I've just been watching the film "La La Land". The night scene where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling drive up to the Griffith Observatory..., reminded me of something.
Same Observatory.
'Observatory Crest' - from the album 'Bluejeans & Moonbeams'. (1974).
Working the remote this evening, I happened upon a BBC Four programme...,
More Punk and New Wave Compiled .
At the time, I was reasonably aware of what was around, but both this song, and the band...., new to me. As yet another Covid-19 lockdown gathers pace, a bit of cheer.....
Imagine a sunny holiday
A little Paris style cafe
Corner table for two And that is me and you
Barefoot by the shore A drink with ice and two straws Sun in the cloudless sky You wave as the girls go by
Take a boat out for a while You row and I lie back in style We'll reach the other side, you say But we never get halfway
When the evening comes around We'll stroll through a lamp-lit little town Miles and miles from home Happy to be on our own
Nothing I would rather do All I want is a place in the sun, and you Nothing I would rather do All I want is a place in the sun, and you…
At home, on the radio, I listen mostly to R6 Music. In my car, I hardly ever listen to my own music. I'll listen to BBC R4, and when that tends towards the tedious, I'll switch over to R3 for some culture. But mostly, I drive without the radio on.
However, when Covid-19 got going, I felt the urge to listen to some stuff. Pulled out a long unplayed CD. This track I first heard, as a 15 year old, when I went to see the 1967 film 'The Graduate'.
Originally released in 1964 on the album 'Wednesday Morning 3am', the whole album was a commercial failure. Simon and Garfunkel split up and went their separate ways, Paul Simon to England. A couple of years later, radio stations picked up a remixed version of the song, and it rose in the charts. At this, Paul Simon returned to the US to make a new album with Garfunkel.
Simon's recall of the day Sound of Silence reached No 1.
".... I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my
parents' house. Artie was living at his parents' house, too. I remember
Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street
in Queens, and the announcer [on the radio] said, "Number one, Simon &
Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon & Garfunkel, they must
be having a great time." Because there we were on a street corner, in my car in Queens, smoking a joint. We didn't know what to do with ourselves.... "
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow and the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
"I
get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of
making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people. If
I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the
wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself
because 'Man did you see how woke I was? I called you out!' But if all
you're doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that
far. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really
good stuff have flaws."
