File under classic rock, or maybe folk, or possibly ballads... I know--file under "songs the DJ can put on when he needs to go to the bathroom and the ones in his building are out of order". Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young outdid themselves on this one. It has four major sections, and goes on at least as long as Stairway to Heaven or Bohemian Rhapsody, and in the grand tradition of such songs, it spirals into a rocking flammable jammable pace at the end, which in concert would almost certainly last more than ten minutes.
The sections are as follows: "A" is a rolling guitar-driven tune with tambourine and bongos for percussion, sung almost like a hymn, with the long lines in harmony and the short lines solo. "B" slows way down and includes cymbals and the rest of the drums in the kit. It is sung almost entirely in harmony, except for "can I tell it like it is," which is solo. "C" is structured like a limerick in meter, but doesn't quite match the traditional rhythm of one. The tune is faster and brighter, and each stanza is built up from a solo first line to full 4-part harmony by the fourth line. Then BOOM, you're in "D", and everyone sings the "doo doo"'s except the soloist--Crosby?--who sings in Espanol and laughs maniacally, which is really the highlight of the song, in my humble opinion. But then if I keep extolling the tune, I'll never get to the lyrics, and man are there a lot of 'em. Three lyrics that are conspicuously absent: the words "Judy", "blue", and "eyes".
*={A}=*
It's getting to the point where I'm no fun anymore.
I am sorry.
Sometimes it hurts so badly, I must cry out loud:
I am lonely.
CHORUS A:
I am yours,
you are mine,
You are what you are,
and you make it hard.
Remember what we've said, and done, and felt about each other.
The great have mercy.
Don't let the past remind us of what we are not now.
I am not grieving.
CHORUS A
Tearing yourself away from me now, you are free,
and I am crying.
This does not mean I do not love you. I do: that's forever,
yes, and for always.
CHORUS A
Something inside is telling me that I've got your secret.
Are you still listening?
Fear is the lock, and laughter the key to your heart,
and I love you.
CHORUS A with repeated last line x4
*={B}=*
Friday evening, Sunday in the afternoon:
what have you got to lose?
Tuesday morning, please
begone, I'm tired of you:
what have you got to lose?
Can I tell it like it is? Listen to me baby! It's my heart that's set to die,
that's what I've got to lose.
I've got an answer: I'm going to fly away.
What have I got to lose?
Will you come see me Thursdays and Saturdays?
What have you got to lose?
*={C}=*
Chestnut brown canary,
Ruby-throated sparrow,
sing the song
don't be long,
thrill me to the
marrow!
Voices of the angels
ring around the moonlight,
asking me, said
"She's so free,
how can you catch the sparrow?"
Lacy lilting lyric,
Losing love lamented,
Change my life!
Make it right!
Be my lady!
*={D}=*
Doodoodoo doodoo, doo doo doo-doodoo-doo!
Doodoodoo doodoo, doo doo doo-doo!
{repeat with these
Spanish lyrics}
Que linda me la traiga Cuba
La reina de la Mar Caribe
Cielo sol no tiene sangreahi
Y que triste que no puedo vaya
Oh va, oh va, va!
The Spanish translates roughly as: "How beautiful the Queen of the Caribbean Sea that brings me to Cuba... the sky and the sun don't have (something about blood?), and how sad that I can't go. Oh, go, oh go, go...!" Maybe it was better to leave it in Spanish.