looking for the heart of saturday night

It is Saturday night, and I am in my apartment. Generally I’d rather not spend my Saturday nights in my apartment alone, but at the same time, though I’ve been known to journey out into the city on occasion in search of elusive connections and moments of life, such journeys often end in disappointment, and so the search does not always come easily to me. So tonight I am listening to songs about searching for life on a Saturday night rather than being out there actually fucking doing it.

What I love about listening to Tom Waits’ original version of “(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night”…

…and Jonathan Richman’s distinctive cover version, “The Heart of Saturday Night”

is that I think the way that Jonathan makes the song his own tells you a lot about him as a songwriter. Contrasting the imagery and mood of Waits’ song with the imagery and mood of Richman’s version gives us a glimpse of the distinct perspective on life, and on moments, that has informed so much of Richman’s work.

At first listen, Jojo’s version may seem a lot less melancholy than Waits’ version, but I actually think that it’s just melancholy in a different way. In covering the song, Richman doesn’t just make it more upbeat; he adds some of his own lyrics. There aren’t many phrases in songs that can give me chills, but this song does it, when Jonathan sings:

Is it the sound of a pool ball gets ya
It sort of excites ya and it sort of upsets ya

I just don’t think you can say it any more clearly than that, how the energy of a beautiful and thrilling moment can be upsetting even as you’re living it because built in to the excitement of the moment is the awareness that it’s over almost before it even happens.

And so you go barreling down the boulevard, looking for the heart of Saturday night, trying to grab it before it’s gone.