And then, when some of her supposed friends and coworkers just wouldn’t stop talking about it — couldn’t stop heaping hatred and bilious comments on him… the betrayer… well, she shared their outrage but at a certain point, she wished they would just shut up.
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 whore
but you’re oh
so sweet in the night
You’d think this song was about a betrayal of Biblical proportions, a temptress so demonic, yet so enticing as to destroy any fool with the temerity to cast a glance her way.
But as I pointed out when I posted a much different (and essentially somewhat silly) version back on December 4th, the young woman I had recently broken up with when I wrote this song was a sweet and level-headed mother of two young girls who simply wanted me to decide what I wanted. When I wouldn’t — or couldn’t — give her an answer, she moved on.
But I was a dumb ass kid, a few years younger than her, a crummy job but big dreams of adventure. The last thing on earth I thought I wanted was responsibility.
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
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.
