James Taylor and Quyen

James Taylor and his ever-present guitar

One of my great loves, passed on to me by my sisters at a young age, is folk music. I am not a musician myself and I wouldn’t say that music has played a huge roll in my life, but folk music is a real love of mine. I love the way that it blends a poet’s love of words with simple melodies. James Taylor is one of my favorites and listening to his song “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” this past weekend made me think it would be a perfect song to begin my blogging with. It speaks not only to my love of folk music, but much more deeply to my love of Quyen, my wife. We have been married for 22 years and known each other for 28 years. We have been through a lot together, some I’m sure I will share in later posts, and she is getting ready to beging a new stage in her life with an important new job. She brings so much meaning and joy to my life and this song really speaks to that. Here are the lyrics:

How sweet it is to be loved by you

How sweet it is to be loved by you

I needed the shelter of someone's arms

There you were

I needed someone to understand my ups and downs

There you were

With sweet love and devotion

Deeply touching my emotion

I want to stop, and thank you baby

I want to stop, and thank you baby

Yes I do

How sweet it is to be loved by you

Feels so fine

How sweet it is to be loved by you

I close my eyes at night

Wonderin' where would I be without you in my life

Everything I did was just a bore

Everywhere I went it seems I'd been there before

But you brighten up for me all of my days

With a love so sweet in so many ways

An' I wanna stop, thank you, baby

I just wanna stop, and thank you, baby

Ohh yes

How sweet it is to be loved by you

It's just like sugar sometime

How sweet it is to be loved by you

Wo yea

You were better to me than I was to myself

For me, there's you and there ain't nobody else

I wanna stop, thank you, baby

I just wanna stop, and thank you, baby

Oh yes

How sweet it is to be loved by you

How sweet it is to be loved by you

Wo now

How sweet it is to be loved by you

It's like jelly babe, oh yea

How sweet it is to be loved by you

Just like honey to the bee babe

Yea now

How sweet it is to be loved by you

(Na na na)

How sweet it is to be loved by you


Greg