I Could Tell You Why

This would be the last song that I would introduce to Mom.  This version of this song anyway.  Mom absolutely loved this song, as it was originally recorded by The Eagles, and through her, I soon came to love this song, just as much as she did, if not more so.     

I didn’t know that this cover existed, until 2017 or even 2018, the year that she died.  Just recently, I learned that this version of The Eagles’ “I Can’t Tell You Why” had first released in 1993, nearly 25 years before I ever knew that it existed.  The internet wasn’t really a thing at that time and so the only way I might have learned of this song would have been on the radio (country radio at that and I’m not enough of a country music fan to listen to that kind of radio station) or if I just happened to randomly come across the cassette from which it was released, “Common Thread: The Songs Of The Eagles”. 

Cassettes.  Tapes.  Cassette tapes even.  Those were the days.  Judging by the picture of this cassette, I might have been especially frustrated if I owned this cassette and only wanted to listen to “I Can’t Tell You Why”.  Take a look.  It’s the last song on Side 1.  You know what that meant.  You’d have to fast forward the tape until you reached that song and then, if you were like me, you’d probably have to rewind until you got to the beginning of the song because you fast forwarded too far.  Again, those were the days. 

Thank God for the compact disc.  Seriously.  Then came YouTube and the MP3, but I digress.

So, in the final years of Mom’s life, she was bedridden, by her own choosing, mind you.  She kept herself entertained not only with a television, but also with a tablet and the internet, to which it can been connected.  Mom had become accustomed to watching stuff on YouTube, as well as viewing a multitude of other websites. 

I just so happened to see that she was watching something on YouTube when I encouraged her to search “Vince Gill I can’t tell you why”.  I told her that I thought it was decent cover of the original Eagles’ classic and that I wanted her opinion. 

She gave it a whirl. 

To my surprise, she said that it wasn’t bad.  Much like I do, Mom tended to mask her feelings and would constantly strive to be as noncommittal as she could be.  For Mom, saying that “it wasn’t bad” was the equivalent of, “It’s good.  I like it”.  I considered it to be a small victory. 

Now, obviously, nothing is ever going to top the original Eagles’ version of that song, but for a brief moment, I got her to listen to and like a variation of that song.

She would later admit, which to this day I still agree with, that the Eagles’ version was still the best version.    

It is. 

As much as I have always loved this song, dating back to when I first heard it as a child, the lyrics resonate with me as an adult.  She (not Mom, but the woman I always seem to write about and refer to as “She/she”) and I always seem to make things harder than they have to be.  The feelings are there.  As much as I might think about or even try to walk away for her, indeed something always makes turn around and stay. 

Though the song says I can’t tell you why, I want to say that I know exactly why.  In my heart, I am confident that she also knows why.          

Don’t you, baby?

Actually, the words are also in the song (at the 1:26 mark), clear as day…

‘Cause I love you.