I was listening the other day in the car to the Cowboy Junkies' Pale Sun, Crescent Moon, which is a really underappreciated classic. Underappreciated enough that I hadn't put it on in years.
There is this one tune, Cold Tea Blues, that sits uneasily on the line between brilliant and just-a-little-too-weird. Like almost all the CJ's material, it is performed slow and with a blues-to-the-bone feel; the first verse is sung twice, then the second verse twice, followed by the last line once. I can't decide whether these lyrics are too far over the line into self-indulgent eccentricity, but that aside, this is a wonderful, brilliant record.
If I pour your cup, that is friendship
If I add your milk, that is manners
If I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste,
that is tea
But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
then that is love,
sitting untouched and growing cold
