As the pop culture adage goes, “When your heart’s on fire, smoke gets in your eyes“.
The less familiar line of the song, which happens at the end is, “When a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes“.
Sure, the smoke is all romantic in the beginning – the little candles lighting the dinner table, the igniting of a cigarette, the sweet scent of incense – you want to be deluded, to be mistaken – for one brief moment – to truly get lost in the moment (smoke is extremely effective in clouding of vision).
And then – there’s the other kind of smoke. The thick, suffocating, engulfing kind that blinds and brings tears to your eyes.
Hindsight comes with this momentary blurred vision beyond the necessity of eye-drops. You realise that the smoke was always the same kind of smoke. It’s the beautiful delusion we seek in the hope that when the smoke clears, the oasis is still there. And if it isn’t, we’ll cry for a bit – and then reach for a fresh pack of matches.
Here’s the Platters singing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and the best use of this song in a soundtrack from the movie, Always.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGzMiqvnChk]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n2cUxZndWA]