The prompt for Song Lyric Sunday from Jim Adams is Colours. The song must contain a colour in either the title or the lyrics.

This week’s choice is a massive nostalgia wallow for me. Picture a girl in a rah-rah skirt, white stilettos, and a bad perm. Yup, we’ve gone back in time, to 1983 when Elton John released his single I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues.

This is a lovely ballad about parted-lovers, and every time I heard it that summer, I burst into tears. Why all this crying? A broken heart!

My girlfriends and I had our first unsupervised holiday that July, on the Isle of Wight. Rock-and-roll! We were only sixteen, but things were more innocent back then. Well, we were.

Two days into our holiday, we met a group of lads from Portsmouth, and we all fell in love. We spent the next five days frolicking on the beach, trying to get served in pubs (they were also underage) and snogging under the pier.

Then we went home, where we were insufferable: a-weeping and a-wailing, thinking our lives were over. But this was my first (and only!) holiday romance. And this song evokes such happy-sad memories of that time. When I hear it, nearly 40 years (and 40 pounds) drop away, and I become that badly dressed slip of a thing again with her whole life ahead of her.

I don’t mourn her loss; I smile at her antics, and when I need to, I play this song and recreate the joy of freedom and first love.

Fun Facts:
Stevie Wonder played harmonica on this track.
Mark King and the Gould brothers of Level 42 come from the Isle of Wight.

Don’t wish it away
Don’t look at it like it’s forever
Between you and me I can honestly say
That things can only get better

And while I’m away
Dust out the demons inside
And it won’t be long before you and me run
To the place in our hearts where we hide

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues
Time on my hands could be time spent with you
Laughing like children, living like lovers
Rolling like thunder under the covers
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

Just stare into space
Picture my face in your hands
Live for each second without hesitation
And never forget I’m your man

Wait on me girl
Cry in the night if it helps
But more than ever I simply love you
More than I love life itself

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues
Time on my hands could be time spent with you
Laughing like children, living like lovers
Rolling like thunder under the covers
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

Wait on me girl
Cry in the night if it helps
But more than ever I simply love you
More than I love life itself

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues
Time on my hands could be time spent with you
Laughing like children, living like lovers
Rolling like thunder under the covers
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

(Laughing like children, living like lovers)
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

(Laughing like children, living like lovers)
And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues

Songwriters: Elton John, Bernie Taupin & Davey Johnstone
© Hst Publishing Ltd., Big Pig Music Ltd., Rouge Booze, Inc.