You Can't Feel The Sun, Unless You Open Up Your Heart

So not relevant for my life anymore, but DAMN, did this song stop me in my tracks the first time I heard it. An old story from the music blog, as it's a terrific tale about Bob finally singing my life for real.

In November of 2007, Bob Mould did a small club tour to promote his Circle of Friends DVD. During that show, in the really intimate Paradise Lounge, in front of about 100 people, he played the embryonic version of, "I'm Sorry Baby, But You Can't Stand In My Light Anymore". As he told the crowd that night, he had just written that song the previous summer, while laid up with a broken ankle. I have thought about this song often since hearing it for the first time, and the finished version on "Life And Times", does not disappoint. Although, any song that sings your own life so succinctly wouldn't.

Usually, Ani takes the distinction of consistently singing "my" life. After all, we're contemporaries, women, moving through similar stages. Bob has definitely written songs that have informed my perspective, been similar to experiences of mine, songs that have become part of the fabric of my memories of certain people and places, but he's never written a song that could have been completley "about" me. As I sat there that night, listening to him and the acoustic guitar, I was thinking about the last six months of my life, and the relationship I'd just ended, and the phrase, "I'm sorry baby, but you can't stand in my light anymore," absolutely and utterly summarized why I needed that person gone. I was tired of the shadows, tired of feeling cold, tired of being shrouded from everything I knew. He lyrically moved through a list of all the reasons I broke off with Dale, every single one. After the set, as we were talking, I told him exactly this, and he just smiled, as if he knew this song would haunt me until he saw fit to release it.

This song gets a place in my personal canon, particularly in these last two weeks, as I wrap up this project and start moving towards songs I've saved, as they've sung the changes better than any others. I still love hearing him sing this one, even if every once in a while, I cry. Bob's the man, and my life, not just my musical life, but my actual life, is so much richer from his presence there.

I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand In My Light Anymore - Bob Mould