Back by popular demand, the lyric of the day

Up writing early in my home office again this morning. Listening to Johnny Cash "American V: A Hundred Highways," his last album. The guy defines integrity as a vocalist.

But I'm going back to a record from 1978, Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town," for today's lyric. It comes from the last of 10 songs on the disc, the title track:

"Some folks are born into a good life,
Other folks get it anyway, any how,
I lost my money and I lost my wife,
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now.
Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop,
I'll be on that hill with everything I got,
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost,
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost,
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town."

This album means more to me than any other I've heard. It would be my one disc on an island. I'm also irrationally hooked on Springsteen, too, but "Darkness" continues to reach me in ways no other work of art does. I easily could relate to it as a 20-year-old college junior with a lot of potential, and I relate to it in a different way as a 44-year-old man who has spent a lot of that potential (and probably not very well).

I gave "Darkness" to my son Matthew on his 14th birthday in January. We sat in the front seat of my car in the driveway to his mother's house. I had him reach into the glove box. Matthew knew what Springsteen and "Darkness" have meant to me.

I reached over and hugged him hard around the shoulders. Matthew hugged me back just as tightly. I spoke in a whisper, because to speak any more loudly would have brought tears: "There might be some answers in there for you," I said. "There were for me."

Our shared interest in rock 'n' roll in general, and Springsteen, in particular, has provided us a vocabulary as he grows up, in the same way my father and I used baseball to communicate.

Now to some mail:

A reader posted a comment, asking about the ladies: Well, I listen to plenty of women. Lucinda Williams provides insight into how women think, I think. I also am a big fan of Neko Case (saw her last year at Southgate House), Kasey Chambers (missed her at Southgate), Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and I've recently begun listening closely to Lauryn Hill, both her solo work and her writing and singing as a member of the Fugees. Nothing like a strong, intelligent woman.