"I've been loving you far too long.....I can't stop now......."

I was going through my CD collection and came across a copy of Joan Armatrading Greatest Hits CD, (released June 18, 1996) that I bought in 2000. A white guy that I worked with in 1996 had introduced her music to me, and made some tapes for me to listen to in my car. After seeing my shoe box of tapes I kept in my car, he could not believe that I did not have a car CD player, but that is another long story......... He was involved with a black woman, and was a burgeoning music enthusiast. Sometimes we would talk about rock, soul, folk, blues, and jazz music during our lunch breaks. After hearing her, I was embarrassed that I had never noticed Joan Armatrading before. Unfortunately, none of those tunes that he had taped for me with the exception of “Show Some Emotion,” and “The Weakness In Me ” were on the Greatest Hits CD that I had bought, so I shelved it until now. My collection of tapes are gone, either suffered moisture damage, and or dried out from being in a hot car for years. But as I listened to the CD again last night, I found greater appreciation for some of the cuts like:

• Cool Blue Stole My Heart
• Kissin' & Huggin'
• Drop The Pilot
• Willow

But I was determined to find the cuts that he had included on the tapes, so I went on Amazon.com and searched the listings of all her albums. I saw that the majority of the music he had chosen came from the CD “What's Inside” which was released a year before the Greatest Hits CD, on October 10, 1995, via RCA. After listening to that album, and the Greatest Hits CD, I feel that album for me, is her most inspiring, whimsical, and deeply touching music. My favorites from “What's Inside:”

• In Your Eyes
• Merchant Of Love
• Shapes And Sizes
• Lost The Love
• Songs
• Would You Like to Dance
• Recommend My Love (Video link also includes Shapes & Sizes-best viewed in IE browser)
  
• Beyond The Blue
• Can't Stop Loving You
• Shape Of A Pony
• Trouble

I now have to get a copy for myself, and may get all the rest of her CDs in the future so that I would have a complete collection. I have found that someone's else interpretation of a “Greatest Hits” album sometimes miss on some true gems and I prefer to make up my mind myself while I have all the options investigated and listened first. I also discovered this recording by Joan Armatrading first on You Tube for some General Hospital characters' montage, and later the video on her website. I found the song so beautiful and discovered that it is included on her "Lovers Speak" 2003 CD. I am attending a cousin's wedding this weekend, and is feeling all sentimental and rosy inside right now. This song really touched me to that if I was to get married again in a formal or semi- formal wedding, I would like to have this song as a wedding march or even as background music for a wedding video.

"In These Times" by Joan Armatrading

These are the times
Tears fill the back of your eyes
These are the times
The birds migrate
Across the skies

These are the times
What hope you had you forget
These wicked times
You're bound to feel
All sanity is lost

In these times everyone needs love
In these times do you pray to God
In these times everyone needs comfort
And would welcome a hand to hold
Compassion is the fire
That burns the hurt
That pains the soul
And though my eyes are so polluted
By the sight of lost desires
I can see you standing by

This is my fear
That distance will come between us
And it could mean nothing
Nothing
To get from here to there
We own the world
And everything that's in it
Let our love shine
Like glistening raindrops
Resting on a rose

In these times celebrate our love
In these times let's be thankful of
All the days we can spend together
And I'm happy to hold your hand
Your passion is the food
That feeds the hunger in my heart
And now my eyes are clearly open
No more longing for the past
Now I have you in these times

In these times everyone needs love
In these times do you pray to God
In these times everyone needs comfort
And would welcome a hand to hold
Your passion is the fire
That burns the hurt
That pains the soul
And though my eyes are so polluted
By the sight of lost desires
Good to have you in these times

Via www.OldieLyrics.com