Yes, it has been hellaciously overplayed on classic rock radio. And I'd bet cash money that Delilah has this song queued up at the beginning of each show, because she knows some lonely schlub from East Mooseknuckle, Wyoming, is going to call in and dedicate it to his high school sweetheart with some cryptic message like, "I'm sorry about the tractor accident, Laverne; but I still lurve you."
Call it sappy, call it white boy soul. But, dammit, there's something about those staccato chords on Burton Cummings's Hohner Pianet keyboard that get me every time.
By the time Jim Kale's bass drops in along with Randy Bachman's muted guitar lick and Gerry Peterson's drums (which sound closer to Soulsville or Hitsville USA than Winnipeg), there's just no turning back.
The pathos and drama just keep building as the song progresses: strings swell, there's a vibraphone doubling the keyboard part, and then a lone trumpet comes out of nowhere. The key shifts from C major to D, and then from D to E, as Cummings soulfully wails through his tongue twister of a confession that These eyes have seen a lot of loves, but they're never gonna see another one like I had with you...
It's cheesy.
But it's really good cheese.
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