Come back, I’d like to find the time

Ok, so I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m going to choose Mandalay Again as my favorite song from The Union.*  I know I’ve said this before, but it is so hard for me to pick a favorite…whether it’s an all-time favorite EJ tune (impossible!), an album, or a song from an album.  But choose I must, so here goes…

Rules and regulations
And real estate are things I’ve left behind
Flights are always leaving
Silver wings unfolding on a dime
But I won’t forget to tell you
If I could only reconnect the line
I really never knew you, but come back I’d like to find the time

I guess it’s the sentimentalist in me, but this song really hits home…Is it my age?  Is it that my Dad recently passed? Who knows…may be the heat babe, could be this tune…

In any case, it is a truly magnificent collaboration with Leon Russell.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, their voices blend so well (why didn’t they do this album sooner)?  Velvety, like Opus One.  The melody is beautiful (you’ll be humming it to yourself, trust me).  And the lyrics…the concept of reconnecting with someone from your past is especially bittersweet, which the melody so aptly conveys.

It it wasn’t in the afterglow of wine
Or the chatter of some European girl
I’d have understood that after all these years
There were those who chose to separate our worlds
Separate our worlds

I dedicate this song first and foremost to Natushka.  It’s impossible for us to reconnect, I know, but of all the people I’ve ever known in this lifetime, you are the one I would want to reconnect with the most.

If I could piece it all together
Or maybe find you through a friend
Last I heard it was St. Louis
But I wish that it was Mandalay Again

I also dedicate this song to “Miss Berman,” Bill, Bob, Randy, Ralph, Gary, Gordon, Joe, Donna, Mau-Don, Maggie, Linda, Peter, and so many others who I’ve left out but who have touched my life in their own special ways…I was younger then and foolish, come back, I’d like to find the time…

I wish that it was Mandalay Again

Mandalay Again (The Union – 2010)

*You’ll only find Mandalay Again on the Deluxe CD (I can’t imagine why it wasn’t included on the basic CD)!  Well worth the extra $…