I‘ll admit it.

I haven’t always been the paragon of street-smart, wised-up self-knowledge and steely-eyed maturity that I am today.

In fact, even when I was old enough to know better but still young enough to have not yet been smacked down really, really hard, I could be a bit of a jerk.

As one of my other, much later songs had it, “I let you down hard and I blamed it all on you,” which pretty much summed up my standard operating procedure in those days. Narcissistic.

The slip of a song below (from 1975 or so) is a case in point.

You’d think, from the scant lyrics, that the girl in question was a she-devil, a high priestess of temptation of Biblical proportions.

She was actually a very down-to-earth, warm, passionate young working mom in her mid-twenties, a couple of kids to feed and clothe, just starting out on what would be a very successful career as a health professional. We were romantically entangled for the better part of a year, the kids and I liked each other, I liked her, she liked me… but I wouldn’t commit to an exclusive relationship with her — on principle, I said — and she eventually blew me off a bit unceremoniously. (As I so richly deserved.)

But at least I have this song…

Burning and Bitter

Burning and bitter
are my thoughts tonight
I can taste the poison
of the lies I heard tonight
I have seen my soul
like the falcon you gunned down in flight
You’re a sorceress
you’re a temptress
but you’re oh
so sweet in the night

A note on this recording: I suppose I should apologize for the barrage of bad guitar that envelopes these meager lyrics. But it is all too appropriate to recapturing, however briefly, the excesses of my lost youth.

(C)1975 TK Major