I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one to have immediately thought ‘Soul Man’ when I saw Helen’s Song Lyric Sunday theme this week of ‘soul’ because, when I looked, another blogger had already jumped straight in.

Hey ho, I also know for a fact that there are plenty of songs out there that relate to the theme, including the second one that came to mind, about a nanosecond after Sam & Dave’s classic. But that was Leonard Cohen’s ‘Sisters of Mercy’ and I used that only about six months ago.

And so to my third choice, pre-dating, if only by a year (it was released in 1966), those other two. This was a hit for The Righteous Brothers; I haven’t heard it for years, but it was lurking somewhere in my temporal lobes:

Girl, I can’t let you do this
Let you walk away
Girl, how can I live through this?
When you’re all I wake up for each day baby

You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
You’re all I got to get me by
You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
Without you baby what good am I?

I never had much going
But at least I had you
How can you walk out knowing
I ain’t got nothing left if you do, baby

You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
You’re all I got to get me by
You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
Without you baby what good am I?
Oh, what good am I?

Baby, I can’t make it without you
And I’m, I’m telling you honey
You’re my reason for laughing, for crying
For living and for dying

Baby, I can’t make it without you
Please, I’m begging you baby
If you go it will kill me, I swear it
Girl, I just can’t bear it

You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
You’re all I got to get me by
You’re my soul and my heart’s inspiration
Without you baby what good am I?
What good am I?

Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

Song Lyric Sunday 11 November 2018