"The Letter" by Wayne Carson Thompson
A postcard.
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane / Ain't got time to take a fast train / Lonely days are gone, I'm-a goin' home / Oh, my baby, just-a wrote me a letter
"Did you know that 'The Letter' by the Box Tops is a minute and fifty eight seconds long? It means nothing. But it takes them less than two minutes to accomplish what it takes Jethro Tull HOURS to NOT accomplish!" - Almost Famous
Fun fact: the guy who wrote this song also wrote “Always On My Mind”.
I just love a short song. I don’t need songs to be short, but it shows extreme discipline, a sudden flash of genius or both. I like haiku too.
I don't care how much money I gotta spend / Got to get back to my baby again / Lonely days are gone, I'm-a goin' home / Oh, my baby, just-a wrote me a letter
Think about portion size as you take in your art. The time and attention commitment varies widely: novels, poems, symphonies, songs, movies, show episodes, shorts, reels and memes all require vastly different amounts of energy to “consume” as the kids say. And as we’ve evolved into the scrolling species we are today, short pieces definitely have been getting a boost.
Well, she wrote me a letter said she couldn't live without me no more / Listen, mister, can't you see I got to get back to my baby once-a more, anyway, yeah!
It’s a fun one but it’s also a piece of candy. A postcard.
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