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Rating:
Well, this time I'll try to restrain the ecstatic tones that usually pervade these reviews.
Hardin was 25 years old when he recorded this debut. Why did I mention the tones usually adopted by those who talk about this music? Because with this album, he joined the company of Tim Buckley, Fred Neil, Dylan, Van Zandt. Their songs evoke tears and absorbed thoughts, and they all departed from the safe harbor of folk to explore horizons that turned out different for each of them. Tim Hardin, no.
I once read (must have been Bertoncelli) that he didn’t like that label too hastily slapped on; he considered himself more completely a jazz musician, a bluesman, or at least an aspiring one—and this would become clear only a few years later. And then, songs like Misty Roses, How Can We Hang On to a Dream, Never Too Far, and the well-known Reason to Believe denote a hasty sensitivity, close yet different from those mentioned above. Songs written on the spur of the moment, unrefined: they seem like demos, and very often they are. As for jazz, While You’re on Your Way, How Long, Part of the Wind are there to speak a soft language, often mixed with blues or country and whispered by Gary Burton's vibraphone.
In 1969, Hardin had his door to glory: among the large ensemble of folk singers on the Woodstock stage, he was there too. He was supposed to open the festival, but another stage crisis delayed the performance to late at night. Few images remain of him, wandering around the park once again high, mumbling incoherent phrases. Bertoncelli also wrote that after the last notes of If I Were A Carpenter, it started pouring rain on the vast countryside: and the circle was complete.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Don't Make Promises (02:24)
It seems the songs we're singing
Are all about tomorrow
Tunes of promises you can't keep
Every moment bringing a love I can only borrow
You're telling me lies in your sleep
Do you think I'm not aware of what you're saying
Or why you're saying it
Is it hard to keep me where you want me staying
Don't go on betraying it
Don't make promises you can't keep
We had a chance to find it
Our time was now or never
You promised me things that I need
But then the things behind it took away the chance forever
You're telling me lies in your sleep
Do you think I'm not aware of what you're saying
Or why you're saying it
Is it hard to keep me where you want me staying
Don't go on betraying it
Don't make promises you can't keep
07 Reason to Believe (01:58)
If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied straightfaced while I cried
Still I'd look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live
without somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
and never think of myself
If I gave you time to change my mind
I'd find a way to leave the past behind
Knowing that you lied straightfaced while I cried
Still I'd look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live
without somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
and never think of myself
11 Misty Roses (01:58)
You look to me
Like misty rose
Too soft to touch
But too lovely to leave alone.
If I could be
Like misty roses
I'd love you much
You're too lovely to leave alone.
Flowers often cry
But too late to find
That their beauty has been lost
With their peace of mind.
You look to me
Like love forever
Too good to last
But too lovely not to try.
If I believed
In love forever
I'd forget the past
You're just too lovely not to try.
12 How Can We Hang on to a Dream (02:02)
What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream
How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems
What can I do, she's saying we're through
With how it was
What will I try, I still don't see why
She says what she does
How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems
What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream
How can we hang on to a dream
How can it ever be the way it seems
How can we hang on to a dream
What can I say, she's walking away
From what we've seen
What can I do, still loving you
It's all a dream
How can we hang on to a dream
How can it will it be the way it seems
How can we hang on to a dream
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