Deb Talan when she was at her prime is the best lyricist I know of, from any era.

“I wish I were a bird,” she said.

“So you could fly away?”

“No, so we could be together with no thoughts of yesterday.”

That’s from her song “Two Points.” It’s better in song form of course because her phrasing is absolutely impeccable.

Like many people (male and female), she’s become very boring since she’s happy and has had kids. She was a much better writer when she was desperately lonely, miserable and poor.

But that’s true of nearly all artists.

But when she shone, she lit up the sky. Not many people mildly glow even once in their lives.

I’m glad she seems happy, but I miss the old Deb Talan. I met her once at a concert and she was unfailingly nice and even laughed – seemingly sincerely — when I joked about her being my fallback after my meeting with Madonna got cancelled.