Known to man since…man was man, circles in their natural form would have been observed in the heavens and on the sands.  It’s a mathematical maxim that all circles, by their very nature, are similar.  Although no one knows where, it has been firmly established that sometime toward the end of the Neolithic Age this maxim was applied dimensionally and the wheel was invented.  And so began this long season of modern civilization.

In their literal sense wheels have played a part in many of mankind’s most significant endeavors, both honorable (as with spinning wheels, water wheels, steering wheels, alloy wheels, etc.) and disgraceful (as with torture devices like the Catherine or “breaking” wheel).  Metaphorically, wheels have been agents for some of mankind’s more illuminating notions, as with the symbolic Wheel of Fortune (referring to the capricious nature of Fate, not the game show) or Buddhism’s cyclical Wheel of Life.

Which brings us ’round to another week of “circle, ring and wheel” themed songs, beginning with today’s selection that was first recorded and made famous by Linda Ronstadt in 1974, before it was recorded by the person who actually wrote it, Anna McGarrigle.  Performed with her sister Kate, this affecting version of “Heart Like a Wheel” was featured on McGarrigle sister’s eponymous debut album  in 1975.

 LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Sunday 23 September

Heart Like A Wheel

 Some say a heart is just like a wheel

When you bend it, you can’t mend it

And my love for you is like a sinking ship

And my heart is like that ship out in mid ocean

They say that death is a tragedy

It comes once and it’s over

But my only wish is for that deep dark abyss

‘Cause what’s the use of living with no true lover

And it’s only love, and it’s only love

That can wreck a human being and turn him inside out

That can wreck a human being and turn him inside out

When harm is done no love can be won

I know this happens frequently

What I can’t understand

Oh please God hold my hand

Is why it should have happened to me

And it’s only love and it’s only love

And it’s only love and it’s only love

Only love, only love

Only love, only love