Valentine Melody

Listen while you read:  https://youtu.be/p_8V9j8H5Es

Today the coin is in the air
and we are here and there
And where and when have caught us in
the web of violence

I pray to all the world as one
the day will bring the sun
In the scarlet heart of valentines
our paper hearts are blind

~  Tim Buckley

I was a sophomore in college, walking downtown on a Saturday morning to the sleepy Pennsylvania town where I lived.  Off on a side street, there was a record store, the now old-fashioned kind, with bins and bins of albums to peruse.  I started flipping through, in search of I-don't-know-what.  I came upon two intriguing albums that day and bought them both, having never even heard any of the songs they contained.  Why did I buy them?  Because the men pictured on the front of the LPs were very handsome.  Seriously, I bought these two albums based on the handsomeness of the singers.  And I have never regretted doing so.  One album was titled Tom Rush and the other was happy sad by Tim Buckley.

I still adore these artists 48 years later.  I will save my Tom Rush comments for another time.  This post is for Tim Buckley.

"Valentine Melody," the haunting, evocative ballad that gets today's attention, appeared on the album Tim Buckley which was released in 1966.  I think Buckley was 19 years old then.  The album that turned me on to him, happy sad, was released in 1969.  Tim Buckley was born on Valentine's Day in 1947 and died of a heroin overdose at age 28 in 1975.  And if the name Buckley sounds familiar to you, you might know of his son, Jeff Buckley.  Jeff never knew his father, but the musical genius found its way to him.  His rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" remains one of the most-loved recordings of recent decades.  Jeff, like his father, died young, drowning at age 31 in 1997.

Our paper hearts are blind.  What to say about a line like that?  I don't think it's as simple as "Love is blind."  Paper hearts are fragile, easily torn, easily burned.  And blind; do we ever see it coming?

But I think Buckley is considering a love larger than romantic love.  He prays to all the world as one. And so we do today, over 40 years since Tim Buckley maybe found a better world.  And so this post takes a somewhat dark turn.  Or at least a somber one.  But I've never been a fan of our Hallmark holidays, so this is the best I can do.

Let me leave you with this:  sometimes, you CAN judge an album by its cover!