‘Darling Be Home Soon . . .’

 by whiteray 

There was an old hotel not far from the Mississippi River in downtown St. Cloud (Minnesota) when I was growing up, the Grand Central. Historical rumor said that it had been a stopping place for numerous famous people over the years, including Buffalo Bill Cody (a rumor that I believe was verified by a guest register discovered during the building’s demolition). It may have been a truly grand establishment at one time, but by the time I started my first year of college in 1971, it was pretty much a flophouse, and its first-floor retail spaces were filled with small and generally short-lived shops that sold used records, posters, and equipment and accessories for pharmaceutical recreation. 

It was in one of those shops in the spring of 1972, just a few months before the hotel came down – the lot was paved over and used as a gathering point for the metro bus service – that I pawed through a stack of records and found the 1969 album Joe Cocker! It was in decent shape and the price was reasonable, so I grabbed it and went off to one of the college dorms, where I dropped in on some friends to share my find. 

I didn’t know much about Cocker although I’d seen his seen his performance of the Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends” in the film Woodstock. Still, when I scanned the back cover, I saw some familiar things. There were two other Beatles’ songs – “Something” and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” – and I saw songwriting credits for some artists I recognized: Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell. And I saw listed as the album closer John Sebastian’s “Darling Be Home Soon,” which Sebastian’s group, the Lovin’ Spoonful, had released in 1967. 

I knew the Spoonful track only vaguely, but I knew the lyrics well, as they’d been included in a slender volume I’d picked up during high school: The Poetry Of Rock by Richard Goldstein. Here’s how Cocker sang them: 

Come and talk of all the things we did today
Hear and laugh about our funny little ways
While we have a few minutes to breathe
Then I know that it’s time you must leave 

But darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
Hey my darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since you toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to 

And now a quarter of my life has almost passed
I think I’ve come to see myself at last
And I see that the time spent confused
Was the time that I spent without you
And I feel myself in bloom 

Oh my darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since you toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to 

Go and beat your crazy head against the sky
Try and see beyond the houses in your eyes
It’s so great to shoot the moon 

Oh my darling be home soon
I couldn’t bear to wait an extra minute if you dawdled
My darling be home soon
It’s not just these few hours but I’ve been waiting since you toddled
For the great relief of having you to talk to 

And the more I played the album – and I put it on the stereo in our basement rec room at home a lot in the months to come – I began to think that Cocker’s interpretation of John Sebastian’s song was the best thing on Joe Cocker! 

It thrilled me, even though I must confess that at the age of eighteen, I did not grasp the entire meaning of “the great relief of having you to talk to.” (I do now.) And nearly fifty years later, I still think that over its gospel-powered celebratory arrangement, Cocker gives “Darling Be Home Soon” a joy that neither Sebastian nor anyone else has ever found in it.  

Here it is: