Song #98. Me, The Girl Bar-Singer, And A Stupid Broken Heart (for Julie Jurgens)

A day don’t pass me by when a perfect stranger doesn’t tell me

That I remind them of someone that they once loved or knew that’s died

I smile back at them as if to say “Well, thank you.”

‘Cause it’s good having been seen for having tried.

Like you, I’m here to raise a glass to all my lonely foolish dreaming

Glass spill over sometimes when the troubles start to swell

No right minded no one wants to break down to a stranger

So that’s why God made bars, and girl bar-singers, and one-night cheap motels

But hey you look like you’re drunk enough that you might understand me
Let me pull on your sleeve awhile 'til the night tears us apart

There ain’t nobody sober gonna talk to me tonight
‘Cause they’ve all heard this one already

About me and the girl bar-singer
And a stupid  broken heart.

I know just why I came here  

But I know I won’t admit it 

At least not before I had a few more than a few

I’m staring up at the stage and wondering when she’ll get started.

A few more and every song she sings will be about me too.

She sings about loneliness like it was something she invented.

She’s kicking at my head from the inside

She shatters my illusions that I just might one day be happy,

Then leaves smiling before I can drink up all I can’t hide.

But friend, if you’re my friend, you'd think you’d tell me,

But I’m too drunk to listen and the night’s tearing me apart.

There ain’t nobody sober gonna talk to me tonight
‘Cause they’ve all heard this one already

About me and the girl bar-singer
And a stupid  broken heart.

 
-Nov 2010 (re-edited 1/6/17)

The notes were made on 3/4/2012.  “Who could love me…I talk too much.” -Hector from Alan Bennett’s brilliant 2004 play "The History Boys".   This is a song of obsessive, uninvited, and unrequited love. Is it actually true that some guys picked up an instrument to become a musician to get laid?  Thank God that wasn’t me, or I would have died years ago of disappointment.   Things could be worse, it could be raining.  Who needs affection anyway? Or water or food for that matter.

There is a video of this from The Gallery Cabaret here, the song starts at about 13:52 into the video. Bill K. is on bass and Nate M is on drums.

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