Cry Baby

You don't have to be a baby to cry
All you need is for love to go wrong
You don't have to be a baby to cry
Or to lie awake the whole night long

When you leave me my golden rainbow disappears
And you leave me a broken heart that's full of tears
These ain't rainbows in my eyes, why should I lie
You don't have to be a baby to cry

When you leave me my golden rainbow disappears
And you leave me a broken heart that's full of tears
These ain't rainbows in my eyes, why should I lie
You don't have to be a baby to cry
You don't have to be a baby to cry

This was from 1963, when i was 15. It was a pretty bleak period in my life, since
i was half way through a five-year sentence that i was serving for a crime i never
committed, but i was too gaslit (gaslighted..?) to complain and too brave to cry.

The 60s were supposed to be the Golden Age of Pop, but an awful lot of it was rubbish.
We've forgotten most of the rubbish, but we've also forgotten some of the good stuff.
The Caravelles seem to have disappeared from the collective memory without trace —
which is a pity — because this performance is a minimalist masterpiece. (One thing that
has only recently struck me is the antanaclasis on `you leave me'). It does everything it's
supposed to, and leaves it at that. It delivers a simple truth eloquently. Sometimes life
just is crap; and — no — you don't have to be a baby to cry, just like the girls say.

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