Beggin'

I went to see "Jersey Boys" last night (and found it to be extremely enlightening, preferring the second act to the first by far.) All the songs were new to me. I loved "My Eyes Adored You" and "Fallen Angel" but the one that keeps on replaying in my mind is "Beggin'."

There is something so dark in that song, dark and beautiful and fascinating.

"My Eyes Adored You" is incalculably sweet, which is why it speaks to me. Also, I like the way it is phrased. It is not that I adored you; indeed "I never laid a hand on you." It is just his eyes.

"Fallen Angel" is very sad, and I like the line, "Fallen angel, I'll forgive you anything/ You can't help the things you do." I doubt it's true in practice, but I like the idea of it.

"Beggin'" is something else again. It's one of those songs I can understand in various ways, and not in its most simplistic sense. Doesn't everyone beg, in a way? We hate it. We cannot stand begging; our pride does not permit us to beg. And yet in a way we are all beggars. We beg for attention, compassion, for people to listen, for people to hear us, even for people to love us. We are perhaps not so explicit in what we are doing; we assume that people can pick up on our signals and know how to approach us and help us in the manner that we need it. Of course it's so. And what in the world happens when she doesn't put her loving hand out? Here especially, when he's dedicated his life to being precisely what she wants.

Oh, the things for which we beg.