Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, one of my favorite song writing duos:

"...When I'm all alone in my lonely room..."

For No One

One less...

One For My Baby

(and this album looks like it's perfect for this week's theme)

"I want a dream lover so I don't have to dream alone."

Make sure that when you use "only" as a key word that it means "solitary". This will help cut down the number of songs. Lots of songs have "only" in them and do not mean solitary.

Just post your most favorite songs, if you think your list is getting too long.

You can start part III at some point, if necessary.

Not the song but the performers

No one knows better than I, myself

I'm by myself, alone...

"Now you say you're lonely..."

"...I'm lonesome as I can be..."

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger

And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day

Old people just grow lonesome

Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"

We lost these two creative and prodigious talents within the past few years. They are among my favorites.

For a Dancer

[Verse 1]
Keep a fire burning in your eye
And pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I don't remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must've thought you'd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now you're nowhere to be found

[Verse 2]
I don't know what happens when people die
Can't seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It's like a song I can hear playing right in my ear that I can't sing
I can't help listening
And I can't help feeling stupid standing 'round
Crying as they ease you down
'Cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(Right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(There's nothing you can do about it anyway)

[Chorus]
Just do the steps that you've been shown
By everyone you've ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown
In the end, there is one dance you'll do alone

[Verse 3]
Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
Just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
(The world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

[Chorus]
Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive, but you'll never know

https://genius.com/Jackson-browne-for-a-dancer-lyrics

Wow - I don't think I've heard that Jackson Browne song since I was too young and carefree to grasp its depth.

Thanks, petalique

Always a favorite of mine though I'm a little late here. https://youtu.be/fXa2w0LtXxE

(Hard to find much on this — )

BROKEN GLASS

(Claudia Schmidt)

I was walking through the broken glass last night and thought of you,

and I wondered where your reckless ways had brought you to?

My memories of you whorled me back to boilin' blood and wrath,

and I wonder if you've stumbled on a lighter path?

Did you go out to the desert with the sun hot overhead?

Did the dry and the dusty heat make you wish you were dead?

Or, did the stark and the open spaces ease your urge to roam?

Did it make you feel at last like you were home?

Or, did you go out to the woods where the silver poplars sing?

Did the quiet rustlin' take away the city's sting?

Did the white birds like suspended lightning strike the autumn glow,

and touch your heart with tenderness so you could grow?

I was walking through the broken glass last night and thought of you,

and I wondered where your reckless ways had brought you to?

A fiery mass of untapped power surgin' in your breast,

I hope it found its way outside so you could rest!

Or, did you go up to the mountains where the air is clear and cold?

Did they give you back your tears; save you from growing old?

As hands and feet fought gravity all up the ancient wall,

I wonder, did you lose your ancient urge to fall?

The last time I saw you, you were strung dangerously high.

All your movements stiff and frightened and you could not cry;

suspicious of an honest mile, and looking for a fight;

the lonesome street your home, your only friend the night.

Now, wherever you may be tonight, I hope you're pleased and calm;

that the air around you soothes you like a holy balm;

that your lonely anger hasn't turned your insides inside out;

that you found the place some of us still dream about.

I was dancing through the broken glass last night and thought of you,

and I wondered where your reckless ways had brought you to?

All my memories of you whorled me back to boilin' blood and wrath,

and I wonder if you've stumbled on a lighter path?

Oh I hope, perhaps, you have stumbled on a lighter path!

And, a live performance at a small venue (accoustics of that venue are lousy, but Claudia’s spirit is strong. I love this song and it played a lot in the early 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdmp_XuSC00

I had to prove I could make it alone...

I once had a dream, so I packed up and split for the city

I soon found out that my lonely life wasn't so pretty

When your lonely heart has learned its lesson...

...when I'm alone, I sit and cry

Ask any girl, who's often left alone...

And as I go my way alone...

...from this loneliness there's no hiding place

"Lonesome Friends Of Science" (John Prine)

The lonesome friends of science say

The world will end most any day

Well, if it does then that's okay

'Cause I don't live here anyway

I live down deep inside my head

Where long ago I made my bed

I get my mail in Tennessee

My wife, my dog and my family

Uh-huh

Now, poor ol' planet Pluto now

He never stood a chance no how

When he got uninvited to

The interplanetary dance

Once a mighty planet there

Now just an ordinary star

Hanging out in Hollywood

In some ol' funky sushi bar

The lonesome friends of science say

The world will end most any day

Well, if it does then that's okay

'Cause I don't live here anyway

I live down deep inside my head

Where long ago I made my bed

I get my mail in Tennessee

My wife, my dog, my kids and me

Uh-huh

The Vulcan lives in Birmingham

Sometimes he just don't give a damn

His head is full of bumble bees

His pride hangs down below his knees

Venus left him long ago

For a guy named Mars from Idaho

The Vulcan sent a wedding gift

A three-legged stool and a wheelchair lift

Uh-huh

The lonesome friends of science say

This world will end most any day

Well, if it does then that's okay

'Cause I don't live here anyway

I live down deep inside my head

Where long ago I made my bed

I get my mail in Tennessee

My wife, my dog, my kids and me

Uh-huh, uh-huh

Uh-huh, uh-huh

Uh-huh

Those bastards in their white lab coats

Who experiment with mountain goats

Should leave the Universe alone

It's not their business, not their home

I go to sleep and it never rains

My dog predicts hurricanes

She can smell a storm a mile away

That's all the news we have today

Uh-huh

The lonesome friends of science say

This world will end most any day

Well, if it does then that's okay

'Cause I don't live here anyway

I live down deep inside my head

Where long ago I made my bed

I get my mail in Tennessee

My wife, my dog, my kids and me

Uh-huh, uh-huh

Uh-huh, uh-huh

Uh-huh