In a little fit of synchronicity, the Silver Jews' "I Remember Me" just popped up on my ipod. Man, David Berman can write the hell out of a song. The story of the song is pinned on a near-ridiculous coincidence, but the way he talks about love and regret is so beautifully observed that you can forgive the man just about anything.
He almost walked into a wall
Oh, man, she was a sight to see
And at the party down the hall
He said, "you are the highest apple in the tree"
Out the window, in the harbor he saw a little ship
The moon was worn just slightly on the right
And they slow danced so the needle wouldn't skip
Until the room was filled with light
And I remember you
And I remember me
The sunshine walking inside you
And the man you could see in me
So I remember me
And I remember you
So many beautiful days in a row now
And the nights were perfect, too
Hand in hand down a waterslide in Chattanooga
They did not hide from love, you see
A winter's plane flight to Aruba
Where he threw a boombox into the sea
One day they were cutting flowers for something to do
On the bank of the road 'neath the cotton woods
And he turned to her to ask if she'd marry him
When a runaway truck hit him where he stood
So I remember you
And I remember you
And I remember you
And I remember me
And I remember me
A blackhawk nailed to the sky
And the tape hiss from the trees
Everybody said she needed to move on
That he was all but lost, so deep was his coma
When he finally came to the girl he loved was long gone
She'd married a banker and gone to Oklahoma
He bought a little land with the money from the settlement
And even bought the truck that had hit him that day
He touched the part where the metal was bent
And if you were there you wouldn't hear him say
I remember her
And I remember him
I remember them
I remember then
I'm just remembering
I'm just remembering
Just remembering
I'm just remembering