In any public place, you’re likely to be surrounded by faces reflecting an unshakeable puzzlement of people who have sleepwalked through life. Songs capture this perplexity. Take “Hier encore” by Charles Aznavour, which has subsequently been translated into a myriad of languages and covered by many artists.
Yesterday, when I was young
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame
The thousand dreams I dreamed, the splendid things I planned
I always built, alas, on weak and shifting sand
I lived by night and shunned the naked light of day
And only now I see how the years ran awayYesterday, when I was young
So many drinking songs were waiting to be sung
So many wayward pleasures lay in store for me
And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see
I ran so fast that time and youth at last ran out
I never stopped to think what life was all about
And every conversation I can now recall
Concerned itself with me, me and nothing else at allYesterday, the moon was blue
And every crazy day brought something new to do
I used my magic age as if it were a wand
And never saw the waste and emptiness beyond
The game of love I played with arrogance and pride
And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died
The friends I made all seemed somehow to drift away
And only I am left on stage to end the playThere are so many songs in me that won’t be sung
I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue
The time has come for me to pay for yesterday
When I was young
Young, young…
Notice that “Yesterday, when I was young” is a poetic conceit discussing his youth. Orbiting this thought is a song by Crosby, Stills & Nash, the first of which is “Wasted on the Way”, regretting the singers’ wasted lives. Another is “We May Never Pass This Way (Again)” by Seals & Crofts. These songs tweak our understanding by reminding us in a painful, yet melodious way, that we are all swept along by life’s pressures and events.
Imagine that one is aware of this trend early enough to avoid it and attempts to sidestep this fate. However, there’s a danger on the other side of mindless snarling rebellion, in the vein of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”.
Finally, there are musical styles such as Portuguese fado, characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics that straddle the loss of one’s true love and the loss of Portuguese influence in the world, such as Latin America supplanting Portugal as the center of Portuguese culture. In all of these, the “once upon a time” is at the level of youth, one’s romance and eventually life, which “never comes again”.
Perhaps the most sobering line in popular music is “all we are is dust in the wind” (from “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas). One might benefit from a moment of quiet reflection on this lyric.