A good Facebook friend (thanks CJ) got me listening to this song. At first hearing i was surprised by the intro (2 min.), by the outro, and by the pleasant bass-guitar line. I gave a ‘thumbs-up’. But the lyrics kept playing in my head and i had to listen again, again, and again. This is such an intriguing song. It has a pleasant melody but the words are haunting.
“All my happiness is gone It’s all gone somewhere beyond All my happiness is gone”.
I changed my Facebook ‘thumbs-up’ to a ‘Wonderful’ because the song has so much layers. It’s disturbing, pleasant, sad, melancholy, it’s a suicide note. Each note aches with sorrow and resolve and i kept listening over and over.
Reading the YouTube comments i found out that Dave Berman ended his life shortly after finishing this album. This beautiful album ‘Purple Mountains’ was released on July 12, 2019. Nearly five weeks after the album’s release the poet, just 52 years, was found dead at his appartment.
The words and music will always be there!
Friends are warmer than gold when you’re old
And keeping them is harder than you might suppose
Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go
Some of them were once people I was happy to know
Mounting mileage on the dash
Double darkness falling fast
I keep stressing, pressing on
Way deep down at some substratum
Feels like something really wrong has happened
And I confess I’m barely hanging on
All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It’s all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone
Ten thousand afternoons ago
All my happiness just overflowed
That was life at first and goal to go
Me and you, and us and them
And all those people way back when
All our hardships were just yardsticks then, you know
You know
It’s not the purple hills
It’s not the silver lakes
It’s not the snowcloud shadowed interstates
It’s not the icy bike chain rain of Portland, Oregon
Where nothing’s wrong and no one’s asking
But the fear’s so strong it leaves you gasping
No way to last out here like this for long
‘Cause everywhere I go, I know
Everywhere I go,
I know All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It’s all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone
