Thirty years ago today, singer/songwriter Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose. He had turned thirty-nine just six days earlier.
Outside of his own career as a performer, Hardin wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe."
To me, Hardin is most notable for "Reason to Believe," a song I originally heard as performed by Rod Stewart. I own Hardin's version, of course, but I vastly prefer Rod Stewart's... so I've embedded Stewart's cover version below. Give it a listen, won't you?
That song contains what I, for my own reasons, consider to be the most effective line ever written: "Someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else." And when I say "most effective line," I do not mean to suggest that "Reason to Believe" is the greatest song ever written, or even one of my own absolute favorite songs.
It's the line itself, and virtually every varying interpretation I've given it personally over the last forty years or so as I've applied it to certain women I've known and usually loved. Out of all the songs, novels, stories, poems, et cetera which I've ever encountered that contained one or more "great" lines, that line is my favorite. Ever.
I certainly don't expect you to agree, necessarily, but frankly... I don't care. It's my favorite. That's all. Just sayin'.
And let's face it, fellow babies... This is my blog.
Thanks for your time.
