Long Long Time

I tried and tried for a week to tune my voice to belt like Linda Ronstadt and all I did was hurt my larynx. Her recording of Long Long Time, written by Gary White, is actually my alarm on my phone now so I literally wake up every morning at 5:27 am to the words, "Love will abide, take things in stride, sounds like good advice, but there's no one at my side." And I look ruefully at the queen sized bed, empty mostly except for piles of Hermann Hesse memorabilia and the fleeing ghosts of my dreamtime fantasy lovers. The awful back spasms that greet my morning are doubled in terror by this beautiful song about facing the reality of fear and tears and loves that never were. I hit the snooze button and 5 minutes later the song starts again. This repeats 4 times until I get my boots on and prepare to meet a blazing sun that has roasted my flesh beyond recognition.

I tried and tried to sing this song in the slow, melancholy dramatic expression I love so much about Ronstadt's performance. But it will never happen. I could not bring myself to reharmonize the melody. I even hunted the internet for covers of this song and discovered that not only do almost no men attempt this song even women fail badly in their attempts. (One Korean lady really came close but her strong accent (lacking all Ls) made it a parody. But on a whim I picked up the tempo once and suddenly there was hope. My lack of vocal support can be outsmarted by making the notes shorter...singing the whole song twice as fast in a bluegrass tradition. It's not as melancholy a tone but this is the only way I'm singing this song.

Note: I've capoed the 2nd fret. And the first chord is a C formation so you'd think I'm singing in the key of D but the the actual key of the song with a capo is the G formation, which in this case is the key of A. It's one of those rare songs that starts on the IV chord.