songs for broken hearts, no. 32

Dion is a hero of mine and one of the genuinely compelling figures of the 1960s. He's also been somewhat forgotten, probably because of the way the British Invasion rendered the Golden Age of American rock ‘n roll obsolete. Interest in doo wop in particular remained dormant from the mid 60s onwards, until a wave of nostalgia for the relative placidity of the late 50s and early 60s swept across America in the wake of Watergate, Viet Nam and race riots. Even though you can find him among the cast of characters adorning the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s, Dion went through a bit of a lost period after the Beatles first came to America. But in 1968 he got clean for good – he’d been a heroin addict from the age of 15 – and he returned with a completely revamped orchestral folk sound. Tonight’s song was his comeback single, and I think you’ll agree that it’s a total gem. Ethereal, nimble, and lovely in every way, it’s the sound of a man who’s had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders and now wants to offer soothing music to those feeling shaken by the ugly side of social upheaval. His voice is what gets me more than anything. I get such goose bumps when he sings it seems the good they die young / I just looked around and he's gone. The adenoidal quality of his earlier singing, which might very well have been a consequence of his addiction, is a distant memory, replaced by a warm and inviting expressiveness that'll relax you and make your pain all better. Abraham Martin and John is truly a song for broken hearts.

PS - Apologies for the cheesy video attached to the song this evening. YouTube is an incredible, seemingly limitless resource for virtually any interest under the sun, but sometimes you have to deal with other people’s “creativity” in order to access the things you want. The advice I would give to my legion of readers is to close your eyes or minimize the window and just let the beauty of the song work on your imagination and transport you. You’ll be much better served by the images that projected on your mind's movie screen...