A Good Thing…

Barbara Lynn: You’ll Lose A Good Thing and Heartbreaking Years
Taken from the album “You’ll Lose A Good Thing” on Jamie (1962)

I’ve been a little blue lately.

You know, sometimes I feel like I’m too young to get all full up with heavy-lidded melancholy like this. I mean, I’m twenty-two. Feels a little early for boo-hoo’ing, right? I should be drinking Dos Equis out of neon plastic party cups at a Senor Frogs just south of the border. I should be getting loopy over Fantasy league football. I should be lamenting–if anything–the bummer of how expensive auto insurance is for a young guy… Not going misty at the first dulcet croon of a break-up song.

But then, this is no ordinary break-up song. Sung by no ordinary soulstress.

Barbara Lynn wasn’t my age when she wrote (I repeat, she wrote) these songs. Nope. In 1962, 22 years-old probably seemed pretty ancient to little Miss Lynn. No Senor Frogs for her. Hell, probably no auto insurance. She was still in high school at the time. A sophmore, I would guess. Just s-i-x-t-e-e-n. Spell it.

And I here I am moping around like a sucker. An old sucker, at that! Query: where does a 16 year-old girl find the depth, not only to write a truly superb sad song, but to sing it so convincingly that a fifty year old man could go woozy just humming along. Query: Where does said girl get her southpaw guitar chops? Her diva’s poise? Where does she get her hair done? I don’t know, but she did it all, this one. And then she disappeared. Until now.

Un-freakin-believable.

Go here to find out more the elusive Barbara Lynn. As for me, I’ll manage.