martha

One good turn deserves another.

I had such good luck with the NPR Valentine's Day music poll (see i don't want to get over you) that I listened to the one other song I didn't know ("Martha" from Tom Waits' "Closing Time" album).

Yoav in New York described it as: "the saddest, most lyrical song about a missed love. Forty years after parting, a man calls his old sweetheart and tells her, as 'he fights the tears' that she was the love of his life."

Operator, number, please: it's been so many years
Will she remember my old voice while I fight the tears?

Hello, hello there, is this Martha?
This is old Tom Frost, and I am calling long distance, don't worry 'bout the cost.
'Cause it's been forty years or more, now Martha please recall,
Meet me out for coffee, where we'll talk about it all.

And those were the days of roses, poetry and prose and Martha all I had was you and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows, we'd packed away our sorrows and we saved them for a rainy day.

And I feel so much older now, and you're much older too,
How's your husband and how's the kids? You know that I got married too?
Lucky that you found someone to make you feel secure,
'Cause we were all so young and foolish, now we are mature.

And those were the days of roses, poetry and prose and Martha all I had was you and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows, we'd packed away our sorrows and we saved them for a rainy day.

And I was always so impulsive, I guess that I still am.
And all that really mattered then was that I was a man.
I guess that our being together was never meant to be.
And Martha, Martha, I love you can't you see?

And those were the days of roses, poetry and prose and Martha all I had was you and all you had was me.
There was no tomorrows, we'd packed away our sorrows and we saved them for a rainy day.

And I remember quiet evenings trembling close to you ...