Secular Music Friday: What I Did for Love

I’ve shared this before, I know. But it was on my mind with the recent retirement of Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully. Then there was also Dick Enberg’s retirement. Southern Californians will remember him as the voice of Angels baseball for many years. In recent years he broadcast San Diego Padres baseball. And there was the final Rose Parade broadcast by Stephanie Edwards and Bob Eubanks back in January. All were artists who loved their craft.

The song “What I did for Love” from the musical A Chorus Line is about artists and their love for their work. The song takes place in the play when a dancer injures himself and has to be taken out of the rehearsal room on a stretcher. When director Zach asks, “If today where the day that you had to stop dancing, how would you feel?” The character Diana Morales sings:

Kiss today goodbye
The sweetness and the sorrow
Wish me luck, the same to you
But I can’t regret
What I did for love, what I did for love

Look, my eyes are dry
The gift was ours to borrow
It’s as if we always knew
And I won’t forget what I did for love
What I did for love

The irony is that while the song says “Look, my eyes are dry” I always get tears in my eyes when I hear the song, or even think of the lyrics.

Here it is. Enjoy. And it’s OK if your eyes aren’t dry.