Smokey Robinson and the Miracles Week Number 2: What's so Good About Goodbye?
As far as I can tell, I haven't had a "Smokey Week" before, although it feels like I have, because the songs he did with the Miracles in the early days of Motown are never far away from my lips. The combination of those beautiful vocals, poetic lyrics (yes truly poetic lyrics - I do not exaggerate), great tunes, and wonderful arrangements is irresistible. Every track is a case in point. Here Smokey makes the most of his oxymoronic premise in the same way that Shakespeare just couldn't let it go in Romeo and Juliet.
And there some great rhymes too:
"What's so good about goodbye all it does is make you cry well if leaving causes grieving and depart can break your heart
tell me what's so good about it I could've done without it
what's so good about goodbye?"
and he reaches new levels of rhetoric as he deliciously grumbles:
"....and another thing I would like to clarify is how can farewell be fair?"