It shames me to realize that in my previous XVI installments about song lyrics, I've listed only caucasian song writers. A politically incorrect and embarrassing oversight that I will now fix.
There are plenty of great non-white songwriters out there, and today you'll find most of them in the hip-hop genre. We are definitely not going down that road though -- hip-hop (or 'rap' as it was called when I started this blog) is one of the main reasons I complained about the loss of meaningful lyrics in the first place.
If you go back farther, though, way back, you find Smokey Robinson. With his backup group The Miracles, he wrote or co-wrote all kinds of hit songs, including The Tracks of My Tears and I Second That Emotion. He also wrote the famous My Girl for The Temptations.
You could go to any of those songs for an example, but I'll go with the subtle sadness found in the first part of The Tracks of My Tears:
People say I'm the life of the party
Because I tell a joke or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears
Since you left me if you see me with another girl
Seeming like I'm having fun
Although she may be cute, she's just a substitute
Because you're the permanent one
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears
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