A great performance of one of my favorite Todd Rundgren songs, “Parallel Lines,” recorded on David Sanborn’s short-lived TV show “Night Music” in 1989. Todd sings his heart out here.

This version is substantially different than the one on the excellent album Nearly Human, which is out of print but still available at Amazon’s MP3 store.

Youtube Video

Kindred spirits moving along the spiral
I can see you up on another level
It’s too great a fall
And I can’t reach you to pull me higher
But I don’t seem to get much closer or any more far

What would you tell me, if I could hear you speaking?
If you could touch me, how would I know the feeling?
I just can’t imagine
But I try to do it anyway
I wish I was moving faster, I wish you’d drift back
But it just wasn’t meant to happen
Very soon I’ll have to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can’t turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over

It’s a challenge
Gotta make myself remember
Facing the truth, well, that doesn’t mean surrender
What is bravado and how much is a force of will?
I know that the world is full of opposites that attract
But unless we ignore the physics
Very soon we’ll have to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can’t turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over

So I send you the gift of empathy
If you’d once in your life acknowledge me
I have visualized so thoroughly
That when I think of me I think of we

Can’t face the truth
It means that we must surrender
Understanding won’t satisfy the hunger
It whittles away at the destiny we fulfill
And like an animal running wild
You can’t call it back
And it’s just gonna make it harder
When it’s finally time to

Face the fact
Some things never come together
Parallel lines running on forever
And you can’t turn back
There is never any starting over
Parallel lines never do cross over