If I could be with you one hour tonight

These little town blues
Are melting away.

Start spreading the news.

And now, as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that.

These little town blues
Are melting away.

If ever a number painted men as nothing more than a bunch of dummies it's this flood of major league prattling.We've got this mysterious chick who seems to have this sad loser and every other guy in town going out of their heads for her,and for what?So she can saunter on by like they're all invisible on her way to the sea?He says she walks like a samba,swaying and swinging cool and gentle.As far as I'm aware a samba is a lively dance,so how would that equate with slow graceful movements?How can he tell her he loves her,and would give his heart gladly?How indeed?-She just walks calmly past him and the other dummies,not even looking near them-A classic ploy used by girls when they just know dudes are gaping at them,although none of these guys seem to realise she's simply got no time for a mob of fools like them.He even mentions that each time she passes he's stood there with this sickly,stupid smile for her-Will it ever penetrate that thick skull that she couldn't care less?What we've got here is a raving mad crush,but,to make matters even worse,we've also got every other mother's son in this crazy town suffering the same fate it seems.Conclusion?The guy who wrote this drivel was doing the side no favors-Each guy she passes goes Ahhh,indeed.I'm not saying that a pretty young woman wont turn heads,and would be the first to admit that dudes can have one track minds at times.What I am objecting to here is the strongest implication that we're not simply being presented here as normal human beings with normal urges,but as some feeble-minded mob who live in cloud cuckoo land,constantly lusting after young women,hoping against hope that they're in with a chance with them,when the stark reality is they would scarcely give them a second look or time of day,if they could but see it.The unfortunate fact of the matter is that there are indeed such deluded guys out there,although this number,as I've liberally shown,has all guys down as a bunch of dummies.In the fantasy land of this number I sometimes wish that this femme fatale,this dummy,and all those other dummies would take themselves down onto that beach,on into that sea and never come back.

One wonders just what the writers of some of that old stuff were smoking back then.The line is just plain silly.I mean,does the girl he's supposed to be talking to get out so little,that a yarn about some gangster will be the highlight of her month or something? That's what's coming across, and it's just totally crass.Mind you,the old stuff is packed to busting with daft lyrics like that.It might have worked at the time, but today it sounds ludicrous.

At the end of the song, the singer begs the woman to stay with him in spite of all the physical and intellectual faults he sees in her. Good luck!

I'll be blunt; this rather smarmy song rubs it right in the faces of gays

The song's whole message is about not rushing it. So from that point of view, holding one's horses is clearly part of a solution, not the problem.

Since when is California noted for being cold and damp? Sure it's mountain heights can be cold, but isn't most of the state known for a mild to warm climate? And doesn't it have a lot of desert, including the driest in the United States?

There, are, of course, fifty U. S. states now (It's been that way since 1959).

Frank died during the spring of 1998, so he he didn't even make the autumn of that year.

Yeah, the dice are more than the ones you use to roll.

Lincoln and Ford

I nearly forgot this classic from Ol' Blue Eyes until I heard it on the Walter Conkrite special on Friday. "It Was A Very Good Year" was from the mid-1960's during the time that there was a sudden resurgance for Sinatra's music during the time when British Invasion started by the Beatles and Motown sound was dominating the charts.

In 1977, a movie was being considered for production and would star a rather older, but still dashing, Frank Sinatra (the part would be re-written and the film would be released in 1978 with Liza Minelli playing a female version of the character Sinatra was going to play). But Sinatra still sang and cut a version of what was proposed as the theme for the film, "New York, New York". The film would be set in the 1940's in the town of New York City, and the rest is history as this song has become a theme for the world reknowned city of New York (especially post 9/11). What was interesting though about the song at the time was that New York City was going through several severe financial crises in the early and mid 1970's and many residents there rejected and idea of another theme song (that of course has changed as the financial well being of the city has at least stabilized, if not improved).

Refers to Rome, Italy.

'Madame' means Lady in French and 'Merci Beaucoup' means 'Thanks very much' in French as well.

Although this woman is truly loved by the singer, she might be in need of some heavy psychotherapy after having her physical faults detailed and her intelligence questioned.

The song has a great orchestral climax, but it sounds like a singing will just before this man dies.