The song is beautifully written and scored, Flack’s piano has the right drift/heft for the theme, and of course her strong expressive voice carries exactly the power and pathos the poetry of the piece demands.
**********************
At this late date, UD has lost much of her tolerance for pathos; as she has explained on this blog, she now prefers movies that feature crowds of terrified Manhattanites fleeing monsters (see Cloverfield) to films where you actually have to get to know suffering particular individuals. But for this hugely pathos-ridden song (its triple-sads usually only work when floating on a torrent of vitriol/wit) UD still makes an exception – maybe because, again, at this late date, the words evoke much-beloved actual thwarted young men living and dead (for instance, her ‘thesdan playmate David).
see the sudden smile
someone they can hold
for just a little while…
while a grimy moon
blossoms up above
all the sad young men
they cry
and making love and making love
misbegotten moon
shine for sad young men
let your gentle light
guide them home again
all the sad sad sad young men
***************************
How powerfully she sustains the final me-e-e-n…! How she brings erotic comfort to fierce lost souls. Only the very best performers can save this song from its almost unbearable – almost inartistic! – pathos. Roberta Flack – RIP – could do that.