My Gen X Playlist: Why – Annie Lennox

I’m not exactly sure when the shift occurred. When I first started this blog, it triggered rays of nostalgia and reminiscence. It’s easy to get wrapped up in its comfort and wanting to stay in its warmth. When I read the prompt, I figured I’d fall back on my obvious choice. My twenties. Technically an adult, with the license not to be one at the same time. This time around though, oddly I drew a blank. For the first time, I’m not quite sure if I want an encore performance of any prior stage of my life. At least that’s what I’m feeling right now. It’s so different from the last time I answered this prompt a year ago and I’m not sure how I got here. It feels like a mixture of embrace and acceptance. I’m not sure what sparked this sudden change. It’s a question mark for now because I can’t tell you why.

Annie Lennox released Why on her first solo album after the Eurythmics broke up in 1990.

Lennox was 37 when the album was released. Adapting to her maturity influenced this song. “I feel vulnerable about aging, but perhaps I can be like Edith Piaf, with that chanson sense of grief or melancholy,” she told Q in 1992. “I think ‘Why’ has a little of that. Maybe people will value the texture of age in me. Or maybe I will come to feel I’m too old, it’s a kids’ game, and go off to write film music.”

Songfacts

Texture of age. I like how she phrased that. Somehow, that makes aging seem a little less down and a little more respectable. And maybe I’m beginning to value it more in myself, allowing me to embrace the nostalgia and accept leaving it in the past at the same time. That could be the why I’m looking for.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

How many times do I have to try to tell you
That I'm sorry for the things I've done
But when I start to try to tell you
That's when you have to tell me
Hey, this kind of trouble's only just begun
I tell myself too many times
Why don't you ever learn to keep your big mouth shut
That's why it hurts so bad to hear the words
That keep on falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Falling from your mouth
Tell me

Why
Why
I may be mad
I may be blind
I may be viciously unkind
But I can still read what you're thinking
And I've heard it said too many times
That you'd be better off
Besides

Why can't you see this boat is sinking
Let's go down to the water's edge
And we can cast away those doubts
Some things are better left unsaid

But they still turn me inside out
Turning inside out turning inside out
Tell me
Why
Tell me
Why
This is the book I never read
These are the words I never said
This is the path I'll never tread
These are the dreams I'll dream instead
This is the joy that's seldom spread
These are the tears

The tears we shed
This is the fear
This is the dread
These are the contents of my head
And these are the years that we have spent
And this is what they represent
And this is how I feel
Do you know how I feel?
'Cause I don't think you know how I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
I don't think you know what I feel
You don't know what I feel