hugs and kisses and your money too
Well, you know you love me baby, until you tell me, maybe
That some day, well I’ll be through

Well, that’ll be the day, when you say goodbye
Yes, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry
You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie
‘Cause that’ll be the day when I die

Well, that’ll be the day, when you say goodbye
Yes, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry
You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie
‘Cause that’ll be the day when I die

Well, when Cupid shot his dart he shot it at your heart
So if we ever part and I leave you
You sit and hold me and you tell me boldly
That some day, well I’ll be blue

Well, that’ll be the day, when you say goodbye
Yes, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry
You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie
‘Cause that’ll be the day when I die

Well, that’ll be the day, woo ho
That’ll be the day, woo ho
That’ll be the day, woo ho
That’ll be the day
Songwriters: Jerry Allison / Buddy Holly / Norman Petty