a country where they turn back time

 

     An article in The Guardian today talked about '90s shows TV should "reboot" -- one Reader Commented, "'Reboot' = creative bankruptcy.  Modern culture is [messed] up enough without these shambling zombies creeping out of their graves.  Christ, 'Fresh Prince'....

     An answering Comment read, "Sorry, but have to stand up for Fresh Prince.  I seriously doubt Malcolm X, Dr King and other such topics had been talked about in such a way before then (at least on UK TV).  

Sure it was a glossy view of life given the LA Riots, etc but it also played into the aspirational feel of the 90s which has been crushed since.  Episode 1 even talks about the need to resolve climate change (albeit as a punchline) - that bit has not aged so well."

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     Has the "aspirational feel" of the '90s been "crushed"?

     Here's something:  in the 1958 romantic comedy Indiscreet, the Cary Grant character mentions climate change -- he says, "They're saying the weather's changing."  Or maybe he says climate instead of weather -- have to check.

     1958.

     Aspirational 1990s.

     2020, Year of the...?

     

On You Tube, type in

Al Stewart, Year of the Cat

and play.

On a morning from a Bogart movie

In a country where they turn back time

You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre

Contemplating a crime

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running

Like a watercolor in the rain

Don't bother asking for explanations

She'll just tell you that she came

-- In the year of the cat

She doesn't give you time for questions

As she locks up your arm in hers

And you follow till your sense of which direction

Completely disappears

By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls

There's a hidden door she leads you to

These days, she says, "I feel my life

Just like a river running through"

-- The year of the cat...

_________________________

"Year Of The Cat" - written by Al Stewart and Peter Wood.  Producer:  Alan Parsons.

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