Read ‘Em And Weep

By Barry Manilow

I’ve been tryin for hours just to think of what exactly to say
I thought I leave you with a letter or a fiery speech
like when an actor makes an exit at the end of a play
and I’ve been dying for hours trying to fill up all the holes with some sense
I like to know why you gave up and threw it away
I like to give you all the reasons and what everything meant
well, I can tell you goodbye or maybe see you around
with just a touch of sarcastic thanks
we started out with a bang
and at the top of the world
now the guns are exhausted
and the bullets are blanks
and everything’s blank

[Chorus:]
if I could only find the words
then I would write it all down
if I could only find the voice
I would speak
oh its there in my eyes
oh can’t you see me tonight
come on and look at me
and read ’em and weep

[Chorus]

I’ve been whispering softly
trying to build a cry up to a scream
we let the past slip away
and put the future on hold
now the present is nothing but a hollowed out dream
and I’ve been dreaming forever
hoping something would eventually come
I saw your eyes in the dark
I felt your kiss on my lips
I traced your body in the air
’til the bodies were numb
well, I could tell you goodbye
or maybe see you around
with just a touch of a sarcastic thanks
but now the rooms are all empty
the candles are dark
the guns are exhausted
and the bullets are blank
and everything is blank

[Chorus]

Oh it’s there in my eyes
and coming straight from my heart
it’s running silent and angry and deep
oh it’s there in my eyes
and it’s all I can say
come on and look at me
and read ’em and weep
for all the hours we’ll be spending alone
for the dreams will ignore
and all the promises we promise to keep
they won’t be kept anymore
and for the magic that our bodies have made
for this blood that we’ve lost
and all the secrets that we somehow we betrayed
and for whatever the cost
and for the memories still alive in the bed
for the lies we believe
and all the things we will never have said
why don’t you look at me
and ream ’em and weep
come on and look at me and read ’em
it’s there in my eyes
and coming straight from my heart
it’s running silent and angry and deep
it’s there in my eyes
and it’s all I can say
come on and look at me
and read ’em and weep

Lyrics by Jim Steinman

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Another song, a 1983, Jim Steinman composition.  There are so many that Steinman penned.  He was one of the premiere rock n’ roll enchanters of my generation.

Again I am moved, tremble inwardly, existentially, — at the disasters to which we are a party, as Homo Sapiens.  This morning I viewed an image of the eight mile long Russian convoy of tanks, and armored troop carriers progressing toward the border of Ukraine.  The image could have been of a death angel.  I cannot imagine anything that could possibly prevent what will happen in the days to come.  Many more will die, prematurely, in horrific fashion. Cities will be reduced to ruins.  A snapshot of the human story at the nation state level.

The lyric lines portray the human story at a personal level.  The Steinman lyric depicts the painful end of a relationship between a male and a female, — from the male point of view.  What might have been, a future of promises kept, of comity, companionship, of reciprocal care, cannot be redeemed, fixed, preserved.  The speaker’s look-back finds only nonsense, nothing rational as a cause for the departure of his beloved.  (Perhaps his bias blinds him to the beginnings of the breakdown?)  He cannot, “fill up the holes with some sense.”

Nothing more need be said…

…now the rooms are all empty
the candles are dark
the guns are exhausted
and the bullets are blank
and everything is blank..

This is a fitting meditation for Good Friday is it not?