Have you ever had moments which you feel you have been familiar with and often experience, but once you give a bit of further thought, you realise that you actually have not been, and the explanation seems to surprise you? I had it a few times in the last few years. Here I want to share how I re-understand two songs, oldies songs, which as a child I heard quite often from the radio, but didn’t really comprehend.
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“My Way”
I used to think that this is the song you want to sing when you are making resolutions, that this is my way, who cares about your way. But that might be more appropriate for [this My Way], while this My Way is about getting old and having peace with your imminent death, that while you had regrets in the past, all in all you feel satisfied with your life. It has that feeling to be a song for the final victory, a calm victory, that you have overcome all the obstacles in the life when you were younger. This is the kind of song which I want to sing meaningfully when I am old. Now that I mention it, I have been listening to this song a couple of times in one day, and I feel like I am 75.
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“Green Green Grass of Home”
At a glance, this seems to be about how beautiful your hometown is, the nostalgia you experience when you reminisce your village and the green grass in your yard. Well this song does say about those things, but with a twist: that it is impossible for the singer to visit his home again, as he is about to be executed, and he could only wish that after he dies, his remain is to be buried there. Come to think of it, while my hometown is just right here, I have never been to the city I grew up in for over 15 years now, and I am looking forward to seeing it again.
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