The Song "Alfie" Is A Liberal, Anti-Libertarian Manifesto

Burt Bacharach and Hal David felt like this was their favorite of their own songs.  That would be an accomplishment in itself, being the best Bacharach/David song.  I'd go a step further though.  I feel like it's one of the best songs of all time, period.

My second son was "my baby."  My wife was very territorial about our first child, born over seven years earlier.  She did everything.  After the second birth, she told me, with some bitterness, "it's your turn to do everything."  I remember it as fun, actually.  The baths, the bedtimes, the doctor's visits, the doctoring of lesser bruises, the getting dressed, the midnight whispers of, "dad . . . dad . . ."  The boy couldn't do anything without company.   I put him to bed every night, and in doing so I sang him two songs.  The same two songs every night, starting young and until he was over two years old.  He never complained, even though neither song had any kid appeal other than dad doing the singing.  I'd start off with "Silhouettes on the Shade," one of my favorite Doo Wop songs (by the Rays).  Then I'd swing into "Alfie."  (This Dionne Warwick version is my favorite.)  He wasn't old enough to understand the meaning of the song.  He wasn't old enough to understand "Silhouettes" either, for that matter.  I started way before he'd mastered even rudimentary English.  They're beautiful songs, regardless.

"Alfie" is one of half a dozen or so songs that I can't sing without crying, every time.  The ideas are so big, and so powerful, and so fucking right on, that it could only have been published in connection with a film.  I'm sure that it only became a pop hit due to the fabulous melody and the great singing.  The content was a bonus!  

I miss those days, and him and his brother.  As Joseph Heller said, "Something Happened."  That's life, though.  I wish us all luck.