The simple task of reorganizing a CD collection, punctuated with stops to listen along the way, affords your humble essayist the opportunity to honestly identify a long-crusted-over, never resolved, and wholly destructive inner inconsistency. Wow. Who knew?
Let’s get right to it. The conflict is so apparent, it’s astonishing only in how long seeing it for myself has proven elusive:
I’ve got plenty of java
And Chesterfield Kings
But I feel like crying
I wish I had a heart like ice
Heart like iceThe Nightfly
Donald Fagen, The Nightfly, 1982
Take a knife
Cut out this heart of ice
Hold it high
Walk into the sunHeart of Ice
Joe Jackson, Body & Soul, 1984
These are lyrics that spoke to me. I felt them. I let them stick around. And it’s only now that I reckon the sentiments expressed don’t play well with each other. There’s just not enough room in this town for the both of them.