Stacey Kent (born March 27, 1968 in South Orange, New Jersey) is a Grammy-n… Read Full Bio ↴Stacey Kent (born March 27, 1968 in South Orange, New Jersey) is a Grammy-nominated American jazz vocalist, who debuted in 1997 with Close Your Eyes.

Kent attended Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey. She graduated with a Degree in Comparative Literature from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and moved to England after her graduation. While studying at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she met tenor saxophonist, Jim Tomlinson, whom she married on 9 Aug 1991.

Discography:
"Close Your Eyes" (1997), "The Tender Trap" (1998), "Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire" (2000),
"Dreamsville" (2001), "Brazilian Sketches" (2001), "In Love Again: The Music of Richard Rodgers" (2002),
"The Boy Next Door" (2003), "Collection" (2001), "Collection II" (2003), "Collection III" (2006),
"Breakfast On The Morning Tram" (2007), "Breakfast on the Morning Tram" (2008, limited edition boxset CD/DVD),
"Raconte-Moi..." (2010) , "Hushabye Mountain" (2011) , "THE CHANGING LIGHTS" (2013)

Kent has also featured in Tomlinson's 2006 album, The Lyric, which won "Album of the Year" at the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards.

Awards: British Jazz Award (2001) and BBC Jazz Award for Best Vocalist (2002).

Kent's album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram, was a nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 51st Grammy Awards (2009).

Trivia: Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the liner notes to Kent's 2003 album, The Boy Next Door, and also co-wrote four of the songs on the 2007 album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram.

Sites: Discogs

Isn't It a Pity
Stacey Kent Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Why did I wander
Here and there and yonder
Wasting precious time
For no reason or rhyme

Isn't it a pity
Isn't it a crime
My journeys ended

Everything is splendid

Meeting you today
Has given me
A wonderful idea
Here I stay

It's a funny thing
I look at you
I get a thrill
I never knew

Isn't it a pity
We never met before?

Here we are at last
It's like a dream
The two of us
A perfect team

Isn't it a pity
We never met before?

Imagine all the lonely years you wasted
Fishing for salmon
Losing at backgammon

What joys un-tasted
My nights were sour
Spent with Schopenhauer

Let's forget the past
Let's both agree
That I'm for you
And you're for me
And it's such a pity
We never, never met before

It's an awful pity
We never, never met before

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Stacey Kent's song Isn't It A Pity convey the regret of the singer for all the time they have wasted in aimless wandering and fruitless pursuits. They express self-reproach for not having met the person they are addressing earlier, as it would have saved them from all the loneliness and misery they have experienced before. The tone shifts as the singer meets with the addressee, and everything suddenly appears to be splendid. Meeting the person has given them a wonderful idea: to stay with them. The singer's voice becomes poetic, as they describe the feeling that the sight of the addressee gives them, "It's a funny thing, I look at you, I get a thrill I never knew".

The lyrics use metaphorical language to evoke the idea that life is full of missed opportunities, but when one is finally discovered, it's like a dream come true. The singer seems to suggest that they have been searching all along for this connection, and the end of the search came when they met the addressee. The sense of regret that pervades the lyrics is balanced by a sense of hope and possibility that what has been lost or missed can be regained. The use of Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, references the singer's past filled with sadness and misery. In the end, they choose to let go of the past and agree to be for each other, even though they regret not having met earlier.

Line by Line Meaning

Why did I wander
Why did I aimlessly roam

Here and there and yonder
In every direction, far and wide

Wasting precious time
Squandering valuable moments

For no reason or rhyme
Without any cause or pattern

Isn't it a pity
Isn't it regrettable

Isn't it a crime
Isn't it offensive

My journeys ended
My travels are over

Everything is splendid
Everything is excellent

Meeting you today
Encountering you now

Has given me
Has allowed me to have

A wonderful idea
A marvelous notion