17. So Near
© Robbie O’Connell 1990 Slievenamon Music (BMI)
Is there a more lonesome sound than that of a distant foghorn in the middle of the night? When an ocean separates you from the one you love, that sound feels like the perfect expression of the melancholy that surrounds you like a grey fog. This was written after unwillingly departing from my future wife, Roxanne, in Massachusetts and returning to university in Dublin in 1972. I was a lovesick mess, living only for the next letter or phone call. Transatlantic phone calls cost a fortune in the early seventies and letters could take a week or more to arrive so I spent most of the time in between communications, trawling through the memories of the wonderful times we had just spent together. I was pathetic. I admit it. Such is the nature of young love.
William Shakespeare, no stranger to the joys and follies of love himself, gave us many memorable quotes of the topic. However, this is my favorite:
“And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.“ (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act 4 Scene 3)
So Near
© Robbie O’Connell 1990 Slievenamon Music (BMI)
Lyrics:
I see the lights of Dublin as they shine across the bay I take the path we used to walk before you went away The only sound I hear is my own footsteps on the ground And the words you sang inside my head turning round and round CHORUS Your song is in my memory, I hear it night and day Like the skyline in the distance, so near and yet so far away So near and yet so far away I hear a foghorn blowing in the early light of dawn It wakes me from my dreaming just to find that you are gone With the ocean in between us, all I do is count the time As you lie alone in your bed and I lie alone in mine Oh I count the hours ‘til I’ll hear your voice upon the phone And I’m marking every date off ‘til the night when you’ll come home I see the lights of Dublin as they shine across the bay I take the path we used to walk before you went away With the ocean in between us, all I do is count the time As you lie alone in your bed and I lie alone in mine
Of the love songs Robbie has written this is my favorite. The thing about a love song is that it takes a very deep and intimate moment and brings it into the wider, public world. So, while the distant lover of the song might feel a bit exposed in the beginning, she is also connected to all the lovers out there separated for a time and yearning to be back together with their heart’s desire. The beauty of the song is that it gives words and music to the feelings of others. The gift of a love song is lifelong… and eternal.