A duet is two people agreeing to need each other for three minutes. That is all it is. One voice says something and the other voice answers and between the two of them they make a sound that neither one can make alone. The solo is a monologue. The duet is a conversation. And a conversation is always more interesting than a monologue because in a conversation somebody might say something you did not expect.

Sam and Dave. Sam Moore and Dave Prater. Hold On I'm Comin. Soul Man. Two voices that fit together like a handshake. Sam sang high and Dave sang low and between them they built a house that had a floor and a ceiling and the audience lived in that house for the length of the song. Stax Records understood that two voices from two different lives singing the same song is the definition of soul. The solo is the singer. The duet is the song.

Simon and Garfunkel. Art's voice was an angel and Paul's voice was a man and when they sang together the angel and the man met in the middle and the middle was Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Sound of Silence and the middle was the most beautiful place in American music. They hated each other half the time. That is the duet. You do not need to like somebody to harmonize with them. You need to listen to them. Listening is harder than liking.

On the corner I played solo. That was the job. One man and a guitar and a sidewalk. But the best moments were when a stranger joined in. A stranger with a harmonica. A stranger who knew the words. The stranger did not ask permission. They just started singing. And for two minutes on a Tuesday afternoon in Washington Square Park there was a duet between two people who had never met and would never meet again and it was the most honest music I ever made. Because the duet with a stranger has no rehearsal and no arrangement and no contract. It has two people and a song and the song is the only thing holding them together.

Every friendship is a duet. Every marriage is a duet. Every conversation where two people are actually listening to each other is a duet. The world wants you to believe that the solo is the goal. The star. The name. The brand. But the solo is lonely and the duet is not. The duet is two people who decided that the song is more important than the singer. And the song is always more important than the singer. Always.