Truth is like a dancer
When you think you’re following
She turns and skips away
And smiles as if to say
Won’t you come my way if you can
— Ramatam

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, they say. Or in this case, the ears of the listener.

The lyrics above and the melody that accompanied them haunted me for more than five decades. I remember hearing them in a folky rock song back in the 1970s on the radio, and I loved it from the moment I heard it — much like I did Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin and other rock classics. But unlike Zep’s classic, this song soon disappeared from the airwaves and I had no idea what it was called and who performed it.

Over the years, I never forgot those lyrics or the tune that carried them. I queried some Montreal DJs about them, but struck out: they didn’t know what the song was called or who did it, either. When google came along, I searched for the lyrics but struck out again.

It was indeed a lost classic to me, but I never gave up.

One day last summer, before I closed my account on Twitter, I put out a tweet asking if anybody recognized the lyrics. And lo and behold, one of my followers there responded: “It sounds like The Land/Rainy Sunday Evening by a band called Ramatam.”

Bingo!

He nailed it, and within minutes my long search was over. I was listening to the song on YouTube Music with tears streaming from eyes: it was even more beautiful than I had remembered.

The song was featured on the band’s second album, In April Came the Dawning of the Red Suns, released in 1973. It featured multi-instrumentalist Tommy Sullivan, lead guitarist April Lawton and drummer Jimmy Walker. The song was co-written by Sullivan and Lawton.

I wanted to reach out to each of them and let them know how much I appreciated the song. Sadly, April Lawton had already passed away, but I did manage to contact Walker and Sullivan on Facebook, both of whom are still playing music today.

They were both very modest and thanked me for my note of appreciation. Sullivan told me, in part: “ . . . so far the favorite song I ever wrote, sang and recorded … so glad you like it, too!”

Indeed. It is a masterpiece, and a true lost classic. But the 1960s and ‘70s were full of incredible rock songs, and I suppose it was easy for some to get lost in the mix. Still, this song deserves to be listened to again, and again, and again.

For me, it is right up there with the likes of songs by Zep, The Beatles and other great bands of that era. It would be one of the discs — yes, I bought the compact disc on Amazon — I would take to the proverbial desert island.

Perhaps the reason it faded away so quickly is because the group disbanded in 1974.

But they left behind a gem.

It sounds fresher today to me than it did back then. To say it has stood the test of time is an understatement. It is timeless and absolutely beautiful.

Have a listen, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do (though I recognize that music is subjective and what floats my boat might not float yours).

***

UPDATE: Sullivan contacted me after reading the original post above and shared some background: “Thanks so much, Jillian. I just read your piece. I’m really, really touched. Don’t know if you knew that I was the musical director of the Brooklyn Bridge prior to Ramatam. Our keyboardist was my first wife, Carolyn Wood. We had divorced just prior to both of us leaving the Bridge. The song Rainy Sunday was really about the breakup, plus I was classically trained, and the gorgeous strings were played by members of the New York Philharmonic and the parts written by me and April … has lots of emotion behind it. Ramatam never went any further than that album, but I’m so happy that all these years later my song is still remembered. I’m still performing, writing and recording.”

Caption: The CD jacket for the second album by Ramatam, released in 1973. (Photo: Jillian Page)