Joe Biden & Song Lyrics

Joe Biden seems to be the early front-runner to win the Democratic nomination for 2020, but Joe is burdened by quite a few handicap pounds under his saddle—his age, the Anita Hill business when he didn’t treat her fairly in 1991 in the hearings to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and the charge of inappropriate touching and hugging that arose recently. Will the Democrats overlook this baggage and make him their favorite to oust Trump or will he get dropped along the way? Will women voters forgive him for his treatment of Anita Hill and his penchant for touching people inappropriately? I don’t know, but I do think in his case the #Metoo Movement may have moved too far. Let me repeat what I’ve already said in one of my earlier blogs about hugging. Hugging is therapeutic. I don’t mean the kind where two people bend at the waist and pat each other on the shoulder. I mean full body hugging. More therapeutic than a kiss, especially the kiss on the cheek or forehead. Most men don’t feel comfortable hugging another man, but I do. The hug is comforting, saying by the act how sorry we are at the bad news the other has just received. Or how much the hugger loves the huggee. The world would be a much better place if we all gave each other a hug occasionally. So, dear reader, please assume that I just gave you an internet hug. There, don’t you feel better?

What else will be at the center of debates leading up to next November? Well, obviously, the wall and its effectiveness at preventing or at least slowing down the flood of asylum seekers; the necessity of dealing with climate change; gun control, gun control, gun control (it bears repeating at least three times); tax reform; our failing infrastructure; and, of course, the results of the investigations into Trump’s finances. These should be an interesting and revealing twelve months.

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          I just listened to Jackie Allen sing an old Rogers and Hart song, “You’re Nearer,” and couldn’t help but notice how simple, yet how lovely, the lyrics were.

You’re nearer, than my head is to my pillow,
Nearer, than the wind is to the willow.
Dearer, than the rain is to the earth below,
Precious as the sun to the things that grow.
You’re nearer, than the ivy to the wall is,
Nearer, than the winter to the fall is.
Leave me, but when you’re away, you’ll know,
You’re nearer, for I love you so!

          I may be old-fashioned, but I still most admire lyrics I can hear and understand, lyrics carefully constructed and balanced, unlike too many song lyrics being written today. Even Taylor Swift, a singer/writer I admire, writes lyrics that don’t have real balance. “White Horse,” for example, is a great song, but it depends for the most part on her singing it, her delivery, her personality. Then there’s the insanely popular Justin Bieber. I think he could sing the yellow pages and his female fans would go berserk. But the lyrics themselves are certainly not up to any of Larry Hart’s. He begins “One Time” with “Me plus you, I’ma tell you one time, / Me plus you, I’ma tell you one time, / Me plus you, I’ma tell you one time, / One time one time.” Catchy, right? And he goes on with “When I met you girl my heart went knock knock, / Now them butterflies in my stomach won’t stop stop. / And even though it’s a struggle love is all we got / And we gon’ keep keep climbing to the mountain top.”

All right, so I’m picking on the Beebs and his lyrics. He seems to be a fine young man / With a great future in musical art, / But I’ma tell you one time, one time, / He ain’t no Larry Hart.