Seventies singer/songwriter Roberta Flack. I mean, is there anything else to say? A voice that’s both understated and gigantic, lyrics that beg for connection. It’s really hard to describe the way these two songs make me feel, other than saying Killing Me Softly and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face both take me back to the furthest memories of my very happy, innocent childhood. I remember being a little boy and thinking how confusing and amazing these songs were; they intrigued me to understand grown-up relationships. There was a man who knew her better than she knew herself. His music tore her apart but it made her sing these beautiful lyrics to this music-box sound. It was both terrible and wonderful, and how is that possible?Haunting even today, when I hear either of these songs I am reminded of those evocative moments when I was a little boy who’d stand in the leaf piles across the street in the park, looking up at the stars in the early night sky, endless and scary but also tantalizing and welcoming.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 18, 2016. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.