Who doesn’t want to be loved?  The desire/need to be loved and to love is universal for all humans.  Maybe the principle holds for all living things.  For a blade of grass, or a rose, — I cannot say.  I have observed that mammals seek out love, affectionate response.  A dog understands a kind gesture as does a cat.

This ballad is easy to understand.  You just have to listen, and the tragedy and the magnificence of human existence is told as it was by Homer in his Iliad and Odyssey.  I listen, sad enough that I begin to cry.  Greatness yes, who does not desire to “make something” of one’s life, to matter.  But that is all about love.

All the world will love you, just as long….

Life is brief, ephemeral, passing like a warm summer’s day…    And this is a principle of Nature, as law-like as is gravity.  If you listen to the wind you can still hear him play.

The question stands, un-dismissable by any answer that I might give.  Don’t you know that you are a shooting star?  I think that, if at some level it is possible for me to “know” that, — then perhaps the bottle of whisky and sleeping tablets need not be a feature of my story.  Perhaps.

Shooting Star

By Bad Company

Johnny was a schoolboy when he heard his first Beatle song,
‘Love me do,’ I think it was. From there it didn’t take him long.
Got himself a guitar, used to play every night,
Now he’s in a rock ‘n’ roll outfit,

And everything’s all right, don’t you know?

Johnny told his mama, hey, ‘Mama, I’m goin’ away. I’m gonna hit the big
time, gonna be a big star someday’, Yeah.
Mama came to the door with a teardrop in her eye.
Johnny said, ‘Don’t cry, mama, smile and wave good-bye’.

Don’t you know, yeah yeah, Don’t you know that you are a shooting star,
Don’t you know, don’t you know. Don’t you know that you are
a shooting star, And all the world will love you just as long,
As long as you are.

Johnny made a record, Went straight up to number one,
Suddenly everyone loved to hear him sing the song.
Watching the world go by, surprising it goes so fast.
Johnny looked around him and said, ‘Well, I made the big time at last’.

Don’t you know, don’t you know, Don’t you know that you are
a shooting star,
Don’t you know, oh, yeah, Don’t you know that you are
a shooting star, yeah,
And all the world will love you just as long,
As long as you are, a shooting star.

Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, Don’t you know, yeah,
Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, now,
And all the world will love you just as long, As long you are you.

Johnny died one night, died in his bed, Bottle of whiskey,
sleeping tablets by his head. Johnny’s life passed him by like a
warm summer day, If you listen to the wind you can still hear him play

Oh oh oh, Don’t you know that you are a shooting star,
Don’t you know, yeah, don’t you know’, Don’t you know that
you are a shooting star,
Don’t you know, yeah,
Don’t you know that you are a shooting star,
Don’t you, don’t you,
don’t you, don’t you,
Don’t you know, don’t you
know, oh, yeah, you are,
Yeah, a shooting star, yeah, oh
oh oh oh oh……
Don’t you, don’t you know
that you are a shooting star,
Don’t you don’t you know……

Writer: Paul Rodgers