elvis presley - "it hurts me" (from the artist of the century boxed set, available for purchase here.)

pascal said : "the heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." everyone i know, it seems, your humble included, seems to be dealing w/ affairs of the heart. i feel like i keep repeating--to myself and to others--that it's one thing to understand a situation intellectually; it's quite another to understand it w/ your heart, that is, emotionally.

& really, there's nothing you can do. or there are limits : one can, for instance, talk to someone else, receiving confirmation that s/he is neither insane nor wrong : there is something assuring about hearing thoughts one has kicked around in private pour forth from the lips of someone dear to him or her.

so that's what elvis is doing here, i think. when elvis week went down on american idol, i decided that "it hurts me" would be the song i'd have performed. sure, it's obscure--a b-side to "kissin' cousins!" the indignity--but, b/c of its classic structure, it's almost instantly memorable; additionally, it builds to a powerful conclusion, which allows for heavy-duty emotiong. i'd probably do something like "don't be cruel" as my first number, thereby freeing myself up for a risk.

ANYWAY.

i'd like to think that i could sing a song and make a girl fall for me, or that i could change her way of thinking; that written words, which would only work on an intellectual level, would somehow resound off the heartstrings if sung. alas, i think even elvis realizes the impossibility of this; and then what chance for me? (truth be told, elvis the individual, as opposed to the singer, probably could make the guy disappear, no questions asked. i don't have those kind of resources.) no, the best elvis can do is reassure the girl and make her promises : baby, i'll be there when it's all over, even if you can't possibly conceive of a future after him.

but the decision has to be hers. he can't make it for her : she has to do it alone. she should know, however,--one hopes she does--that the decision-making process will be the only thing in which she will be alone.