Irma Thomas, what happened to make your voice so sad? I can hear it crack as your words spill out. I seek your songs out on skip and just listen again and again. It's raining, time is on my side, but nobody wants to hear nobody's troubles. You're always saying that you want to be free, but you're still gonna cry until your tears run dry.

Clarence Carter, how can you sing so happy? You're 15 miles from town with another man's wife. You were so ragged everybody called you patches. Your papa was a great old man, I can see him with a shovel in his hand.

Oh, Tina, you can't miss what you can't miss nothing that you never had. Ike tried all he could to hold onto you, even if he didn't understand love and was a mess and an asshole but who knows. Maybe he loved you. Maybe he didn't. But your old words are haunting.

Sing me to sleep.

Photo - N
Words - S