Autumn Tango

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Autumn Tango

(About the words & music to a tango that I wrote.)

The idea is quite appealing - an older man goes into a restaurant - it is busy - he must share a table with a unaccompanied older woman - there's an immediate mutual attraction - we don't know if they're married or not - they talk - they dance - they become lovers - they make arrangements to meet at a future time - he turns up for the date and waits alone. She doesn't come. The waitress hands him a note that the lady had delivered earlier. "Is she still here?" He asks in desperation. He stares at the short letter unbelievingly - blinded by tears. "Sorry about the lady”, she says, "Gone without trace!"

The song captures the bitter sweet aspects of fading charms, and the reality of responsibility, loyalty and encroaching age - but suggests that the possibility of romantic love is not outside the experience or expectations of the older person - that we still have desires, and can still fall in love just as much as the young!

Autumn Tango

Intro

I see a small Hotel with yellow painted sashes,

Then clatter of plates and the clinking of glasses.

Slowly the waitress shows me to my place,

Sharing your table - Seeing your face!

Refrain:

We meet, and I am alone that night.

You smile and sadness becomes delight.

Strangers don't achis way!

What would the young ones say?

We dance - the tango begins to race,

I thrill in the magic of your embrace.

Time is our enemy,

And it will always be.

Canto:

Old love is sweeter than cherry wine,

Old lovers sway to the beat of time,

Age adds the gold to love's sweet line,

For time is precious.

So now I sit alone staring at the letter/napkin,

Sipping a cherry wine - trying to forget her/him,

And then the waitress sees my anxious face...

"Sorry about the lady/gentleman - Gone without trace!"