Goodnight Kathleen" by Nappy Martin MENDING NEWS: My flagship song from its inception, "Goodnight Kathleen" in its 2012 format quickly became my most viewed video. As available technology evolved, so I thought should the audio quality and video clarity of my best material. Better known across an ocean than are any of her sisters even in their homeland, “Goodnight Kathleen” was the obvious choice to lead the modernization of my fleet. Accordingly, her second makeover in three years would be my first MacBook Air production. Vimeo time! The original 2012 video, still far and away my YouTube Views leader, will remain posted there. And why not? Say what you will of her course and wake, this song is founded on absolutes that long preceded and well survive them. Launched in response to a stunt I had seen too often into middle age, this time against a dear friend, “Goodnight Kathleen” set sail against tides I couldn’t just watch anymore. Her launch was a personal triumph before a single view was reported. GOODNIGHT KATHLEEN In my sweet suburban youth, I was graced with all the couth of a mouse in a wall While my friends were out on dates, "Good shall come to him who waits," they'd reply to my calls All the time, a block away, little young, but that's okay Lived the one I wish I'd looked for; then again, here you are Oh the years that slipped away, why'd they bring us here today If you know what I mean, say it isn't a dream Goodnight Kathleen Giving up, I'd left the scene Leaving my perpetual Queen of the Prom yet untold Till at once a tender glance Said to me there's still a chance to come home to the fold Musings I'd been told to shove, welcome now in retro love Such a fate I dare now question -- is it not what it is? Shall we dance another go, dim the lights and let the glow In our eyes lead us on to the rapture beyond Goodnight Kathleen... Though be spring and summer gone, will I miss them, not for long With the autumn shades before me In your hair, in your eyes, in a captive who sighs Goodnight Kathleen CREDITS: Words and Music by Nappy Martin. Recorded at The Ferrous Fortress, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Vocal, guitars by Nappy Martin.(c) 2012 Ryeside Music (BMI). EPILOGUE: The day I met "Goodnight" Kathleen I was platooning with another then-soloist in the opening hour of a reunion of our hometown block dance bands from the 1960s. I closed my set with "Something Better Beginning", a Kinks number that I had once hoped would be the "our song" with my high school sweetheart. I made sure to include a single-measure phrase from original Kinks bassist Pete Quaife, whose nose for that edge has influenced my arrangements as much as any other musician, other Kinks included. Can you pick it out?
