Maybe now baby, I'll do what I should'a did.

I bought (yet) another set of headphones at the weekend, so I’m testing them out with some old, familiar tracks. I should be surprised at the surge of emotions that come on, listening to songs that once meant the world to me, but they’re hitting me hard tonight.

First up was “My Stunning Mystery Companion”, Jackson Browne’s tale of lost love. That got a fond smile from me, and gladness that she’s so happy now. People will come and go, it seems, but there will only ever be one Stunning Mystery Companion for me.

And then “All I Want Is You” by U2. And I shake my head, that at one time it meant so much, and I move on, sadly, straight to “Stolen Car” (the Patty Griffin cover, not Springsteen’s original) and it brings back the last days (months, years) of my marriage, and I shudder. I actually shudder, and remember feeling 100 years old.

Which is probably enough of that (though Loyd Cole’s “Vin Ordinaire” reminds me always, always to laugh at myself – “She’s in love with him, I’m in love with her, here we go again, so Vin Ordinaire”.)

I’m in a better place now, in a lot of ways, and all it takes to remind me of that is a song that’s oh, 25 years or so old – so in the end I have to say, let the clouds go rain on some other sucker’s parade.

Good headphones, these.