Three-Quarter Time

I fall in love with singers, usually female, all the time. I never fall out of love, but I do play certain female singer/songwriters over and over, then make myself move on, in order not to make too much of a fool of myself and/or drive my family crazy,* and then, inevitably, I return to my infatuation at a later date. 

I am infatuated again with Eddi Reader, a Scottish folksinger.  I first heard her on Acousticity, a program on WGLT, the local NPR affiliate, singing “Jamie, Come Try Me,” from her CD Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns. After that, and “Ae Fond Kiss,” I was in love with Eddi Reader (and Robert Burns, of course, whom I had met in high school) forever.

*Have I mentioned that I must listen to music in order to cook? My family always forgives my infatuations.

Currently I am listening to Angels & Electricity and obsessing on the song “Wings on My Heels,” which I think of, fondly, as “Three-Quarter Time.”  

To quote Eddi Reader:

(and please hear this in three-quarter time!):

I never was too good at dancing

somewhere I’d step out of line

but I knew that I had

wings on my heels

when they played

in three-quarter time

I love that line “somewhere I’d step out of line” for its rebellious as well as its self-deprecating qualities. And I’m sort of OK at dancing! What I was never too good at was math.

As the song continues, the local boys have a lot of swagger but then they “hold on for dear life / when they played in three-quarter time.” Love that.

To continue with Eddi Reader:

one by one

they pulled down those mirrored halls

one by one

the winters came forgetting names

This may comfort me as winter comes.

To return to Eddi Reader (and Boo Hewerdine):

money might slip through my fingers

and there won’t be much to call mine

but I’ll know that I had

wings on my heels

when they played

in three-quarter time

This may make ¾ sense, but, with full joy, I say, “Happy full moon!”