Killing me softly...

Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #45: It's karaoke time. Pick a song to sing and explain why you chose it. Note that not everyone sings the song you expect them to sing: I remember being at a karaoke bar one time and watching a six-foot bald guy with a gravelly voice and a tattoo on his neck sing Olivia Newton John's "Have You Never Been Mellow?" And it was brilliant. So by all means, reach for the stars here. This isn't American Idol.

When I lived in Colorado, was 29, and drank enough to have an inflated opinion of myself; there was a local bar I was traipse into and do karaoke with a woman I met there.  We'd do Sinead O'Connor's (Prince wrote it for her) "Nothing Compares".  Every now and then, I would get up and sing something else, by myself.  But I cannot remember much from those days.  Ahem.

So, I'm 34 now.  Haven't participated in a karaoke evening since.  Unless you count my singing along with the radio in the car or accupelo in the shower.  But in the public sense, I have not sung since.

If I were to do so now, I think I'd pick Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" to karaoke.  When I was a little girl, my mother and I used to sing this song together as we drove along the interstate, going to where ever we were heading that weekend.  Now that I am older, I can feel the song.  It's beautiful, haunting, touching, and vivid.

Killing Me Softly With His Song
Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song ...

I heard he sang a good song, I heard he had a style.
And so I came to see him to listen for a while.
And there he was this young boy, a stranger to my eyes.

Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song ...

I felt all flushed with fever, embarrassed by the crowd,
I felt he found my letters and read each one out loud.
I prayed that he would finish but he just kept right on ...

Strumming my pain withhis fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song ...

He sang as if he knew me in all my dark despair.
And then he looked right through me as if I wasn't there.
But he just came to singing, singing clear and strong.

Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song ...

He was strumming, oh, he was singing my song.
Killing me softly with his song,
Killing me softly with his song,
Telling my whole life with his words,
Killing me softly with his song ...
With his song ...