Come on Come on

Here at Song of the Day for Today, it’s back to regularly-scheduled programming, as they say, though today’s selection has a few similarities to the music we’ve read about and heard during the past nine days. I hope you had good time if you joined me to explore the full album, Dark Little Ones, by Kieran West. He and I enjoyed blogging together to share his new album with you, and I learned a few new things about the nine songs on it. Thank you to everyone who has read and commented and is streaming and buying the album to support my talented son.

Today, we’re looking at a song I only heard for the first time recently, though it dates back to the 1990s. Mary Chapin Carpenter (b. 1958) is an American country and folk singer-songwriter who began writing songs and playing folk venues in the Washington, DC area in the mid-1970s and recording albums in the late 1980s.

In “Come On Come On,” she recalls many memories, some of them pleasant, some perhaps haunting and difficult to reconcile. She also seems to be recounting her first loss and how that shaped her life; and one thought I had on the chorus was that she might even be speaking to someone as they lay dying, encouraging the person to let go.

“Some people remember the first time
Some can’t forget the last
Some just select what they want to from the past
It’s a song that you danced to in high school
It’s a moon you tried to bring down
On a four-in-the-morning drive through the streets of town

Come on come on, it’s getting late now
Come on come on, take my hand
Come on come on, you just have to whisper
Come on come on, I will understand

It’s a photograph taken in Paris, at the end of the honeymoon
In 1948, late in the month of June
Your parents smile for the camera in sienna shades of light
Now you’re older than they were then that summer night

“Come on come on, it’s getting late now
Come on come on, take my hand
Come on come on, you just have to whisper
Come on come on, I will understand

It’s a need you never get used to, so fierce and so confused
It’s a loss you never get over the first time you lose

And tonight I am thinking of someone, seventeen years ago
We rode in his daddy’s car down the river road

Come on come on, it’s getting late now
Come on come on, take my hand
Come on come on, you just have to whisper
Come on come on, I will understand
Come on come on, it’s getting late now
Come on come on, take my hand
Come on come on, you just have to whisper
Come on come on, I will understand
Come on come on”

“Come On Come On,” by Mary Ann Kennedy, Pat Bunch and Pam Rose.
Lyrics retrieved from AZLyrics.com.

The song is the closing track on the 1992 album of the same name. This collection has been Carpenter’s most successful so far, generating seven singles (though today’s selection wasn’t one of them!) that hit the Billboard Top 100, and it reached quadruple platinum certification in the USA (meaning four million units were shipped from the factory).

“Come On Come On” is a delicate and poignant piece about memories, love and loss; things we all experience and that build up the people we develop into in our lives. The song was a pleasant discovery during a recent session of listening to random plays on Apple Music.

Now you know a little about why this is my Song of the Day for Today. Thanks for joining me here, and please enjoy the audio from Mary Chapin Carpenter’s personal YouTube channel:

With my best wishes,

Steve