Dec 09 2009

Sunny

the first “45” I bought was “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney.  I was age seven, or so, and had a phonograph, and that song ripped me apart.  It must have been the  rapid descent from major to relative minor, because I had no idea what “yesterday” and “troubles” and “far away” meant.  Frankly, I doubt Paul, as a young adult, knew either.  Perhaps there are musical emoticon archetypes to which every human responds.

Here’s another that ripped me up (and still does).  Unlike Yesterday (either straighforwad major/minor stuff), “Sunny,” with its G9s and James Bond intermezzoes was a whole other realm of ambiguity, somehow mixing sincere gratitude and loss in one idea, and then amplifying that idea via consecutive transpositions.

All I know for sure is that the song always got to me.  I didn’t need to learn how to appreciate it.

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  1. I was five when it came out.  I’m one month younger than Obama, so I expect I understand a good part of his cultural experience.

  2. I am completely fond of him, and the rest of you one-eyed piratical HSThompson Doom Porners.  Arrgh.

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