I’ve listened to this song over and over.  It’s included on a greatest hits CD by The Band.  There are several tunes that I like on the disc.  This one is like a gift from the god’s in its sad beauty.  I’ve never personally experienced anything like unrequited love, but I can imagine how unspeakably wrenching the experience has to be.

Biologically, emotionally, existentially –everyone hopes to encounter another human being who may become our soulmate; the one human being that “gets us.”   That is, by shear good fortune one hopes to meet someone whose past circumstance has some commonality with our own, whose angle of view on life parallels one’s own, whose sense of self is adequately compatible —- so that over time a deep, abiding friendship is possible.  Certainly this prospect is a quest, one of life’s greatest projects.  Who does not fear loneliness?

This song is a requiem for a failed relationship.  The speaker is starkly aware of all that is irretrievably lost.

Many good words have been written by music critics about the technical and artistic elements of the tune.  I can only say that as I’ve listened many times, I am palpably sad by virtue of Rick Danko, the singer’s soulful rendering, and the Garth Hudson’s wailing saxophone solo.

“It Makes No Difference” released in 1975, has to be one of the best soul ballad’s of all time.  Well done gentlemen!

I offer for your enjoyment, “It Makes No Difference” by The Band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP7r12Rg490

It Makes No Difference

written by Robbie Robbertson

It makes no difference where I turn
I can’t get over you and the flame still burns
It makes no difference, night or day
The shadow never seems to fade away

And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Now there’s no love
As true as the love
That dies untold
But the clouds never hung so low before

It makes no difference how far I go
Like a scar, the hurt will always show
And it makes no difference who I meet
They’re just a face in the crowd on a dead-end street

And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

These old love letters
Well, I just can’t keep
Just like the gambler says:
“Read ’em and weep”
And the dawn don’t rescue me no more

Without your love, I’m nothing at all
Like an empty hall, it’s a lonely fall
Since you’ve gone it’s a losing battle
Stampeding cattle, they rattle the walls

And the sun don’t shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Well, I love you so much
That it’s all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before