Bee Gees – "Lonely Days" (1970)

I see you every morning

Outside the restaurants

The music plays so nonchalant

Twenty-five years ago, I was a busy lawyer and had four kids living at home.  My life was busy and somewhat complicated.

But now that I’m retired and my kids are grown up and living on their own, things should be a lot simpler.  But I’ve worked hard to keep my life busy and complicated!

One way I’ve accomplished that is by applying for a lot of credit cards in an effort to take advantage of the dizzying array of discounts and other benefits that different credit cards offer these days.

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Twenty-five years ago, I was good with a couple of Visas or Mastercards.  I didn’t have to pay attention to how much interest the different cards charged because I paid my balances in full every month – which meant the interest rate was irrelevant.

Then the airlines began to push their branded credit cards by offering you a ridiculous number of miles to sign up.  I remember when Southwest Airlines used to have a couple of people manning a kiosk at BWI airport. “Would you like 60,000 free miles and a T-shirt?” they would say as you walked by on your way to your departure gate.  “All you have to do is apply for our no-fee credit card.”

At one point, I had credit cards from Southwest, American, United and US Air.  I did a lot of flying in those days, and you got miles not only for flying, but also if you used the card to pay for your hotel and rental car.  But the key was the free miles you got just for signing up – usually enough miles for a round trip on that airline.

Eventually you had to start paying a fee to have the card.  The first year would be free, but after that the card might cost $99 a year.  I usually cancelled the card at that point.

I figured out that you could cancel, wait a couple of years, and then reapply for airline-branded credit cards – you’d get the free miles again, and the cards were free for the first year.

It turns out that I never had to truly cancel my American Airlines card.  That’s because when you called up to cancel at the end of the year – when they were about to hit you with the $99 fee – they would bend over backwards to talk you out of cancelling.  “Sir, would you keep the card if we offered you a $100 statement credit next month?” the rep would ask me.

“Let me get this straight,” I would answer.  “I pay the $99 fee now, and you’ll credit me $100 against my balance next month?”

This seemed unnecessarily complicated.  Why didn’t they just waive the fee?   

In any event, I went through this little dance with whatever bank issued the American Airlines credit card every year, just like clockwork.

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Eventually banks started to offer credit cards that rebated 1% of the amount you charged on the card.

In other words, if you charged $2500 in a given month, the card issuer would reduce your balance due by $25 – or even mail you a check for $25.

I picked up a couple of those cards – 1% isn’t a lot, but every little bit helps, especially when you use your credit card for just about all your purchases.  (“Cash”?  What’s that?)

Then several years ago, a large bank started offering a “double cash” Mastercard that rebated 2% of your purchase amount back to you.

You best believe that got my attention.  I applied for that card toot sweet, and started using it almost exclusively.

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I say “almost exclusively” because I also had several niche credit cards that offered me more than a 2% discount on certain purchases.

I’ll tell you about them in the next 2 or 3 lines.

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Here’s how one critic described the Bee Gees’ 1970 hit, “Lonely Days”:

The song incorporated the innovative structure and knack for changing tempos exemplified by the second side of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, released the previous year and a clear influence on this single. 

The Bee Gees circa 1970

I don’t know about that.  But I do know that “Lonely Days” consists of two brief verses plus a chorus that consists of the following two-line catchphrase (which is repeated mucho times):

Lonely days, lonely nights

Where would I be without my woman?

The Gibbs boys obviously learned a lot from Sir Paul McCartney, who was the master of bolting together verses and choruses that sound like they belonged in two different songs and then using repetition in order to make a three-minute hit single from a ninety-second songlet.

Click here to listen to “Lonely Days.”

Click here to order the record from Amazon.

Bee Gees – "Lonely Days" (1970)

Lonely days

Lonely nights

Loneliness is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety.  One British expert has said that loneliness is more harmful to one’s health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

According to a recent report, nine million British adults – some 14% of the population – are often or always lonely.  

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The British government isn’t ignoring the U.K.’s loneliness epidemic, as this attention-getting headline from the New York Times demonstrates:

U.K. Appoints a

Minister for Loneliness

I don’t mean to split hairs, but that headline is a bit misleading.

What actually happened is that British Prime Minister Theresa May assigned the Right Honorable Tracey Crouch, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport and Civil Society in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, to lead a government working group that has been tasked with establishing the scale and consequences of loneliness in the U.K. and establish policies to deal with the problem.

It seems odd to me that the British government’s war on loneliness is being waged by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, whose main policy areas are arts and culture, broadcasting, gambling and horse racing, libraries, museums and galleries, sport, telecommunications, and tourism.   I would think loneliness would come under the purview of the Department of Health and Social Care, but what do I know?

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I’m not sure why Ms. Crouch in particular was assigned to lead the British government’s efforts to beat loneliness.  Her official biography describes her as a “keen sports enthusiast” and a FA-qualified soccer coach.  That’s all well and good, but doesn’t indicate that she is qualified to deal with loneliness. 

The Right Honorable Tracey Crouch

In addition to heading up the anti-loneliness initiative, Crouch’s primary areas of responsibility include sport, gambling, horse racing, and the National Lottery.  Perhaps the Times headline should have read as follows:

U.K. Appoints a Minister for Sport, Gambling, Horse Racing, the National Lottery, and Loneliness

Ms. Crouch’s boss, the Right Honorable Matt Hancock, is also quite the sporting type.  From his biography:

He is the first [member of Parliament] in modern times to win a horse race, having raced to victory at the Newmarket July Course in August 2012.  He is an avid cricketer and plays for the Lords & Commons Cricket team.  Matthew once played the most northerly game of cricket on record, and succumbed to frostbite en route to the Pole.  He retains all his fingers.

The Right Honorable Matt Hancock

“He retains all his fingers.”  So do I – and hopefully you do as well – but does that really qualify one to oversee efforts to overcome loneliness?

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Henry David Thoreau didn’t see loneliness as a big problem.  When it came to being alone, Thoreau couldn’t get enough: 

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.  To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating.  I love to be alone.  I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

I agree with Thoreau.  I’ve got 99 problems, but loneliness ain’t one.

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Barry Gibb claims that he wrote “Lonely Days” in ten minutes.  

Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees

The song (which was released in 1970) was the group’s biggest U.S. hit to date, climbing all the way to the #3 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  

It’s a very Abbey Road-ish song.  (Side two, of course.)

Here’s “Lonely Days”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: