Are you lonesome tonight?
Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Does your memory stray to a bright summer day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?

Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?

I wonder if you’re lonesome tonight
You know someone said that the world’s a stage and each of us must play a part
Fate had me playing in love with you as my sweetheart
Act one was where we met
I loved you at first glance
You read your lines so cleverly and never missed a cue

Then came act two, you seemed to change, you acted strange
And why I’ve never known
Honey, you lied when you said you loved me
And I had no cause to doubt you
But I’d rather go on hearing your lies
Than to go on living without you

Now the stage is bare and I’m standing there
With emptiness all around
And if you won’t come back to me
Then they can bring the curtain down

Is your heart filled with pain
Shall I come back again?
Tell me dear, are you lonesome tonight?

-Written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman
-Made famous by Elvis Presley

Another great Elvis song and a song with an interesting history. I think everybody knows that Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager, was a complete piece of trash. However, if he did one good thing in his life, it was to suggest to Elvis that he record this song.

From the Wiki:

In the final months of his service in the United States Army, Elvis Presley began experimenting with new material in anticipation of his return to recording. His first recording session was scheduled for March 20, 1960, and RCA’s Studio B had recently been equipped with a new three-track recorder. To improve the recording of Presley’s voice, engineer Bill Porter had Telefunken U-47 microphones installed. A follow-up session was scheduled for April.

During the selection of material for the sessions, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, suggested “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”. The favorite song of Parker’s wife, Marie Mott (who knew the song from Gene Austin’s act, since he was also managed at the time by her husband), it was the only time he intervened in Presley’s choice of repertoire. Presley returned to the studio with his band, consisting of Scotty Moore, drummer D. J. Fontana, pianist Floyd Cramer, guitarist Hank Garland, bassist Bob Moore, percussionist Buddy Harman, and backing vocalists the Jordanaires, on April 3.

After the eight songs Parker needed for Elvis Is Back! were recorded, Presley moved on to his manager’s request. At 4 am on April 4, the singer began recording “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, accompanied by acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and the backup group. He asked everyone else in the studio to leave the session, told Chet Atkins to turn the lights out, and performed the song with the spoken bridge. After the second take, Presley said to producer Steve Sholes, “Throw that tune out; I can’t do it justice”. Sholes told engineer Bill Porter to ignore Presley’s order and asked the singer to do a new take, explaining that the Jordanaires had bumped into their microphone stand while recording in the dark. As a result, Presley performed the song once more, and that take became the master for the single.

But Thursdays are for flowers! This flowertography session was taken in my yard with a Lensbaby Velvet lens. I think it lends a lonesome effect to the images:

The next flowertography session will probably still be from my yard.

One, two, three, four

Well, I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

‘Cause falling in love just makes me blue
Well, the music plays and you display your heart for me to see
I had a beer and now I hear you calling out for me
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

Well, the room is crowded, people everywhere

And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
Well, if you sit down with this old clown, take that frown and break it
Before the evening’s gone away, I think that we could make it
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

Well, the night does funny things inside a man

These old tomcat feelings you don’t understand

Well, I turn around to look at you, you light a cigarette
I wish I had the guts to bum one, but we’ve never met
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you

I can see that you are lonesome just like me

And it being late, you’d like some company
Well, I turn around to look at you, and you look back at me
The guy you’re with, he’s up and split, the chair next to you’s free

And I hope that you don’t fall in love with me

Now it’s closing time, the music’s fading out

Last call for drinks, I’ll have another stout

Well, I turn around to look at you, you’re nowhere to be found
I search the place for your lost face, guess I’ll have another round
And I think that I just fell in love with you
-Tom Waits

While this song was not written for a John Carney movie, it does make an appearance in his most recent move, FLORA AND SON. I thought I should make it a journal entry because it is a pretty outstanding song. Except for the part about smoking, which is obviously disgusting. But once you get past that, it is a pretty great song.

This isn’t the only song that I think I will use as a Thursday journal title from FLORA AND SON though. Probably use a Hoagy Carmichael song and an original song as well.

But Thursdays are for flowers. And… it is another collection of iris images. Probably the last iris pictures I will share that I took from last year. And… maybe I chose this song title because I have made a bit of a cottage industry of hating irises. I have a reputation for hating cats, but that is just baseless rumor. But I have legitimately disliked irises for quite sometime. But… and don’t anybody tell Jen… after going through the iris pictures I took last year… while I’m not worried I’m falling in love with irises, I think they are growing on me. Don’t alert the media! I won’t be planting any in my yard this year, but I won’t accidentally trample over them if I see them on my adventures.

Here is a small flowertography collection of irises:

Most of these images (probably all of them if I’m being honest) were taken with a Lensbaby lens from their Velvet series of lenses. I do love these lenses. That isn’t a rumor and it isn’t something I’m warming up to either. It is full blown. I may send them a Valentines Day card.

Next Thursday’s flowertography session will involve flowers from my yard, including what I think of as my miracle flower.