Hear, Say

I love music. A bold take, you must be thinking, made possible only by deep reserves of courage and conviction.



The problem is that, as I’ve mentioned here at least once before, I can’t easily read
or write or hold a conversation aloud if there’s chatter going on around me — other conversations, television, etc., sadly including music with lyrics — because my brain foregrounds all of it and I’m unable to focus on any one bit to the point of utter exhaustion.

Not long ago, however, I was trying to hash out with a service agent of uncommon good nature whom I’ll call Richard exactly where the details of a diagnostic appointment for my car had disappeared to, when, during a brief pause as he examined his computer terminal, I heard the opening bars of 1976’s PIR classic “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” piped in faintly overhead.

“Man,” I said reflexively and unbidden, “Lou Rawls was the best.”

“You just read my blessed mind, Mr. Lamken,” said Richard, his gaze still fixed on the screen. “You just read my blessed mind.”


Photo: The Best of Lou Rawls, Philadelphia International Records, 2021.