Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Some videos which are all about the deep thoughts we have in our twenties

When we were in our twenties, Tom remarked on the fact that we now had adult memories; that we could look back and see a past. That doesn’t happen in your teens. It seems to be a perception, a knowledge that occurs when one is a twenty-something. 

My favorite Pink Floyd song tells of this experience, and I happened to see that Roger Waters, who wrote the lyrics, came to the realization when he was 28 or 29. 
This song is about how time can slip by, but many people do not realise it until it is too late. Roger Waters got the idea when he realised he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. 
"Time"

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the fields
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell


One of my very early posts spotlighted the first Keane album. A song from it that expresses this same twenties experience is Somewhere Only We Know.

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river, and it made me complete

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute, why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute, why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go?
So why don't we go?

This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know
Somewhere only we know
Somewhere only we know?


Adele’s latest album 25 is described here and there’s that same theme. 

"Million Years Ago"

I only wanted to have fun
Learning to fly learning to run
I let my heart decide the way
When I was young
Deep down I must have always known
That this would be inevitable
To earn my stripes I'd have to pay
And bare my soul

I know I'm not the only one
Who regrets the things they've done
Sometimes I just feel it's only me
Who can't stand the reflection that they see
I wish I could live a little more
Look up to the sky not just the floor
I feel like my life is flashing by
And all I can do is watch and cry
I miss the air, I miss my friends
I miss my mother, I miss it when
Life was a party to be thrown
But that was a million years ago

When I walk around all of the streets
Where I grew up and found my feet
They can't look me in the eye
It's like they're scared of me
I try to think of things to say
Like a joke or a memory
But they don't recognize me now
In the light of day

I know I'm not the only one
Who regrets the things they've done
Sometimes I just feel it's only me
Who never became who they thought they'd be
I wish I could live a little more
Look up to the sky not just the floor
I feel like my life is flashing by
And all I can do is watch and cry
I miss the air I miss my friends
I miss my mother I miss it when
Life was a party to be thrown
But that was a million years ago
A million years ago


This post was prompted by an Ed Sheeran video I watched this morning. I thought, oh my gosh, this really is a ‘thing.’ It is a life truth that when we’ve had a few years of living, we look back to see where we came from and what shaped us and how the time goes by. 

"Castle on the Hill"

When I was six years old I broke my leg
I was running from my brother and his friends
And tasted the sweet perfume of the mountain grass I rolled down
I was younger then, take me back to when I

Found my heart and broke it here
Made friends and lost them through the years
And I’ve not seen the roaring fields in so long, I know I’ve grown
But I can’t wait to go home.

I’m on my way 
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Fifteen years old and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes
Running from the law through the back fields and getting drunk with my friends
Had my first kiss on a Friday night, I don’t reckon I did it right
But I was younger then, take me back to when

We found weekend jobs, when we got paid
We’d buy cheap spirits and drink them straight
Me and my friends have not thrown up in so long, oh how we’ve grown
But I can’t wait to go home

I’m on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to “Tiny Dancer”
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it’s real
We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill

One friend left to sell clothes
One works down by the coast
One had two kids but lives alone
One’s brother overdosed
One’s already on his second wife
One’s just barely getting by
But these people raised me
And I can’t wait to go home

And I’m on my way, I still remember
These old country lanes
When we did not know the answers
And I miss the way you make me feel, it’s real
We watched the sunset over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill
Over the castle on the hill


17 comments:

  1. Oh wow! They truly all strike a chord with me. My memories are fading and it's hard to recall so much of my past. Maybe that's why I keep trying to record things.

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    1. It's all about that time in your life when you are a bit nostalgic because you can remember a past. I am amazed at how many people write/sing about it in their twenties.

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  2. As soon as I started reading your post today, Nan, I thought I want to show you my "Moments of Clarity". I wrote that post back in 2009, when I had hardly any readers. You can find it here, if you want.

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  3. Oh boy, does this ever hit home. I think this time of year I really think about this. Maybe it is because we have time to slow down and think.

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  4. What a fun collection of songs. Love the theme running through. I know some people who don't save photographs, aren't sentimental, etc. but I like to honor the past as the story of who we are and how we came to be. I am going to come back and listen to each of these songs meditatively a little later. Great post!

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    1. Oh, thank you so much for those kind words. I love it that you'll come back and listen.

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  5. It is funny that these twenty somethings are thinking of their pasts...as an old person myself, I want to say, "Hey, wait a few years and THEN you will have more to be nostalgic about!! :-)
    I do love Keane very much, I thank you very much for having them on here, along with Adele, love her too!

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    1. I thought of you when I posted the Keane video!

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  6. I love seeing the lyrics printed out - never understand why song lyrics are not considered poetry - for someone raised up on Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, Crosby Stills and Nash, Traffic (the low spark of high heeled boys - poetry!)...well that distinction has never made sense. I find myself stunned at times to realize the years have just flown by, it's a cliché and yet it's as if I walked through a door meaning to just come right back but when I did, I was thirty years older and time was a fingersnap. So strange. I imagine it will only get even weirder in the oncoming years.

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    1. I love how you described this. There may be a poem in that sentence about the door.

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  7. It passes so quickly.

    I especially love the lyrics of "Time" and I don't know if I've ever told you how very much I love your Nan's making coffee illustration, but I do!

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    1. They are great, aren't they. Poetry. Thanks about the coffee. I bought the old magazine years ago just so I could frame the coffee ad!!

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  8. Did not know Ed Sheeran or that song. Lovely. My husband liked the Pink Floyd (ardent lifelong fan) when I read your post aloud.

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  9. Great music! I've just re-read this post (I was at work when I first saw it) and have so enjoyed listening to each of the songs, as I read along with the lyrics. I do believe music is a form of poetry and my husband has often used it to explain metaphors to his students. I'm not sure, but I think he's incorporated Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" into at least one or two lessons. Thanks for the great post, Nan!

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