Little River Band, "Lonesome Loser"

Last night I had company stay over; he stayed in my bed while I slept on the couch. I left my iTunes running in the background overnight; sorted by artist, the playlist started with the Left Banke, continued onward through Lemar and Leonard Nimoy and Lesley Gore and Level 42 and all the Lils and Lindas and Lisas, finally culminating in my awaking to the Little River Band's "Lonesome Loser."

"Loser," a big hit in the late summer of '79 for the Australian band, is a vague but gimlet-eyed look at a guy unlucky in love: "'It's OK,' he smiles and says / Though this loneliness is driving him crazy / He don't show what goes on in his head / But if you watch very close you'll see it all." Fitting tune to wake up to - did I mention I wasn't sharing the bed with my companion?

Hey, I'm not taking back anything I've said about love in recent weeks. But while the mind can adapt to and even embrace its aloneness, sometimes the body stands up and demands a vote in the matter.