All one has to do is read history books, the Bible, or any chronology of the world to find out there were injustices abounding, people suffering and the rich and powerful taking advantage of those that didn't have the means of power. There were wars and to the victors went the spoils. The wealth of the defeated nation was plundered, the women raped and many of the young and healthy taken into slavery. All of this persisted and still persists today but there was a time when this didn't exist for me. The time was as I was emerging from my feeling of captivity of being a young child completely depended upon my parents into an emerging adult. I had gone through it all, elementary and high school. I had my first job. I was meeting different people outside of my neighborhood cocoon and they included beautiful young women. It was a time when youth did spring eternal. It was a time when things were a bit easier, smoother and much gentler. Everything was for the first time and it all tasted sweeter. One never gave thought of what might happen ten or twenty years from "now" because we all had many years ahead of us. The experience was for today and what might follow we would deal with as the events led us to the happenings.
The guys would talk about the girls but they would keep the discussion on a very high level for the ones who were considered to be "good" girls. There was always mystery connected with the female gender. What they did in preparation for the workweek necessitated them staying home on Sunday nights. Every month there was a reason they didn't feel well or had cramps or whatever. The guys would make crude jokes about this but down deep they didn't want to know any details. Down deep the guys wanted to keep the feminine mystique as something to be discovered as one unraveled any mystery, a step at a time.
Love in this time was as romantic as love could be starting out with loving from afar but melting under the close association of two healthy young bodies. This love was never brought down to the level of the streets. This love was held in high regard and romanticized to the utmost in popular song by the singing artists of the day as they either listened or danced the slow touching dances of the day such as the Fox Trot. Some of the love songs of the day were "Suddenly Its Spring", "I'd Love To Get You On A Slow Boat To China",
Moonlight Becomes You" among many that had the right words of suddenly falling in love or forlorn love sung by the crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dick Haymes.
Nat (King) Cole was a jazz pianist turned singer that epitomizes the smooth, gentle style of the day for us young lovers. His smooth voice offered such hits as "Mona Lisa", "Unforgettable", "My Funny Valentine" among hundreds of hits but the one I think could give you an idea of the time and frame of mind I am referring to is "Its Only A Paper Moon". It is about a guy (not a girl not back then) who is trying to tell his girl how much she means to him. The guy uses many metaphors but what he is saying in the mushiest, craziest of terms is that if anything is make believe it would stop being so if only she'd believe in him. His plea is without her love, everything would be worthless even the whole world and it is implied he would be devastated. There is nothing in this song pleading for her love that says he wants to bed her down or he holds her in disdain. This song is about everything love should be about in a romantic way, which somehow in today's world the idea seems lost which is a pity.
I invite you to read the following lyrics of "Paper Moon" and then go to UTube to listen to Nat (King) Cole's rendition of it and close your eyes and step back into a time when the world was younger, romantic and in many ways nicer.
Say it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Say it is only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without your love,
It's a honky-tonk parade.
Without your love,
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.
It's a barnum and bailey world,
Just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without your love,
It's a honky-tonk parade.
Without your love,
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.
It's a barnum and bailey world
Just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
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