Every Time We Say Goodbye

[theoldanarchist]

I've been listening to Betty Carter's recording of this song on the "Night and Day" compilation at work recently... or, I should say, I was listening to it until I quit my job day before yesterday. At any rate, the song just kills me every time I hear it. Rereading the short, simple lyrics, I do not get quite the same effect. Betty Carter's voice---which reminds me in some ways of Nina Simone if she were more, let's say, operatic---lifts the song and conveys so well Porter's theme of a love felt so strongly (but, perhaps, so one-sided) that it almost threatens to destroy the one feeling it. Porter wrote songs like this so well, one almost wonders how he lived at all.

EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE

(Cole Porter)

Every time we say goodbye, I die a little
Every time we say goodbye, I wonder why a little
Why the gods above me, who must be in the know
Think so little of me, they'd allow you to go

When you're near, there's such an air of spring about it
I can hear a lark somewhere begin to sing about it
There's no love song finer,
But how strange the change
From major to minor
Every time we say goodbye