It’s always odd to think about how some of our favorite songs have seemingly banal lyrics, but speak a truth so very real. Untethered. Singular. If one listens closely to the lyrics of a track by Bruce Haack, or even a Neil Young song —we’re swept away in an instant. Their words speak to us, and the unassuming, plebeian vocals are at once forgiving and yet still playful. Perhaps we underestimate the poet, though —as what we fail to realize, while inside the velvet swoon of love itself, true love isn’t so very complicated. We just make it so, because we’re stubborn creatures. We create challenges when there could be compassion. That’s the human condition. But don’t let me get too carried away. I really want you to listen to this bewitching song from Robert Altman’s Popeye film; sung by Shelley Duval, and released in 1980. Soundtrack composed by Harry Nilsson.
And as much as I’d like to criticize the musical numbers in a live-action interpretation of Popeye + his comrades, the truth is…the film is just sort of charming enough to win me over.