An accoustic I never thought I would hear... but it bought back such memories and for t...

When I saw the lead in on this and realised that Ben Lee was actually going to try do an accoustic cover of one of my favourite all time songs I was not only bemused, indignant enough to several pffts.. and couldnt initially bring myself to listen but then ok I was curious..

You see Don Henley's Heart of the Matter has a place in my heart that has never faded with time, it never will.. it has been played thousands of times and each time I next hear it, I fall in love with it all over again...and I sing along each and every word...

Why you ask does it mean so much...

Well I was backpacking around the world for most of 1993 with a dear dear friend (who remains a shining light in my life) and we had a sony walkman with dual headphones.. we had it all going on back then... two young blonde things with the latest technology...lol

Our first stop had been Bangkok and we stockpiled a bag full of CD's there (yes I know pirating... bad bad bad) one of which was Don Henley End of the Innocence...

Well over the next months we listened to those CD's over and over... until we knew every word of every track.. we had lots of time to listen...as we waited for planes, buses, trains, boats, a lift in a lorry whatever was the mode of transport of the day.

Heart of the Matter became my comfort track, when I was feeling lonely, thought of love lost, homesick, down... I would play it over and over and sing with Don... he became my friend...he understood... it drove Julie nuts...lol..

We had been In Turkey for a few weeks and needed to get from Gallipoli (where I was fortunate enough to pay my respects to my great uncles, a privilege never under valued even now, anyhoo I digress) to Istanbul, we met up with some Swedes at a bar who offered us a lift in their campervan.. they had been travelling for a long time and had worn out all their own music, our payment for the ride was to share ours.

So our CD's were all out scattered around the van, all of a sudden we arrived at the outskirts of Istanbul and if you have been you will know how chaotic it all got... 40 million people... and they were all on the road that day...all of a sudden the turn off was upon us and panic prevailed, we had to get out.. quickly... we threw our packs together, put em on and with hurried thank you's... we greeted the streets of Istanbul (thats a whole other story).

It was only minutes later that I realised we had left every scrap of music in the van except for what was in the CD player... yes all we had was Don Henley...

For the next months as I lay on the beach in Corfu, cooked a meal in a convent in Zurich, sat on my bunk in Vasco De Gamas school of Navigation in Sagres Portugal, thought I were going to die crossing the channel between Germany and Denmark in gale force winds, cried outside the gates of Dachau concentration camp, drank free moet in Epernay, sat on the deck of a burning ferry between Mykonos and Santorini.... Don was always there with me...

And so I listened to Ben Lee singing my song... and you know what I sung along just as I always have... it was not Don, but it wasnt an attempt to be... it was Ben Lee sharing Don and acknowledging Heart of the Matter for what it is, a great song that will never fade...

I have a tear in my eyes as I write this thinking what an amazing part of my life Don Henley has been part of...and will always be...