Never My Love

So I really like the song, Never My Love, by the Association. I heard it on the 60's station at work today. It's just a great love song with some of the best harmonies to be recorded from that era. While not a sad song, I always feel melancholy after hearing it. This wasn't always the case.

A couple years back I was drinking in this dive with my wife. We had just moved to Philly and were urgently seeking out the best dive bars in our area. The one we kept going back to was just a few blocks from our apartment and had a good mix of old timers, hipsters, and union guys who were doing construction in the area.

The place was kind of quiet that night. While drinking our $6 pitchers of Lager, we spotted this big union guy putting some money in the jukebox. You know the kind of guy I'm talking about. Big and broad with that red face that comes from a lifetime of working outdoors and heavy drinking. The kind of guy that eats cheese steaks from the carts for breakfast. Sometimes two of them.

After searching for a while, Big Union Guy found something to his liking and sat back down at the bar. He was alone that night and was drinking like it. The song that Big Union Guy selected was of course, Never My Love. As the song began, he just stared straight ahead not doing a thing. Occasionally, he would take a healthy swig of his beer or take a pull from his cigarette. But mostly, during that sweet song, he sat there motionless staring at something really far away.

My wife, being the professional people watcher that she is, was the first one to notice the sorrow in this man. We sat there in our booth watching him drink and listen so intently to the song, and though I can't speak for her, pitying the man for his lost love.

Who was this girl that he played the song for? An ex-girlfriend from his younger days? His first wife? His second? What had happened to the two of them? A small part of me wanted to buy the guy a drink and, with a little luck, hear the story about this girl. But people don't do that. Not in real life anyway.

So when I hear, Never My Love, I always think of Big Union Guy. Is he still pining for this lost love? Does he play that song only on their old anniversary? Does he ever think of calling her up one night after ten beers? I'm rooting for him and he doesn't even know it.