For a Dancer. Jackson Browne. 1974.
I. Love. This. Song.
It was like a personal discovery. You experience a latter album. How good is this guy? So you randomly buy an earlier album, one you have never heard of before. And maybe, it is even a better compilation. OK, maybe equal billing.
But then that song. First so beautiful. It grows and blooms through romance and first and long partner love. Then it assumes special relevance later in life when a family member dies. And another. As some of the lyrics say:
I don’t know what happens when people die
Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It’s like a song I can hear
Playing right in my ear
That I can’t sing
I can’t help listening
Man! I’m cooked. I’m converted. After so many years, this is just so special to me. And I do know to others too. Indeed, the power of music, to emotionally fill us, to our very soulful core. To ground us in sorrow and grief, knowing in the balance of life, these emotions cannot exist without love. So this is a love song of such magnitude for me.
What a gift, to give the world such a beautiful creation. How clever he. How fortunate we. Thank you Jackson!