I love The Beatles and Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is one of my top favourites. I am in good company; the song had been voted as the Best Song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio2 poll of music experts and listeners and number one Pop Song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine in 2000.
One particular line from the song plays a lot in my mind these days: 'I'm not half the man I used to be.' Of course, in the song it is used in a different context but I find it an apt description of the aged me. Where is the man who was bold, full of optimism and energy, always seeking adventure and on the go? I look in the mirror and see a reflection of a haggard, gray-haired and balding man with wrinkles, puffy eyes and white eyebrows- yes, half the man at best even with lengthening nose and ears!
One thought leads to another and I started remembering songs about old age and times. I harked back to my school days and songs Father Mackessack taught us in his after school singing class. One was of 1860 vintage by the famous composer Stephen Foster with a stirring version by Paul Robeson in 1930s, "Old Black Joe" -
"Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are the friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land, I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling, Old Black Joe.
I'm coming, I'm coming, for my head is bending low,
I hear their gentle voices calling, Old Black Joe."
Another treasure from Foster/Mackessack was "Old Folks At Home". For the singer "all de world am sad and dreary ebry where I roam...all up and down de whole creation sadly I roam, still longing for de old plantation, and for de old folks at home." Similar to The Beach Boys in "Sloop John B" who sang, "I feel so broke up, I wanna go home." Well, for me, home is Jaipur and that's where I wanna go though most old folks are no longer at home and have gone to a 'better place'.
A song that touchingly described melancholy and consolation over lost youth was "When You And I Were Young, Maggie". It owed its origin to a 1864 poem and had many versions including one by Bing Crosby and his son Gary. Some bittersweet lyrics-
"Oh they say that I'm feeble with age Maggie, my steps are much slower than then
My face is a well written page Maggie, and time all along was the pen.
Oh they say we have outlived our time Maggie, as dated as songs that we've sung
But to me you're as fair as you were Maggie, when you and I were young."
Time marches on relentlessly and we are busy with our lives till one day we suddenly look back and wonder how fast it has flown by. "Sunrise Sunset" from the popular musical "Fiddler on the Roof" captures this beautifully:-
"Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older, when did they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he get to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were so small?
Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers, blossoming even as we gaze,
Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years
One season following another, laden with happiness and tears.
What words of wisdom can I give them, how can I help to ease their way?
Now they must learn from one another, day by day."
Well, I must accept my ageing happily and look at the brighter side of getting old. Remember Maurice Chevalier in "Gigi" observing the lovestruck, bewitched and bewildered character played by Louis Jourdan? Chevalier sings contentedly, "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore"-
"Poor boy, poor boy, downhearted and depressed and in a spin,
Poor boy, poor boy, oh, youth can really do a fellow in,
How lovely to sit here in the shade with none of the woes of man and maid,
I'm glad that I'm not young anymore."
Frank Sinatra though, advises one to remain "Young At Heart" regardless of age-
"And if you should survive to a hundred and five
Look at all you'll derive out of being alive
And here is the best part, you've had a head start,
If you are among the very young at heart."
And, I must be content and happy to have lived my life "My Way" as sang good old Frank Sinatra in his signature song-
"I've lived a life that's full, I've travelled each and every highway,
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.
Regrets, I've had a few, but again too few to mention....
I've loved, I've laughed and cried, I've had my fill, my share of losing,
And now as tears subside, I find it all so amusing,
To think I did all that, and may I say not in a shy way,
I did it my way."
No comments:
Post a Comment