Dark Hands

I enjoyed listening to Lear in the car going into work but, oddly, couldn't get into it at all on the way back home. The traffic was heavy, presenting an opportunity to listen to a goodly stretch, and I'd reached some of my favourite bits of Act IV but I just couldn't focus. I realised this when I found I'd zoned out on the Oswald/Edgar fight, a part of the play I feel a particular need to bring alive for myself since, somehow or other, I've never got deeply involved in it (and I'm talking about all the way back to first reading the play at sixteen years old.) Finally I decided to switch to a bit of music - the incomparable Richard Thompson. The CD of choice was you? me? us? which remains a personal favourite despite not being so highly rated by critics (or at least that's the vague impression I've got. Not caring much for music critics means I'm generally woefully ignorant of accepted wisdom in the area of popular, or not so popular music.) For some reason Dark Hand Over My Heart speaks with great power to me despite my personal situation being very different from that of the lyrical voice.