American Classic (2009)--Take 2

I listened to this album all day yesterday and even the day before, but never got around to blogging about it. This time around I’ll focus on the lyrics. Even though Willie didn’t write most of these lyrics, his song selection reflects his philosophy. In “The Nearness of You” Willie sings, “All my wildest dreams come true.” It’s not completely clear whether what is near to him is a person or merely the memory of the person in the night. This raises the question of what it means to be close, figuratively and literally. Close physically and close mentally. Which is more real, more true, more perfect? “Fly Me to the Moon” strikes a similarly idealistic tone. Here love transports Willie to the moon. “You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true.” Again we have the desire for truth, for honesty, for loyalty. This in the face of “Funny how time slips away.” “Come Rain or Come Shine” suggests a love that transcends circumstances and the vagaries of life. “I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you…I’m gonna be true if you let me.” Another promise song. “I’m with you always; I’m with you rain or shine.” Until, of course, I’m “on the road again,” and then I’m only with you always in my mind. If music is sound organized in time, than love is life organized in time. Love organizes life according to almost musical principles. “If I Had You” makes a similar promise. “I could change the gray skies to blue if I had you.” Love could change everything. Here Willie confirms his faith in love to overcome all of life’s hurdles. Previously I wouldn’t have associated “Ain’t Misbehavin’” with this genre of optimistic love songs, but it fits as well. I see now that this song is asserting that time won’t slip away this time. I’m not joking this time. I mean it this time. I’ll be true. But why should we believe you this time? “I know for certain the one I love. I’m through with flirtin’, it’s just you I’m thinkin’ of…I’m savin’ my love for you.” Note the certainty, the sureness, the blind faith. And note that these are pop standards. Musically, but also lyrically. They assert the base line of true love from which all other songs vary. In “I Miss You So” Willie recalls a perfect love from the past. Here he is truly in search of lost love, lost time. What I am finding here is that love and time are one, and thus if music is sound organized by time, then it might also be said that music is sound organized by love. “Because of You” suggests that love is the ultimate cause and source of all good things. In short, love makes the world, literally, go round. “I only live for your love and your kiss.” Is this not the ultimate line? The ultimate promise? The ultimate lie? “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is a seduction song, another song about the little lies we tell in love to win, to woo. It isn’t really cold outside. That isn’t the issue. The issue is never the issue. It is always about something else, especially in love. In “Angel Eyes,” Willie laments that “My angel eyes ain’t here.” “My love is misspent on my angel eyes tonight.” This is the first dark, haunting song on the album. Here, “The last jokes are on me” and “the facts are uncommonly clear.” Someone else is now “number one.” Time and love have officially slipped away. Then Willie switches gears abruptly with the bouncy, up-tempo “On the Street Where You Live.” “Enchantment” seems to be a theme of these songs. As is nearness. The word “near” shows up in at least three of these songs. “Let the time go by, and I won’t care if I can be here on the street where you live.” So love transcends even the passage of time. “Since I Fell for You” shows the deceptive side of love. “You made me leave my happy home. You took my love and now you’ve gone…Love brings such misery and pain. And it’s too bad, and it’s too sad that I’m still in love with you. You loved me, and then you snubbed me. What can I do, I’m still in love with you. I guess I’ll never see the light. I get the blues most every night since I fell for you…” Willie wobbles over and around every word in these lines. He seems to get a phrase’s worth of emotion out of each word. Each word becomes a sentence. The word “I” seems to have a verb and a direct object the way he sings it. Here Willie is on the receiving end of cheating. His foolishly optimistic view of love, as depicted in most of these songs, finally runs into the reality of the fickleness of human nature, the inability of humans to be true, to live up to these ideals of love. Willie admits that he will never learn; he’ll keep “falling,” that is being fooled, for love. If only he didn’t fall so easily and so hard. If only he could wise up and learn. This album makes the short list of Willie albums that don’t contain a single Willie-penned song. “Always on My Mind” closes out the set. The only place love can be perfect—in Willie’s mind.