Time's Marching On

It's really hot in the Ottawa area this week. It was 29C yesterday and with the humidity felt like 37C. There's not much to do but sit under the fan or, with the aid of a couple of noodles (hey, that's what they call them - for my Brit friends, it's a woggle), float around the pool. The water temperature was 32C which works out to 90F. No twerkin' for this fella this week.

Needless to say one's mind kinda turns to mush and maybe it was sunstroke or sumpin' but after a while my mind started to wander. Then I popped open a Corona and I sat down to pull this post together.

I think I've made reference to this before but I'm at a certain age where it crosses my mind now and then - or maybe I'm at an age where I forget that I've mentioned it before - and that's the lyrics to that Leonard Cohen tune Tower of Song where he goes...

Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey

I ache in the places where I used to play

It's a great song and a great line. I love Cohen. I've got several of his CDs and I saw him perform a couple of years ago at Ottawa's National Arts Centre and when he hit the verse that goes...

I was born like this, I had no choice

I was born with the gift of a golden voice

...the audience erupted into claps, hoots and hollers because they immediately got the joke and the joke was on us. I don't think anyone would call Cohen's voice golden but it nevertheless is haunting, mesmerizing even.

But as I get older I often think of those lyrics - not the golden voice ones - those other ones.

And when I start thinking about them I get a little maudlin because it seems time has flown so quickly. You know the song September of My Years? Frank Sinatra sang it. The first verse goes...

One day you turn around, and it's summer
Next day you turn around, and it's fall
And suddenly, all the springs and winters of a lifetime
Whatever happened to them all

That's quite apt when you think of it. Well, it is when I think of it. 

But, hey, lest you think I'm always down in the dumps about these things I'm really not. Oh, no. Hey, one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs is Forever Young. And, let me tell you, it's a great philosophy. The last verse goes...

May your hands always be busy

May your feet always be swift

May you have a strong foundation

When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful

And may your song always be sung

May you stay forever young

At the risk of scaring most of you away - because good old Bob can be an acquired taste - here he is performing the song in the movie The Last Waltz with The Band in 1976... Two versions of the song were originally released on his Planet Waves album in 1974.

May you all stay forever young. 

Time for another Corona. Stay stupid my friends. We'll see you next week.