When a song still connects, years later

The Moody Blues' "It's Up To You" does the trick

It’s always fun to look at those end-of-the-year stories, isn’t it? Who croaked? Who had the big movie? Who had the big songs? Looking back at 2025, the year that was.

I happened to notice on CBS Sunday Morning that the No. 1 downloaded song on Spotify was “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. According to their numbers, 1.7 Billion people downloaded it last year. I have not heard it.

I’ve seen Bruno Mars before and while I didn’t want to throw anything at him, neither was I all that eager to hear more. I thought Lady Gaga did one of the greatest of all Super Bowl Halftime shows a few years back from the roof of the NRG Stadium in Houston. She was spectacular.

One of my standard assignments in my AP Classes was rating Super Bowl Halftime shows and she always did really well. But I haven’t heard either of her new songs. I am an admitted music snob.

Lady Gaga from the roof in Houston’s NRG Stadium in 2017. A N.E. Patriot win, too!

The number 2 song was “Birds Of A Feather” by Billie Eilish. Hadn’t heard that, either. And the No. 3 song was “APT” by Rose’ and Bruno Mars. Missed that one, also. I also noted that Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short and Sweet” was a Top Five Downloaded Spotify number two years running. Don’t know it. Do you? You had two years, kids!

The question, friends, is this. Am I out of touch or just not interested? And does it really matter?

A long-time friend of mine, observing my disinterest in the current popular music scene, except mostly for any new warblings (or old — Bruce just put out seven albums at one time!) — from my aging friends, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Rod Stewart, Bryan Ferry, Bono and U2, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, has suggested “I was stuck.”

I prefer to think of myself “being immersed” in the music that interests me. Which, judging from what little I’ve heard of the current stuff, doesn’t. I do like “Florence And The Machine.” She is a mysterious, whirling, swirling, long-haired, bare-footed songstress whose music is described as “ethereal, dramatic and otherworldly.” I like her and her music. It’s exotic and daring and fun.

But otherwise, I guess I’m still not done with the enormous body of music I’ve gathered since I first started buying albums and CDs and cassettes all those years ago. And that includes this song, the best track on an album by a band that I wasn’t really all that crazy about, but found this song simply irresistible.

(Please cut and paste) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rbTFwwBj0M&list=RD3rbTFwwbJ0M&start_radio=1

Written by Justin Heyward, one of the brains behind The Moody Blues, I remember hearing it on WBCN one somber afternoon and somehow, as a lonesome, never-dated teenager wondering if ever there was or would be someone out there for me someday, “It’s Up To You” connected. It rang between my ears, even after the song ended. I was moonstruck.

When I heard it again the next day — evidently, somebody at WBCN liked it, too — and I made the financial decision to invest in the album, a major decision with someone who, at that point, owned maybe a half-dozen albums, had a part-time job at a grocery store and didn’t know any of the rest of the album.

The first album I remember buying was “Something New” by The Beatles at Grant’s for $2.98. And money being tight, there weren’t any splurges. Not yet, anyhow.

So I bought “A Question of Balance” by a band I wasn’t crazy about. You could see from the album cover, they were ambitious and the rest of the record was all right. It came out in 1970, I was a junior, this was their sixth album and I was happy to see “It’s Up To You” which led off Side Two.

While I appreciated the band’s attempt to say something lyrically, nothing really hit me but that one song. I never bought another Moody Blues album. As a musical snob, they weren’t anybody I ever bragged about loving, like Dylan or Rod Stewart or The Band, Eric Clapton and the rest.

I played it for the first time in a long time the other night. It still has the magic.

I wonder what it is about that song? Nice guitar part, lyrics are somewhat ambivalent but the tune is catchy, just romantic enough to tweak the teenaged me. I take it as a good sign that many years later, it still does.

It’s Up To You by Justin Heyward

When the breeze between us calls
Love comes and lingers into our lives
And the leaves begin to fall
You point your finger at me

I love you
I love you

In the sadness of your smile
Love is an island way out to sea
But it seems so long ago
We have been ready trying to be free

And it’s up to you, why won’t you say?
Make our lives turn out this way
If they knew that we have got nothing to lose
No reason to hide from what’s true

In the world of me and you
All is forgotten when we’re inside
And the words that pass us by
I am not listening, all of it’s lies

And it’s up to you, why won’t you say?
Make our lives turn out this way
If they knew, that we have got nothing to lose
No reason to hide from what’s true
That we have got nothing to lose