MARY HOPKIN - Postcard 1969

All music (IMHO) is nostalgia. Even the newest song or piece of music you hear and enjoy today is immediately filed away and by tomorrow it's a memory of where you were when you first heard it, or who you were with or what you were wearing or if it rained.

Some people have that same reaction to food or to smells. For me, memories are evoked by music. Some songs are ABOUT those memories, so not only do they remind us of our own past, they also draw pictures of another past, one that we didn't live but can identify with.

The Beatles sang 'In My Life' telling us that 'There are places I'll remember, all my life, though some have changed' and we knew that feeling.

Verdelle Smith painted a scene of an idyllic childhood of meadows and laughter and lilacs, but at the end everything had been covered by 'Tar and Cement'.

Frank Sinatra starts his song when he was seventeen and 'It Was a Very Good Year'. By the fourth verse he is in the autumn and thinks of his life as vintage wine, but looking back, the wine poured sweet and clear and even then 'It Was a Very Good Year'.

And so to Mary Hopkin. Often thought of as a one-hit wonder, she did in fact have a number of charting songs and came very close to winning at the Eurovision. Her 1968 release, 'Those Were The Days' is her best known and most popular song but immediately the title puts us into that nostalgic frame of mind. The English words are credited to Gene Raskin but it is originally a "Russian romance song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" ("Дорогой длинною", literally "By the long road"), composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevsky. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic idealism."

"Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way"

Mary was one of the first artists signed to the newly formed Apple Label and the album was produced by Paul McCartney. Oddly, the original UK album didn't include 'Those Were the Days' but it was on overseas versions. Also included were three songs written by Donovan, one by Harry Nilsson as well as the Gershwins and Irving Berlin. Donovan, McCartney and George Martin appeared as musicians on the album.

The song choices were mainly down to McCartney and weren't necessarily the best. Critics felt her voice was better suited to more simple folk songs.

This isn't really a review of an album, it's more a statement about the way music in general makes me feel, and how some specific songs take that to another level.

Mary should not be known for just one song. She did more, and she did it well. Search it out.

Those Were the Days