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Lullabies to Teach the Heart To Fight & Win

Some lullabies for sleeping, a lullaby for weeping
And one to teach my heart to fight and win

This Al Jarreau stanza comprises lines in the lyrics to his song “Something That You Said,” which appeared on his album “Tomorrow Tomorrow,” released in 2000.  Jarreau wrote these words to accompany “A Remark She Made” that Joe Zawinal had composed.  “A Remark She Made”  was the second track on Weather Report’s seventh album “Heavy Weather” released in 1977. 

 In that year, the album reached the #1 spot on the Jazz Charts.

In 2003 on his “Man in the Air” album, Kurt Elling offers another interpretation of the Zawinal composition —  “Time to Say Goodbye”

Last night as I was scrolling through my Apple Music files, I rediscovered Elling’s version. Then I listened again to Jarreau’s and Zawinal’s. My mind shouted.  So, that is what she said.   

For Jarreau, here it is: 

Every heart is safe inside a place
That makes and shapes the changing
Make the change, sail away beyond the wishing star

Make the change.

For Elling, this is what he couldn’t hear:  

The truest love resigns itself to everything.
No matter how life pulls it apart, love makes another start again

 Chase bluer skies.

Many years later, the narrator looking back, recalls the pain of the breakup, but fondly appreciates the lesson learned and the opportunity opened up.

Yes. He yearns. If only if I had known then what I know now. If I could say something I couldn’t say, then.

Years later, “still” inside his head, he recalls the moment. He even “lives inside” it. Because of how “remarkable and wonderful” that moment was. Because as a result, his heart was able “to fight and win.” (Jarreau)

 “No regrets.” For Elling’s narrator because it was time to try “to see what life is really of.”   In retrospect, it was “time to say goodbye.” 

Sly and the Family Stone sums it up this way: “Thank you for letting me be myself.”

What “lullaby” teaches your heart “fight and win?”

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