Most men have no idea what women think. Most men don't want to know what women think. But deep in that brain, behind those lips and questioning eyes, beyond the roots of silky hair, deeper than what the constraints of society has told them and what their roles should be, their careers and their liberation; beyond that it is my sincere hope and wish that they think like Nina's narration in this sublime, solo piano tune so eloquently performed at Town Hall decades ago. The juxtaposition of an unrequited love, a song telling the listener how little she cares for said man while describing everything she wanted to do to him is probably the most romantic idea for a song I have ever run across. Beyond the standard crooning of love and loss, Byronic in scope while retaining the intimacy she never knew phrased in Nina's own legendary voice and meter is heads and tails above anything else existing in the ether.
Like so much music in the American Cannon this song comes from the great Irvin Berlin. Jerome Kern saying once: "Irving Berlin has no place in American music - he is American music." He truly is the master and father of every he precedes and set the tone for the paradigm shift that occurred in music in the early 20th century.
To escape the didactic and cease the digression, the ideals possessed in this song could solve a lot of problems between men and women. Arguments solved, divorces stopped, the birth rate of the United States would rise and everyone would feel fulfilled in the places that matter. Speaking for a men I think one thing women have lost in the past decades is the idea that they are to care for their men in every way. In no way is this degrading, nor does it downplay their abilities and skills in this world. Rather it is probably the most important, noble task in the entire world. Conversely I think they would find that if they began some of the actions in this tune they would receive the attention and stability they crave in their relationships. There is nothing more endearing than being wanted and to be selflessly taken care of without any need of reciprocity.
It is beautiful. It is the world and the way we are made and it is the glue that keeps us together and from chopping each other's heads off but for now it will probably never happen. So I'll keep Nina on and think of the days when a woman brings me slippers and caresses my head in the morning lovingly after a bender with the boys, grabs me a glass of water and massages my back without yelling about how insensitive I am and how terrible my breath reeks of gin or questions how much money I wasted on strippers the night before. When she realizes that I am next to her not because of any feeling of obligation but because it is her I want to be next to, to feel her arms wrapped around my shoulders while her head rests on my chest, when that day comes I'll throw this song in the recycle bin. For the time being I'll just have to keep this on the playlist, put it on mentally in a crunch when venom is spitting out of the pretty face outside that brain, those pretty lips, questioning eyes and roots of silky hair.
