Always on My Mind (1982)--Take 2

It’s funny that the three songs that struck me this time around are the three songs I did not mention in my blog from January, which suggests that I do need to continue this second-time through process. First, M. Curtis’s “Let it Be Me.” A tender ballad that fits into Willie’s genre of “always” and “never” songs:

Don't take this heaven from one

If you must cling to someone

Now and forever, let it be me…

So never leave me lonely

Tell me that you love me only

And say you'll always let it be me.

Willie wants someone who will love him “forever” and “always,” someone who will “never leave me lonely.” And yet he wants this while he is perpetually on the road.

Chips Moman’s “Staring Each Other Down” may be my favorite song on the album; I’m not sure how I missed it the first time through. Not sure what to make of these lyrics:

You're hangin' on his arm

She's holdin' mine

A fool must have said love was blind

We're shouting I love you's

With people all around

And they don't hear one sound

Let her eyes do the talkin'

And her eyes do the walkin'

And her eyes do the slippin'

Around staring each other down

And we're both on to

How long a slow song

Would be for us now

This timebomb we're holding

Is so near exploding right down

So let her eyes do the talkin'

And eyes do the walkin'

Her eyes do the slippin'

Around staring each other down

Staring each other down

In terms of Willie’s theory about love, the notion that “a fool must have said love was blind” implies that love is not blind, which contradicts many of Willie’s lyrics about the foolishness of love. The length of a slow song and the “timebomb” make obvious connections to Willie’s obsession with time as it pertains to (and perhaps is) love. And then another Chips Moman song, “Old Fords and a Natural Stone”:

Papa's words ringin' in my ears son you got to get tighter with your tears

Just because she's leaving don't start believing

That your rock'n roll days are gone

Cause nothing lasts forever but old Fords and a natural stone

And when those sad songs and slow hurtin' songs

Get you down while you're alone it won't hurt long

Cause nothing lasts forever like old Fords and a natural stone

Diamonds are forever and these old cars they still keep rolling on

And all those I love you forever's they're just words that can't be depended on

Cause when they're wrong they're wrong and when they're gone they're gone

Cause nothin' lasts forever but old Fords and a natural stone

Papa's words ringin' in my ears son you got to get tighter with your tears

This song has it all. It has tears: “Son, you got to get tighter with your tears.” Does this mean you have to cry less over lost time? No use crying over lost time? But if that isn’t worth crying over, what is? Most of Willie’s career has been spent either crying over lost time or trying not to cry over lost time. Here he boldly states that we can’t trust “those I love you forever’s; they’re just words that can’t be depended on.” Diamonds and old cars last forever, but not love.

Also striking this time through are the lyrics for “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.” It seems a bit ironic that Willie of all people would be singing about the need to be a “do right man.” Clearly he wants to be this, he desires to be this, and he believes these lyrics, and yet, so many of his songs are about doing wrong, about how hard it is to do right, about how he can never do right. And the very next song, “Always on My Mind,” is basically an apology for not doing right. It asserts that I know I’m not a “do right man,” but I meant well, I had good intentions, good thoughts. So maybe Willie’s a “think right man.”