Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Songtown - Vol. 9 (This Will Be Our Year)

Artist: The Zombies
Song: This Will Be Our Year
Album: Odessey and Oracle
Year: 1968
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I'm not going to lie and tell you that I don't think that "Auld Lang Syne" isn't a beautiful song. [A lot of negatives there. What exactly am I trying to say?] I don't entirely know what we're singing about. To me, it appears there's a lot of talk about forgetting and maybe dying or something. That said, its got a nice melody and any song where you and 30 of your closest friends and family huddle together in a chorus gets at least a couple points in my book.

That said, sometime in the near future, I'd like to at least give "This Will Be Our Year" a chance to usurp that one.

The warmth of your love's
Like the warmth from the sun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come...

Don't let go of my hand
Now the darkness has gone
This will be our year
Took a long time to come...

And I won't forget
The way you helped me up when I was down
And I won't forget
The way you said "darling, I love you"
You gave me faith to go on
Now we're there
And we've only just begun
This will be our year
Took a long time to come...

The warmth of your smile
Smile for me, little one
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come...

You don't have to worry
All your worried days are gone
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come...

And I won't forget
The way you helped me up when I was down
And I won't forget
The way you said "darling, I love you"
You gave me faith to go on
Now we're there
And we've only just begun
This will be our year
Took a long time to come...

And this will be our year
Took a long time to come...

You might be saying, "Dude. New Year's was two weeks ago. Why are you just getting around to writing about this song now? Why wasn't this the first song that you wrote about?" Well, that's a valid point and I don't have a real answer for you. So, instead I'll offer this:

Why should we wait until New Year's Eve to sing this one? If it were up to me, we'd be singing this one at the end of every night. There's no better song that paints a picture of hope for the future. Sure, last year sucked, yesterday sucked, whatever time period sucked...but now, we're putting the pieces together and this year is finally gonna be the one. Optimism!

The song is nice and short. The lyrics are simple enough so that if you don't know it, you can watch the words forming on your loved one's lips and figure out where its going. And how about, "Darling, I love you. You gave me faith to go on!"? The vocal performance here is pretty relaxed and calm aside from that line. And lo and behold as that line comes approaching, you won't be able to help yourself from belting it out. All great sing-a-long songs have that moment. The one moment in the song that you that you look forward to from the opening notes. You can just imagine how you and yours will be all smiling at each other as you all raise your voices and ham that part up.

Instrumentally, the Zombies aced this one. The drums and piano play perfect counterpoints to each other, as the guitar and bass subtly fill in the rest of the spectrum. That said, I feel like this would be terribly difficult to replicate so perfectly, so...again...all great sing-a-long songs don't require anything more than a bunch of jokers standing in a circle singing their little hearts out. And this one is perfect for that.

Alright. Maybe I'll have to type up another one of these later on. Because this one...[stage directions: the blogger yanks at his collar with his index finger.]


2 comments:

ricksterb said...

I feel like I recommended this song to you, and you didn't know what I was talking about. Anyhow, this is also one of my favorite songs and I agree that it is uplifting and filled with just general good feelings. While I agree that the charm of the original can't quite be captured by anyone else, I can think of two cover versions of this song that I had heard well before I ever heard the original. I'd say that both are nice little versions and each proves that "This will be our year" holds up based on content alone.

Chris said...

If you recommended this before January 07, I'd say your memory stands correct.