Andy 60s Music Lyrics: Lonely Hearts, Lonely Days, Lonely Boy, Solitary Man, Eleanor Rigby, Are You Lonesome?

Discussing Loneliness:

The lyrics that go with many of these songs about loneliness could make the happiest person very depressed. So, let's look at the topic, within limited borders, and some of the pop songs that go with it. I'm no psychiatrist but writing only through the experiences of pop song lyrics.

Loneliness And Lost Love:

This one is, I think, the most common experience of loneliness any person could go through. So, when Singaporeans Fitzgerald and Pascal composed their huge local hit, 'My Lonely Heart' and expressed, ‘Please return my heart so I may cry... Every night I pray... to meet you someday,' lovers connect with the song immediately. But in this particular instance the conclusion says it all, ‘I know it's true, I won't be seeing you.' 

The lovers know that all's lost with no light in the distance. Like Georgia Gibbs, with her 50’s hit, was right when she sobbed, 'Guess it never pays to make your lover blue, Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you.' Lost love indeed.

Loneliness With Hope:

Here the theme takes a turn. 

There could be some hope couldn't there, after a lost love. 

'Maybe tomorrow a new romance, No more sorrow but that's the chance you gotta take,' brought about these lines that most people in break-ups often expressed and where most songs about loneliness derived. Roy Orbison made it huge with, 'Only The Lonely,' and with some clues of a new beginning. So, they might not be, 'gone forever, so far apart.'

Paul Anka is totally devastated as he cries, 'I'm just a lonely boy, Lonely and blue... I'd like to hear somebody say, I'll give you my love, Each night and day.' So it's not a breakup here. He has no partner  to love because what he wants, 'is someone to love.' So there’s hope but with some desperation?

No war here; just an illustrative image to show a soldier boy with a suitable wartime background?

Loneliness As A Soldier:

Two wars [one?] are going on today and many people, including soldiers, have lost their lives. Many of them, who are away from home, experience loneliness on the battlefield.

In a 60s hit, Bobby Vinton lamented, 'I'm so lonely for my own, I'm Mister Lonely, Wish I had somebody to call my own... to call on the phone... Now I'm a soldier, a lonely soldier. I got no letter in the mail. I wish I could go back home.' 

His experience as a soldier boy in the 60s rang true as the Vietnam War loomed in the distance. And our wars? Could we afford some more? Because war goes beyond loneliness...

Loneliness When Old:

'Ah look at all the lonely people, Picks up the rice in the church where the wedding has been, Lives in a dream... Then there's Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one would hear.' How observant were Lennon and McCartney when they sang, 'Eleanor Rigby.’ 

'All the lonely people, where do they all come from?'

Most seniors who read this post know what loneliness mean. Health problems; spousal death; non-visiting children; friendlessness, etc. would lead to a nasty list. And like a friend mentioned, "Even Mother Earth rejects you!"

"Are you lonesome tonight?" No, not only tonight... it's, "Are you lonesome always?"

Hey, but what about Michael Jackson's, 'You Are Not Alone.'

General comments are welcome. 

A 1926 song, Elvis recorded it in 1960 after his

army release. 2,000,000 copies sold by 1992.

Recorded in 1962, Vinton wrote it in the late 50s 

during his army days as the Vietnam War escalates.

Written in 1958 and released in 1959 with Don Costa,

after 'Diana' hit. It was featured in his movie, 'Girls Town'.

'Eleanor Rigby' [lyrics]: The Beatles. YouTube Video from BTA MUSIC.

The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby (Lyrics)

“There goes my baby, There goes my heart, They are gone forever, So far apart, But only the lonely, Know why I cry.”

“Don't know that I will, But until I can find me, The girl who'll stay, And won't play games behind me, I'll be what I am, A solitary man, solitary man”

“Seven lonely days make one lonely week, Seven lonely nights make one lonely me, Ever since the time you told me we were true, Seven lonely days I cry and cry for you.” 

'My Lonely Heart', a local recording; this vinyl piece was a sell-out in the 60's. One of the classics in Singapore's music history.

[This original article, as most others are, is copyrighted.]