The Saddest Song In The World

once i was in the beautiful city of milan, outside the giant cathedral called The Duomo, itself meanin "cathedral" in italian. it was very late, maybe 1300 even, and i had wandered for many hours already around the sleepless city. my mate was uninterested in the beats of the night, bein sound asleep in the hotel room but i was determined to find some meaningful thing to do.

then i saw a man, thirty-somethin white musician, standin near the repulsive cheese stand. he was strummin the chords as loud as he can amidst the bustle of the tourists with his guitar coffin opened wide for those who appreciated his music. next to it were some self-recorded cds of his modest work for sale. he was very good. long-haired and rugged, churnin out mostly american country. and he looked the part as well, with an alan johnson tache and decked in flannel and denim vest. all his words had more southern twang than garth brooks. you could swear he was fresh outta the nashville, the redneck.

so i caught him at the interval and slipped a european fiver into this pocket.

i said,

"My friend, i am very sad tonight. please play for me the saddest song in the world."

now it is a known fact to those who know me personally that i go about doin this at every chance i get, requestin for the saddest song in the world. the phillipino live band that played at my local sports club in malaysia usually indulged me with mariah carey's without you every week i was there. other less travelled musicians would play me some heartbreakin chinese tune which i could not understand completely. and it also sucked usually because they could not carry it well. and also they would pause to sip water and make jokes in the middle of the saddest song in the world. pathetic. some gypsy lot in an english pub had played me that age old favourite yesterday before. somehow everybody who obliged me thought that any song with more than three minor notes is a very sad song.

then i was flabbergasted at his reply. this man was different from the very start. for one, he was more italian than any one of the mario brothers. he's never put half a foot in america either. in fact, the man couldn't speak proper english!

and he said to me;

"My friend, why you so sad? no reason, no reason... but if you like, i play for you. i hope this is enough sad for you."

upon which he started strummin the first few chords of nobody knows you when you're down and out.

i surrendered.

there he was, a destitute-lookin rambler who spoke broken english and yet he belted every word to the amazin clarity of texture eric clapton himself would not have disapproved. he wailed when it was the right time to wail, and whispered when it was time to whisper. he had an incredible authenticity of countenance to him and he sang those words as if he too, hurt like me, if not more. and through the chords and cadences, he made his guitar speak in a melodious mystery, sayin more with one painful minor key than 500 sober words. this sound was shakin the air and rippled many a ear, stirrin hearts and hands into a private applause but he was unmoved by circumstance, uncheapened by attention. it was as if he wanted to get it right for me.

for a brief moment, he was the embodiment of emotion itself, complete and unabridged. man and guitar as one, a pureness of pain second to none.

as i walked back to my hotel, i was thinkin that god must have been around that day because in that huge impersonal metropolitan maze, he sent someone who showed me a connection. and though the reasons for bein sad in the tune were mostly irrelevant to me, this man in his short few minutes of song, managed to understand me more than any other ever did when i said "the saddest song in the world".

ciao.


(p/s the song nobody knows you when you're down and out was originally written by one jimmy cox and covers of it had been sung by legends such as otis redding, janis joplin, rod stewart and of course, where i first heard it bein a 23-year old pretender, eric clapton.)


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Word Of The Wolf today is magniloquent \mag-NIL-uh-kwent\,

adjective:

Lofty or grandiose in speech or expression; using a high-flown style of discourse; bombastic.

"Many who attempt to entertain boisterously end up looking dishonestly magniloquent while others who succeed simply look accomplished."

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Magniloquent is derived from Latin magniloquentia, from magus, "great" + the present participle of loqui, "to speak."
Synonyms: ornate, florid, rich, flowery, euphuistic, sonorous.