Alli Patton is the Leader’s Arts & Entertainment reporter. She can be reached at apatton@ptleader.com or 360-385-2900, ext. 110.

Photo by Brian Kelly

The B-Sides:

I received some really great contributions from my last column about silly love songs.

Susan Bingham wrote in to contribute Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain” to the playlist.

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by Carole King and “Evergreen” by Barbra Streisand were among Nan Toby Tyrrell’s picks.

Jennifer Jenkins contributed Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” a love song she considers timeless. Cheap Trick’s “The Flame” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” were also among Jenkins’ submissions.

“Wherever You Are” by Angus & Julia Stone was a contribution by Gordon Wanner.

Pete in Quilcene left me a message adding — one of my personal favorites – Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Until It’s Time For You To Go” to the mix.

I’m beyond grateful to you all for indulging me in this mission to spread some musical love.

Don’t forget to write to me your goodbyes for the Jefferson County community playlist.

Waylon Jennings told Willie Nelson in song “If you see me gettin’ smaller, I’m leavin’/Don’t be grieving/Just got to get away from here/If you see me gettin’ smaller, don’t worry/I’m in no hurry/I’ve got the right to disappear.”

I’ve never been good at goodbye, so I’ll let music say it for me.

Trust me, I wrestled with The Clash’s sentiment of “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” I could just say “Take This Job and Shove It” like Johnny Paycheck, but my time at The Leader has been too good to me. I could just take the easy way out like NSYNC and say “Bye Bye Bye,” but I’ve loved writing Liner Notes too much to be informal.

There are plenty of songs that communicate the perfect farewell, so in the words of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, here are just a few more songs before I go.

Emmylou Harris’s warbling twang rang true when she sang “It’s just an ordinary story ‘bout the way things go/‘Round and around nobody knows but the highway/Goes on forever” in her rendition of “Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight.” She sings “I gotta roll on between the ditches” — that’s just the way it is. Like Bad Company, I’m “Movin’ On.”

I wish this place had felt more like home and I wish it had been easier to be a part of this community. But my time here has been filled with experiences and people I won’t soon forget.

The sweet, musky smells of Quimper Sound’s albums have clung to my clothing and cemented themselves in my mind. To Alex, Marshall, and James, my goodbye song to you all is Thin Lizzy’s “Running Back” — not only because my copy of Jailbreak came from your collection, but also because I found a lot of solace flipping through your endless rows of vinyl. If I ever find myself here again, let me just say “It’s not all over completely/‘Cause I’d come running/I’d come running back to you again.”

My music trivia team also deserves a parting song — maybe a little something by Celine Dion; Bobby Darin, perhaps; but just know, “We Are The Champions” by Queen pretty much sums it up.

Linda, Matt, Kay, and Shelby, we may have come in second and third place for weeks now, but you will always be first place people in my book.

And to my coworkers, I thought long and hard about this goodbye. “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones is fun, funky, and makes for a great walk out song, but it doesn’t quite illustrate what you all have meant to me. I thought about Boys II Men’s “End of The Road,” but it’s a little too sad and slightly dramatic.

So to the people who always put a smile on my face and a song in my heart, The Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends” is my farewell tune to everyone in The Leader office.

In a short while, I will make like Taj Mahal and pack up my “Leaving Trunk,” then let John Denver’s “Country Roads” take me home.

And you can rest assured that, like Dolly Parton, “I’m gonna hurry just/Just as slow as I can.”

I know I will think back on Liner Notes, reminiscing about the songs we’ve shared over the course of this column, and feel a tinge of sorrow.

But now that it’s “Closing Time” on my moments here, I feel comforted when Semisonic sings “every new beginning/comes from some other beginning’s end.”

This is me saying goodbye, but this is also Liner Notes — the column that, hopefully, connected the community through song. To you all, my farewell is set to the tune of ABBA’s “Thank You For The Music.”

The Jefferson County community playlist needs your input one last time. When you can’t find the words, tell me the songs that say goodbye in the best way.

Email, call, or whatever — just talk music with me for the next week.