Mid-Life Crisis Songs #95: Wasted Youth

Spring has been particularly glorious this year. Especially the hawthorn blossom, which has exploded. 

The hillside across from us is painted white, like it's been snowing.

Young Galaxy - Youth Is Wasted On The Young

So sang George Bernard Shaw with his 21st Century Canadian dream-pop band... or perhaps I'm mixing up my sources. The insane pop culture reference library that is my brain is getting a little clogged up with an abundance of trivia... no chance of remembering what I'm having for tea tonight then. 

When we’re young, we have all the time in the world… and yet we fritter it away. We don’t realise how valuable it is, because life seems endless. So we do whatever the hell we want and don’t worry about tomorrow. Many’s the pop song that has been written about this subject, but this is the one that best captures that sense of youthful headonism… or it’s the first that springs to mind today, anyway.

Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – We Are Young

I don't recall many nights like the ones Nate Ruess sings about there. A few, I guess, but not as many as most. I spent a large part of my wasted youth chasing the twin fantasies of a radio career and best-selling authordom.

The Colourfield – Castles In The Air

Don McLean – Castles In The Air

Not to mention…

Bob Lind – Elusive Butterfly

Was it a waste? 

No.

Considering how down I’m feeling lately, do I regret my “wasted youth”?

No, that’s not it. After all, as Jim Steinman wrote…

A wasted youth is better by far 
Than a wise and productive old age

Meat Loaf - Everything Louder Than Everything Else

And it's important to remember what Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again." 

The only problem with inspirational quotes (and Crazy Eleanor had a box full of them) is that they don't work on the terminally cynical. Still, they obviously made an impression on Jim...

We've gotta' fast, we were born out of time
Born out of time and alone
And we'll never be as young as we are right now
Runnin' away and runnin' for home

Celebrity Jukebox #75: Dorothy Dandridge

Dorothy Dandridge has been dubbed Hollywood's first black leading lady, and she was the first African American actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Otto Preminger's 1954 movie Carmen Jones. Some call Dandridge the "black Marilyn Monroe" and parallels can be made between the two actresses, particularly that they both died of an overdose at very young ages. Dandridge, however, would never achieve Marilyn-like immortality, because, as she herself explained, “America was not geared to make me into a Liz Taylor, a Monroe, a Gardner.” 

Dandridge started out as a singer in a group called The Wonder Children, later becoming The Dandridge Sisters. Later in her career, she sang in nightclubs such as The Cotton Club. She had a hell of a voice, as evidenced in this clip from Carmen Jones...

How does the jukebox pay tribute to Dorothy? With the usual smorgasboard of too-cool-for-Rol rappers. But she does keep fine company in this duet from Angie Stone and James Ingram...

Who are my people? Dr. Vernon Johns

Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks

Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X

Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mohammad Ali

Sydney Poitier, Quincy Jones

Moms Mabley, Reverend Blake Scott

Aretha Franklin, Reverend Jamal Bryant

Dorothy Dandridge, Richard Pryor

Lena Horn, Samuel Jackson

Nancy Wilson, Magic Johnson

Mahalia Jackson, Smokey Robinson

Angie Stone feat. James Ingram - My People

In total contrast, here's an unusually romantic bunch of punks...

We make our way to the exit before all of the lights go on

Did you think our walk home was gonna end your masquerade

And I tried to keep my cool, but I knew I would cave

I tell you I dreamed you danced

So gracefully

You were like Dorothy Dandridge

And I was dressed like Gene Autry and you wore

Red so well

Red City Radio - Joy Comes With The Morning

Finally, we have this, from a contemporary artist I have some time for since she sang guest vocals on one of the best singles of 2011, We Are Young by fun. She's also a pretty fine actress, as evidenced in the TV series Homecoming and her recent turn in the latest Benoit Blanc whodunnit, Glass Onion. And with this song, she puts Dorothy Dandridge up there with the greats... Bette and Dickie Davis... stars with songs in their eyes.

 

My Top Ten Famous Astronaut Songs

Ground control to Major Tom... can you spot any other famous astronauts up there in your tin can, Dave?



10. Clutch - Spacegrass

Verging on metal, but there's a great bassline here that goes right through you...

Dodge Swinger 1973, Top Down, Chassis Free,

Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong, Or Maybe Just Me.

Don't Worry, It's Coming.

Don't Worry, It's Coming.

Jesus On The Dashboard.

9. SR-71 - Last Man On The Moon

Better than that other band named after a top secret spyplane...

I could never be Neil Armstrong

I'd be the last man on the moon...

8. Robyn Hitchcock - NASA Clapping

As is often the case with Robyn's songs, I don't really have a clue what this is all about, but there will be golf courses on the moon one day if we keep dreaming...

Buzz Aldrin took me by the arm

And said one day that I'd be rich

I think he meant that I was gonna be your lover in his lifetime

And I thought I heard, I thought I heard NASA clapping

7. PJ Harvey - Yuri-G

Polly Jean wishes she was Yuri-G. She's certainly a space case.

6. Lightnin' Hopkins - Happy Blues For John Glenn

Even astronauts get the blues...

People, I was sittin' this mornin' with this on my mind

Said there ain't no livin' man who gone around the world three times

John Glenn done it, yes he did

He did it, I'm talkin' about him only did it for fun

5. Fun Lovin' Criminals - Fun Lovin' Criminal

Huey! Take us into space, my man!

I got so much flavour. . .I always leave you chewin'

I got so many styles you think I'm from the U.N

I broke into the White House and never got caught

And I'd be Neil Armstrong if I was an astronaut

4. Janelle Monae - Sally Ride

Janelle pays tribute to the third woman in space (after Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya... who hasn't, to my knowledge, had a song written about her).

I'm packing my space suit

And I'm taking my shit and moving to the moon

Where there's no rules

See also Ride, Sally Ride by Lou Reed... which I'm guess wasn't about this particular Sally Ride as she didn't even join NASA till 4 years after it was released. Probably has more to do with Mustang Sally.

3. Public Service Broadcasting - Gagarin

From PSB's The Race For Space, which features a number of other astronauts... but none more famous than "the world's first cosmonaut".

See also The Last Flight of Yuri Garagrin by A Flock Of Seagulls which sadly wouldn't quite fit in the landing capsule...

2. Frank Turner - Silent Key

Christa McAuliffe died in 1986 on the Challenger space shuttle, a disaster that had a tremendous effect on a young Frank Turner. Here, Frank imagines her death as showing her the opening to another world... and the message she sends back to earth can only be heard by a young boy over his ham radio...

It came as some surprise to realise that as she lost everything

The world was revealing a transmission so real that she understood everything

You're still alive, you're still alive...

1. The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends

Leave it to Neil Hannon to pay tribute to the first dog in space... and break our hearts in the progress.

Laika flew through inky blue

'Til Laika neared the atmosphere and Laika knew

Laika's life was through...

Absent friends, here's to them,

And happy days, we thought that they would never end,

But they always end.

Any astronauts floating around in your record collection?