Ok, at this point– I’m writing this on June 37– I’m already six days behind on the 30 Day Song Challenge. I was just about to give up and call it quits, but then I remembered that I’ve been doing this for a long time and, even if this year’s iteration ends up being the last hurrah, I ought to see it through. So, I’ve got a little less than 3 days to catch up and finish.
Hide and watch me do it.
My pick for today is Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind,” first released on his 1982 album of the same title. It goes without saying, I hope, that Nelson is among the greatest of American singer-songwriters, but God also gifted that man with a very unique kind of warbly voice that somehow manages to caress and expose every bit of human vulnerability in its most rarefied form. This little ballad of love and regret is one of his best. Here it is:
Little things I should have said and done. I just never took the time.
I could throw all of Willie Nelson’s song lyrics into a bag, randomly pick out one line, and almost certainly find in my hand a First Principle for Living and Loving. He’s that good. But “Always On My Mind” is my pick today because I wish I had the courage to be as honest, as vulnerable, as self-critical and as gracious as Willie is in this song.
This, to my mind, is the song that says all the things that everyone, at some point in their lives, need to hear… but which hardly anyone takes the time to say to those who need to hear it.