Come Sleep With Me Tonight...

For today’s song, I thought I’d choose one of my all-time favorite Neil Diamond songs, “Sleep With Me Tonight.”  The song was released in 1984 on the “Primitive” album, one of his least successful albums of the ’80s, at least as far as having a recognizable (by most people) single on it. But it still remains one of my favorites.

The lyrics are here.

When I first got this album as a teenager, I thought this was rather a provocative title for a song, for to me,  ”sleep with me” meant “have sex with me.” So I was rather interested to see how randy Neil Diamond would get on this song. I was not disappointed. Not because the song’s lascivious and lewd, but because it’s so beautiful. As a matter of fact, there’s nothing scandalous about it.

The song is about someone trying for a second chance at love with someone with whom he’s screwed things up with before. There they are, together one evening, perhaps having dinner or just visiting each other, as exes will sometimes do. But this is different. The singer feels that there’s love yet to be had, and tells his beloved as much. One gets the idea that it’s somewhat of a mutual thing, as the line “but here we are/together again” gives us somewhat of a peek into the dynamic, letting us know that it’s not an accident.

As the song crecendos, the title line is sung, more or less – “can I sleep with you tonight/let’s try it again/for one last time/all the rest of our lives” and we know here that the singer’s intent is not to have a quickie, but to really, genuinely BE with this other person for good. In my opinion, sleeping with someone, just sleeping, is one of the most intimate acts one can perform, as it lays you out completely as you are, warts and all, to the other person with whom you’re sleeping. And that is what the singer wants to do. Sure, he knows he’s messed up before (“what’s been done is done now”) but wants to get things back to the loving ways that they were before. And yes, there is a hint of sex here, in “let’s you and me be one,” but it’s not a pornographic sex. Rather, it’s something to be cherished and used as a bonding agent to bring them closer to each other.

The fade away is perhaps my favorite part. “Come sleep with me and stay/till tomorrow/or maybe forever/just stay…” This is the part that I put on a mix tape for my partner – and the part of the song that gets him teary-eyed. It is really a beautiful song, about love that’s been lost but is right on the razor’s edge of being found again. If you’d like to see a puppet of mine performing this song, you may watch it here. It’s worth a look.

Incidentally, I just discovered that Patti LaBelle covered the song. Nice!

Well, until next time!