Last month, my dear friend and occasional songwriting collaborator, Anne Hills came to town to do a few shows. As both a singer and songwriter, Anne is simply one of the very best.
At one point, Anne pulled out a banjo and sang “Run the Film Backwards”, by the late British folksinger Sydney Carter. Carter (1915-2004) wrote folk songs that were often Christian-themed, and sometimes controversial. His best-known song was “Lord of the Dance”, set to the tune of the Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts”.
As Anne sang “Run the Film Backwards”, I realized that this was the ultimate Changing Aging song! I don’t have a recording handy, but the lyrics go like this:
At the grand old age of eighty-seven they took me from my coffin They gave me a flannel nightshirt that I could travel off in Toothless, old and wrinkled I lay there on my bed And slowly I forgot about the time when I’d been dead The day when I was sixty-five ended my enjoyment I had to put on working clothes and go to my employment Then when I was sixty, I found I had a wife That explained the children – I had wondered all my life I kept on growing younger, growing healthier and stronger Till at the age of twenty-one I had a wife no longer Found myself with younger girls rolling in the clover Till one sad day I woke to find those happy times were over Playing football after school and sausages a-cooking Puffing on a cigarette when the teacher wasn’t looking The trees are getting taller now, the streets are getting wider And Mother means the world to me, soon I’ll be inside her Now in here it’s very dark, nothing can I see I hear the first beats of my heart, I wonder who I’ll be?
And for a powerful sample of Anne’s own music, here’s an audio clip of her beautiful and heartbreaking song,
Al Power is a geriatrician, author, musician, and an international educator on transformational models of care for older adults, particularly those living with changing cognitive abilities. You can follow his speaking schedule at http://www.alpower.net/gallenpower_schedule.htm
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Love Anne Hills’ fluid bell-like voice. She reminded me a bit of Judy Collins. And “Run the Film Backwards” is reminiscent of the wee poem by Norman Glass entitled “Reverse Living” which goes like this:
Reverse Living
Life is tough It takes a lot of your time, all your weekends, and what do you get at the end of it? Death, a great reward. I think that the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live twenty years in an old-age home. You are kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college, you party until you’re ready for high school. You become a little kid, you play; you have no responsibilities, you become a little boy or girl, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating. And you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye.
Love Anne Hills’ fluid bell-like voice. She reminded me a bit of Judy Collins. And “Run the Film Backwards” is reminiscent of the wee poem by Norman Glass entitled “Reverse Living” which goes like this:
Reverse Living
Life is tough
It takes a lot of your time,
all your weekends,
and what do you get at the end of it?
Death, a great reward.
I think that the life cycle is all backwards.
You should die first, get it out of the way.
Then you live twenty years in an old-age home.
You are kicked out when you’re too young.
You get a gold watch, you go to work.
You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You go to college,
you party until you’re ready for high school.
You become a little kid, you play; you have no responsibilities,
you become a little boy or girl, you go back into the womb,
you spend your last nine months floating.
And you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye.