There’s a scene in Scott Cooper’s 2009 film Crazy Heart where Jeff Bridges’ character is stretched out on a bed, goofing around on the guitar, when Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character overhears. He asks him if she knows the song he’s playing, and she says, yeah, but she can’t remember who sang it. “That’s the way it is with good ones,” he tells her. “You’re sure you’ve hear them before.” But instead of being impressed that Bridges has written a new song, and she’s the first person to hear it, Gyllenhaal breaks down in tears:
This is so unfair. Some people give ten years of their life to be able to do something like that, and it just pours out of you. … You were writing a song in my bed. So every time I lie down in it and hear that beautiful goddamned song, you’re gonna be out there, running around, not even remembering this day, and I can’t forget.
Anyway, Chance the Rapper, last seen in Stephen Colbert’s Emmys opening number, performed a new, still untitled song along with Daniel Caesar on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night. In an interview before performing, Chance explained to Colbert that he wrote the song on Saturday, when his plans to perform “Grown Ass Kid” fell through. So if you want to get worked up Gyllenhaal-style about how arbitrary the distribution of talent in the world is, this is a good opportunity. But however you react, don’t miss out on enjoying something lovely that didn’t exist at all just a few days ago.
