I recently heard a song called ‘Let It Be Me’ by an American singer called Ray Lamontagne. It’s a simple, beautiful song about that melancholy yearning for love that you find in classic ‘pop’ songs that has resonated with generations of people over the years. Of course, once I like a song, I play it endlessly and my wife will testify to this. This is of course much easier now with the ‘Repeat’ function than when I first did this many moons ago and had to rewind the tape or put the needle back to the beginning of the record. However, I digress.

One odd thing that happened though as a result of listening to this song repeatedly is that after a while, I ended up hearing ‘Let Me Be Me’. That says more about me than the song itself perhaps and either way it isn’t a lyrical edit that will change the world, however just that one small word completely shifted the meaning of the song. The original yearning for love in the song becomes a yearning to be yourself and if this is a sentiment with which you can identify, then perhaps an equally powerful song is born.

This is a clip of Ray Lamontagne singing ‘Let It Be Me’ live in the studio. Perhaps after he reads this blog post, he will change the title. You never know!

(And by the way, for those who need to know these things, this ‘Let It Be Me’ was written by Ray Lamontagne and released in 2006 and is not the ‘Let It Be Me’ originally made famous by the Everly Brothers in 1960…