Reason to Believe

In what might have seemed an obsessive spell a while back, I believe several of my posts went on about the soundtrack of Wonder Boys that I had recently acquired. Great music. I have had Cohen, Hardin, and Rush on my "must buy" list for my used-CD store dumpster-diving ever since.

With nada in the way of results, btw. I had a great Cohen compilation in my possession over the weekend, only the primary disk would not play. So I am still on the prowl.

But I experienced a wonderful connection-jolt on commute home tonight. I'm making acquaintance with "The Song Before It Is Sung," (Justin Cartwright), based on laudatory review in the paper a while back. This novel is based on historical events involving Jewish and German Oxford mates, the latter returning to Germany, purportedly to attempt to thwart Hitler, but leaving Jewish pal suspicious.

I'm just getting into the book, truthfully, but it was a great joy to find Hardin's "Reason to Believe" (a tune I have always cherished from first hearing as performed by PPM on Album 1700) quoted at length. Of course that was the Hardin entry on WB soundtrack.

If I listened long enough to you, I'd find a way to believe that it's
all true,
Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried,
Still I look to find a reason to believe.

I suspect that the truly rara avis with what now seems the quaint quality of an "inquring mind" may be more subject to my particular tic for connections.