The girls I knew had sad and sullen grey faces

 

The grand Andy Bey, 81 years old today. Billy Strayhorn's lyrics on such a high level:

I used to visit all the very gay places

Those come-what-may places

Where one relaxes on the axis

Of the wheel of life

To get the feel of life

From jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces

With distingué traces

That used to be there

You could see where

They'd been washed away

By too many through the day

Twelve o'clock tales

Then you came along

With your siren song

To tempt me to madness

I thought for awhile

That your poignant smile

Was tinged with the sadness

Of a great love for me

Ah, yes, I was wrong

Again, I was wrong

Life is lonely again

And only last year everything seemed so sure

Now life is awful again

A troughful of hearts could only be a bore

A week in Paris will ease the bite of it

All I care is to smile in spite of it

I'll forget you I will

While yet you are still

Burning inside my brain

Romance is mush

Stifling those who strive

I'll live a lush life

In some small dive

And there I'll be

While I rot with the rest

Of those whose lives are lonely, too

***

Crazy good lyrics. Bey's delivery absolutely perfect. Of all of the recorded versions of this with vocals, Bey's is my favorite. 

Bey's in fine form on this Gary Bartz track also, combining cosmic consciousness with some funk and blues, while managing to avoid twee New Age slush. When he sings "talk to the heavenly bodies," he sings it with authority. 

October almost over. A full Moon on the way for Halloween. Hunter's Blue Moon. Make hay while the moon shines. The veil is thin. The Moon a big old memento mori in the cool October sky.