The last thing on my mind

I was listening to the beautiful Tom Paxton song “The Last Thing on my Mind,” and I realized that in a way the title forms a kind of puzzle. What is the last thing on his mind? The very phrase evokes a sense of mystery.

When you listen to the song, you find out the answer to this question — and there is a definite answer — but it’s not an answer that you would ever guess on your own.

Other songs have a similar structure. For example, Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” What happens, exactly, by the time this guy gets to Phoenix? That one turns out to be easy, because the singer gives it away right at the beginning of the song.

But the song “The Hardest Thing” by 98 Degrees makes you wait quite a while before you find out what the hardest thing is.

I wonder how many other songs there are like that?