A Journey Through Musical Time
Picture: The four-sided clock at London's Waterloo railway station from the mezzanine balcony, 8.41am 15th September 2021 / Credit: The Hub
Time has a beginning, middle and end. Yes? No! Einstein believed Time is relative and depends on speed through space. So is linear Time merely a figment of our human imaginations? Welcome to the musical Time Warp!
Join The Hub on a 6 hour and 50 minute journey through Musical Time in five genres. The sands of time measure the spans of our lives. We attach numbers to mark the time we spend on this earth with phrases like teenagers and twenty somethings instantly defining our stage in life. Those life numbers confer legal status, the ability to marry or vote and even determine when we retire from gainful employment.
YouTube video: Logan's Run. thirty-nothing
An extreme form of the 'retire when your time is up' idea is expressed in 70s sci fi pic Logan's Run. Rotten Tomatoes introduces the movie with: "In the year 2274, young residents enjoy an idyllic, hedonistic lifestyle within the protective confines of a domed city."
Starring youthful versions of Michael York and Jenny Agutter, mankind has evolved an apparent nirvana where life is sweet and every need is catered for. The catch is citizens have to voluntarily submit to a public euthanasia ceremony on their 30th birthday to provide space for new-borns, keeping society in population and resource balance.
Inevitably, York and Agutter rebel and the movie's most memorable moment comes when they meet Time in the form of an elderly Peter Ustinov. Fascinated, Agutter asks cautiously if she can touch his wrinkles. Prompting Ustinov to exclaim: "Oh my!"
In the next sections Joni Mitchell singing Both Sides Now displays both sides of the Logan's Run time divide via her 25 year old and 56 year old personas.
Both Sides Now: 1969
YouTube Video: Joni Mitchell sings Both Sides Now on The Mama Cass Show in 1969
Joni Mitchell performed Both Sides Now live on The Mama Cass Show in 1969, a classic early-Mitchell folk guitar and soprano voice performance of a song first recorded by Judy Collins. Mitchell released the song as a single in autumn 1968 and as the final track on her second studio album Clouds on May 1, 1969.
In the voice of Mitchell's 25-year-old persona, the reflective on life and love lyrics had a forward looking effect towards her future as an adult woman.
I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all
It's life's illusions that I recall I really don't know life I really don't know life at all
Both Sides Now: 2000
YouTube video: Joni Mitchell sings Both Sides Now in 2000
At an all-star tribute on 16 April 2000 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Joni Mitchell performed Both Sides Now accompanied by a 70-piece full orchestra. Among the performers were Cyndi Lauper, James Taylor, Cassandra Wilson, Richard Thompson, Shawn Colvin and Elton John. An edited videotape of the event was shown on the TNT cable TV network.
This time, Mitchell sang the re-recorded deep-voiced jazz ballad version of Both Sides Now from the 2000 album of the same name. Vince Mendoza won a Grammy for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying A Vocalist" at The 43rd Grammy Awards (2000). The same lyrics with the new arrangement and Mitchell's 56-year-old voice gave the song a nostalgic feel of a look back on time past.
I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all
It's life's illusions that I recall I really don't know life I really don't know life at all
Listen to Time
The Time playlist was presented by The Hub on The Theme Show, a Facebook Live Wednesday evenings 8-10pm show, to a global audience of friends and family during Lockdown #1.
Genres and performers: Rock & Pop (Led Zeppelin to Clean Bandit); UpBeat (Prince to Paul Oakenfold); Lounge Room (The Cure to Crowded House); Classical (Vivaldi Recomposed by Max Richter to Peter Sandberg) and Ballads (Enya to Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes).
You can listen to The Hub's Time playlist by clicking on the link below.