Thursday, November 15, 2007

We Lost Our Starry Notions On The Way. . . .

When I was in high school, the Beatles were big time. (Just like now, only they were all alive, and together, with no Yoko Ono, and it was all still happenin')

When the Beatles left Capitol Records and started their own recording label, Apple, it was big news. When they signed their only female performer, Mary Hopkin, it was even bigger news.

Mary was everything most of us kids wanted to be: beautiful, blonde, talented, and with connections to the Beatles. Her songs were beautiful, too.

This one is especially significant to me. Senior year, when the song was already just a little bit passe, my friends and I nominated it for "Class Song." We thought it was perfect.

Unfortunately, the class president nominated "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye," and it won. Go figure.

Mary Hopkin's "Those Were The Days" struck a chord with me back then, for how could it ever happen that any of us would be older and wiser than we were right now, sophomore year? Was there really anything out there that we didn't already know? We were never going to change; it would always be just as it was today. Time would march on, but we would never change.

Even then, though, something about the song made me sad. But not as sad as it makes me now. . . .