Every day on Facebook for the past four days, I have been doing this “share a cover of an album that made an impact on you, that you still play today, even if only now and then”. Well, today’s one I felt I wanted to share beyond FB. Part of the idea of it is just to share the album cover. You don’t have to go in the details of why it means what it does to you…but I wanted to for this. Maybe because it impacted on me when I was so young.
I must have barely been 5 years old the first time I heard it. The opening track I remember always blowing me away…all the sounds on it, the bird song…just the hubbub and sound of life. Chaos. A bit like Kooyanisqatsi before its time. But, I would always listen to it from start to finish. The very epitome of a “concept” album. Unknown to me then, of course.
I listened to it last night for the first time in…at least 5 years (I do still listen to it from time to time) – and…I could not escape its gleaming optimism. Trying to take myself back to my five year old mind. All that optimism lost on me then because I had it in SPADES! I was five years old! I DID believe anything was possible then. I believed wholehearted the sentiment in the title track: “Look at me I can dance, I can sing / let my make like a bell, let me ring / I can run, I can jump, I can shout / I’m turning on my own roundabout – I’ll live my life and be free / I’ve got my eyes I can see / I’ve got my mind and I’m me / I’ll live my life and be free”….
But it wore away. A plethora of things led to its diminishing.
The final track with lyrics is just as shining in optimism, Where Do We Go? “The past is always over when it’s only just begun / you can’t look over your shoulder to try and find your fun / your dreams can always come true if you believe your mind / the thoughts that you thought would never be could come down from the sky – where do we go? Where do we go? If we don’t believe in tomorrow / where do we go?”
I know I’ll get a caning for choosing a Sherbet album – a “girly” band that only wrote ballads and did “Howzat?” Yes, there’s a ballad on the album…but there are some fruitier things too (and how much did I love singing along to that “don’t give me none of that bullshit” line as a kid! Lol). It’s not the BEST album in the world…but it was part of my childhood…a big part…and I still have the biggest soft spot for it…and god knows I can do with more of that optimism now.
It’s on Spotify…give it a listen…if for no other tracks than for “Life…Is For Living”, “Just Being You” and “Where Do We Go?”
