There's just no good way to end a great series, is there?

Always seems to be a letdown. Except the second Newhart. That was priceless.

The final Raymond wasn't bad, but somehow . . .

Somehow, not enough.

Now season enders, those can be a load of fun. Take Gilmore Girls tonight. Loreli unexpectedly proposing to Luke in the last eight seconds. (Unless you watched the previews, which I avoided, because they ruin everything on that show, though my sister partially gave it away, but by then I figured she had it wrong.)

And that amazing song played just before the final scene. So familiar, but I couldn't place it. Haunting lyrics (though we only got the first verse on the show):

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to chase love away
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
Think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
Help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Looked it up. Randy Newman, that explains it. "I think it's going to rain today," from his first album, way back in 1968. (I never thought of him as part of the 60s. Always the 70s for me.)

Still not sure who that was singing. Nina Simone? I will here confess that I don't actually know her work, but that's how I've always pictured her. I know I'm supposed to. Now I'll have to get on that.

Loads of people have covered it. Pretty sure it wasn't Bette Midler. Or Neil Diamond. Dusty Springfield?

Got me rifling through all the Randy Newman lyrics, though. God, I love him. Baltimore is my favorite, I think. Though I could never explain why. Or maybe Guilty. The way Bonnie Rait sings it. Almost everything on Little Criminals breaks my heart. (You can listen to snippets from every song on it at that link.)

Saddest of all the sad songs on that album, Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father. The entire lyric:

Here I am lost in the wind
'Round in circles sailing
Like a ship that never comes in
Standing by myself

Sing a sad song for a good man
Sing a sad song for me
Sing a sad song for the sailor
A thousand miles from the sea

Here I am along on the plain
Sun's going down
It's starting to rain
Papa we'll go sailing

The absolute final proof how great lyrics can totally fail, stranded on the page. No melody, no inflection, no response.

Even knowing the song, loving the song, absolutely cherishing the song, it looks kind of senseless there. But listen. Prepare to fall apart.