Since I've Been Loving You

I work a lot. I work a lot for a lot of reasons.  I need a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear.  I have three awesome kids that need the same things.  In this economy, I'm blessed to have a good job, and I'm lucky to love my work.  I work with some of the greatest people I know, people I respect and trust, and I'm honored to call many of them Friend.  

We're consultants, and we're working with our clients to bridge gaps between the business and the Information Technology that is in place to help the business run.  IT is more than email and Microsoft's Word or Excel programs.  Information Technology is what comes together to connect data points and create information, information which is used to facilitate getting insurance claims paid, or socks and underwear from the manufacturer to your local retailer.

The nature of consulting is that we are there to bridge gaps. Some times it's straight out staff augmentation and helping out where the client needs more bodies. Other times, it's fun stuff where we get to help identiffy a problem and work out solutions to help the client do something differently. 

There's plenty of times on these projects where we work some absurd hours. During a data center relocation, we'll work all weekend, including shifts to cover all 24 hours of the day, in order to get things moved and tested before the business restarts on Monday morning.  On  a strategy project, we might be up late working on the final paper and a presentation to the management team.  One project I worked on, we not only didn't have the deliverables right, but there were some internal dynamics in place at the client that we didn't fully realize, and we were working almost round the clock for a few days to get things right.

The opening lyrics of "Since I've Been Loving You" sum up that situation.

Working from seven to eleven every night, 

It really makes life a drag, I don't think that's right. 

Those are just the opening lyrics, and they pale in comparison to the introduction that precedes them: a little over a minute of mournful guitar work by Jimmy Page, supplemented by Bonham and Jones.  I have sat and just listened over and over to that opening minute.  It's fantastic. Probably the best introduction to a song, ever. For the first 25 seconds, it's the guitar, Jones on the pedal bass and Bonham providing the beat, and then Jones kicks in with the organ.  Finally the words start and they just grab you as Robert Plant sets up the scene. 

Working from seven to eleven every night, 

It really makes life a drag, I don't think that's right. 

I've really, really been the best of fools, I did what I could. 

'Cause I love you, baby, How I love you, darling, How I love you, baby, 

How I love you, girl, little girl. 

But baby, Since I've Been Loving You. I'm about to lose my worried mind, oh, yeah. 

Working, all hours, and loving a woman, and starting to feel some sense of loss and desperation. He's doing what he can.   And in the next verse, the intensity of his emotion grows as he reveals that while others have seen things and tried to tell him, he's been blind to it because of his love for her, and because he's been working his ass off, and when he wails into the final line of the verse you can tell he's not only about to lose his worried, mind; he's already starting to slip.

Everybody trying to tell me that you didn't mean me no good. 

I've been trying, Lord, let me tell you, Let me tell you I really did the best I could. 

I've been working from seven to eleven every night, I said It kinda makes my life a drag, drag, drag, drag

Lord, that ain't right... 

Since I've Been Loving You, I'm about to lose my worried mind. 

The ensemble takes us through the bridge, this blues bit and as the bridge ends, Plant comes back:

I said I've been crying!

Oh my tears they fell like rain.

And as he goes back to the house to find her, he finds out she's done with him; someone has taken his place.  In this case, it sounds like someone physically has taken his place, but it can happen in an emotional way, too, and the end result is the same.  Here the song is at it's peak: drums and cymbals filling in, the guitar and organ wrapping it's arms around us to provide comfort that only it can do. No human can fill the void he's now feeling and quickly, the song ends. He's just worn out, and nothing more can come forth from him this day.

It wasn't just the hours I put in that led to my divorce. A lot of other things I did (or didn't do) contributed to it.  That doesn't take way from the fact that I know and feel the anguish that's conveyed in this song.