Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Life In The Air Age

For the last several months, I've been meaning to share with you a song that changed my life profoundly. Unfortunately, I've never found the right time, or the right place.

But recent events have forced me to consider abandoning this lowly and nearly frozen blog. And having considered it, I now find myself embracing [or embraced by] the idea.

So it's now or never... One last song before I go... And a fond farewell to all four or five of my regular readers...

Bill Nelson wrote this and recorded it with his band, "Be Bop Deluxe", in the early 1970s. It could have been written yesterday.

Life In The Air Age

Beneath the stars there are the bars
that serve the bitter drink
the barman smiles at me,
his wife she gives a secret wink ...
They listen patiently to me,
my story I unfold.
I see their faces change,
the lights grow dim, I'm losing hold...

I used to be a boy,
my heart was young and supple then
Now it's stoney cold,
I'm old and I could use a friend...
My world is not like yours,
I come from somewhere long ago
Now there's no way back,
I'm lost and I feel so alone...

You can leave me in the air age if you like
but I'd dearly love to go back to my own time

Life in the Air Age
isn't all the brochures say
Life in the Air Age
it's too dangerous to stay
Life in the Air Age
airships crashing every day into the bay

Life in the Air Age
it's all highways in the sky
Life in the Air Age
all the oceans have run dry
Life in the Air Age
it's grim enough to make the robot cry