Sunday 5 June 2011

what will happen next?



Wandering around Lord's the last couple of days, I had this thought: how many of these nice old boys, if you asked them, would say that A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square was their favorite song? It was my dad's, and it is quite a lot of my friends' dad's. I bet hundreds of the MCC members would be in the same boat. It's hard to know quite why, good as the song is. It clearly hits a sweet spot.

Anyway:
a) Are me and all my male friends get older, are we going to fall in love with ANSIBS? Seems unlikely.
b) What is going to happen to the song? Presumably it'll just become just another in the canon, without this extraordinary ability to make 60-80 year olds misty-eyed.
c) Is there a decent but not great song that will have a similar status for people like me? Will it be (oh. my. god.) Angels? I have never really been able to bear Angels - something about it bugs me though I can't say what - but lots of people I was students with it lose all touch with sense when it is played.

(I am loving Phil Tufnell and Henry Blofeld on TMS talking about how important it is to let meat rest before you carve it.)

4 comments:

Matthew said...

Interesting question. You are talking about men, which must change the dynamic. I considered U2 (With or Without You) or Coldplay (perhaps Yellow or Fix You). My personal choice would be There is a Light the Never Goes Out (the Smiths). For all round, across-the-board appeal, however, I would respectfully suggest Wonderwall. *ducks rotten tomato*

Miss Pear said...

If karaoke nights are anything to go by, the song of choice for this particular male generation is 'Angels' by Robbie Williams.

God help us all.

Miss Jones said...

I did not realise there was a connection between men of a certain age and ANSIBS but you must be right - my dad loved it too (although his favourite, he once told me, was Georgia On My Mind). You ask three very good questions, but I don't have answers to any of them. Sorry about that.

slepkane said...

It is of course what Mark serenades Sophie with, by the lake in Peepshow, which gives me hope. Currently I think Noah and The Whale's "Five years' time" might have legs.