“Those Were The Days”: An Appreciation
“Those Were the Days” -- Mary Hopkin. Oh, geez. Those of us who were born in the early 1960s (the tail end of the baby boom) never had a chance. Not only did nostalgia for decades we had never lived through turn out to be the big trend of our teenage years (not to mention our twentysomething years, our thirtysomething years, etc.), but songs like this were embedded in our memories during childhood, making it almost impossible to enjoy our youth without wondering if we were going to turn out like the poor woman in this song.
My mother used to own an album with this song on it, and even as a child, I had a mixed reaction to this song. Was I supposed to feel sorry for the woman in this song who had apparently seen her youthful dreams slip away like so much dust and ash? Or was I supposed to feel more sorry for her friend, who at the end of the song seemed way too oblivious to realize that he was supposed to feel sad about anything?
And even allowing for the fact that the song is a remake of an old song, how odd is it that this particular version was being sung by a woman who wasn't even yet twenty when she recorded it. Was she waxing nostalgic for junior high? Grammar school? Kindergarten? The womb?
No wonder my generation was so obsessed with nostalgia. Welsh singer Mary Hopkin was already pushing the stuff upon us big time before we were even old enough to have a youth for which we could wax nostalgic.
“Those Were the Days” -- Mary Hopkin. Oh, geez. Those of us who were born in the early 1960s (the tail end of the baby boom) never had a chance. Not only did nostalgia for decades we had never lived through turn out to be the big trend of our teenage years (not to mention our twentysomething years, our thirtysomething years, etc.), but songs like this were embedded in our memories during childhood, making it almost impossible to enjoy our youth without wondering if we were going to turn out like the poor woman in this song.
My mother used to own an album with this song on it, and even as a child, I had a mixed reaction to this song. Was I supposed to feel sorry for the woman in this song who had apparently seen her youthful dreams slip away like so much dust and ash? Or was I supposed to feel more sorry for her friend, who at the end of the song seemed way too oblivious to realize that he was supposed to feel sad about anything?
And even allowing for the fact that the song is a remake of an old song, how odd is it that this particular version was being sung by a woman who wasn't even yet twenty when she recorded it. Was she waxing nostalgic for junior high? Grammar school? Kindergarten? The womb?
No wonder my generation was so obsessed with nostalgia. Welsh singer Mary Hopkin was already pushing the stuff upon us big time before we were even old enough to have a youth for which we could wax nostalgic.
Labels: Generaciones, Mary Hopkin, Música de los Años 1960, Pensamientos Acerca de Música I
posted by Tonio Kruger at 6:26 PM
3 Comments:
Loved the comments about "...Day's"
It's amazing how this song has stayed in the memories of so many people, for so many years...
I wrote a piece about this song take a look if you like.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pat.richmonds/mhfs.htm
The lyrics from Mary's version, were written by an American folkie Gene Raskin, and have no connection with the original russian melody/song "Dorogo Dlinnoyu" (By a long road)
When I listen to older singers Interpreting the song I can see it as "looking back over many, many years"
But when Mary sang it as a "girl" I had always pictured a young women who has left home, friends and family gone off to university and has come back home after only a few years away..
I think even the young can be nostalgic!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Thank you for your comments, temmaharbour.
Your interpretation of the song undoubtedly makes more sense than mine.
A correction will be made in regard to the song's origin.
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