Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

Here’s a live performance by Carly Simon of her 1987 hit, “Coming Around Again”:

Carly recorded this song for the film Heartburn, which I saw on an airplane when I was far too young to have any idea what was going on.  Why were Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson being so mean to each other?

“Coming Around Again” is a devastating portrait of a disintegrating marriage.  The verses present a series of domestic images that range from mundane to fragile to outright hostile, and Carly Simon delivers them in a small range of notes that suggests a weariness or ennui on the part of the narrator.  The chorus, switches to the first person, opens the possibility for reconciliation, but tinged with the sadness of emotional scars, as well as the offer of a heart that has more space because it’s been broken.  On the second time through the chorus adds a further note of heartbreak: despite the disappointment,  frustration and violence, I still believe in love, and what else can I do? I’m still in love with you.  On this live performance, Carly and her band also reinvent the nursery rhyme, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” as they sing it against the “I believe in love” refrain.  This juxtaposition of image and straight-out statement, as well as the connotations that the nursery rhyme bring with it, exemplifies what gives this song its emotional power: just as Carly sings, “Nothing stays the same,” none of the images or sentiments here remains stable, so that the song doesn’t tell you about heartbreak, but rather embodies its emotional and physical violence, as well as its confusion.

Musically the song is intelligently understated, playing within a few simple themes that do nothing flashy, but come together–along with the lyrics– to create a real atmosphere.

“Coming Around Again” is one of the saddest songs I know.