For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim has given us what must rank at first sight as his strangest prompt yet: to play a song about a bike, asparagus, strawberries, eggs, mental health, the elderly or the military. I needed his post Special Awareness Events to explain where that unlikely mixture came from – apparently it is a selection of those special days so beloved by Americans that take place in the merry month of May. So now we know! But, asparagus? That’s just plain weird!

I’ve chosen three songs for today, two from one of my usual suspects related to the theme of ageing, and one by someone I’ve only ever played once before, in response to the ‘military’ part of the prompt.

First up is the tune that I’ve partially borrowed for my title:

The beautiful voice of Mary Chapin Carpenter with Grow Old With Me. As that was a lyric video you may not need them, but just in case you can, of course, find them at genius.com.

As the video showed, this song was written by John Lennon, and originally featured on his posthumous album 1984 Milk And Honey. MCC recorded her version for a 1995 tribute album to Lennon, Working Class Hero, and then included it on her 1999 album Party Doll and Other Favorites, which was a compilation of some of her own songs as a ‘best of’ plus some others that she liked. The song was inspired from two main sources: a poem by Robert Browning titled Rabbi ben Ezra and a song by Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono called Let Me Count the Ways. Browning’s poem is about Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra (1092–1167), one of the great Jewish poets and scholars of the 12th century, who wrote on grammar, astronomy, the astrolabe, and other topics, and its opening line was borrowed by Lennon for his song. The message of this is clear – it says that as we grow older we develop the wisdom that we didn’t have in our younger days, which is a benefit we can share with others when we get to that stage of life. I’m still waiting….

Staying with MCC for my second tune, which is one of her own. I have played this one before for SLS but as that was two years ago and it is such a beautiful song I think a second airing is worth it:

You can find the lyrics here, if you want to see them in full.

Genius.com attributes those to MCC, as does Wikipedia, though for some reason Musixmatch seems to think they were written by Pam Rose, Mary Ann Kennedy and Pat Bunch – I’m staying with this being by MCC! Whoever wrote them, try telling me that those don’t touch at your heart strings. Anyone who has loved and lost, and has lived beyond the age that the departed were back then, can relate to this, as some of the comments on YouTube attest. The video is from a live DVD – Jubilee: Live At Wolf Trap – which was released in January 1996 and spent nearly two years in Billboard’s Top Music Videos chart. Come On Come On was the title track of MCC’s fourth album, which was released in June 1992, and was her breakthrough album in the US, where it reached #31, though it didn’t make the UK charts: she had to await her next release for that to happen. This one also made #6 in the US Country Albums chart, and #4 in the Canadian one. Seven of the twelve tracks were released as singles, though not this one, and all made the US Country chart: four of them were either #2 or #4, and the other three came in between #11 and #16. It is still her best selling album, with sales of around 3m. This was one I bought at the time and have loved ever since. As you will have seen from this, she writes beautiful lyrics from the heart, filled with meaning, and this live performance gives me goosebumps every time I watch it.

As I said earlier, I’m going for the ‘military’ part of Jim’s prompt for my final song of today, though it may not be what he might have had in mind as a tribute! See what you think:

Kate Bush, of course, with Army Dreamers. And genius.com has the lyrics.

I have never been a huge fan of Kate Bush – often a little too twee and whimsical for my taste – but my ex-wife loved her and we had several of her albums including her third, Never For Ever, on which this was featured. It was released on 8 September 1980: it was her first UK #1 album and was the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at #1. It has since been certified Gold in the UK, as it has in Germany, France and The Netherlands. It featured three UK Top 20 singles, of which this was one, peaking at #16 and going Silver in the process.

As you heard, the song is about the effects of war and about a mother who grieves for her young adult son, who was killed on military manoeuvres. Saddened by his unnecessary death, she wrestles with her guilt over what she could have done to prevent it. The music video is one of the few examples of her work that completely satisfies her:

“For me that’s the closest that I’ve got to a little bit of film. And it was very pleasing for me to watch the ideas I’d thought of actually working beautifully. Watching it on the screen. It really was a treat, that one. I think that’s the first time ever with anything I’ve done I can actually sit back and say “I liked that.” That’s the only thing. Everything else I can sit there going “Oh look at that, that’s out of place.” So I’m very pleased with that one, artistically.”

Army Dreamers was one of 68 songs considered inappropriate for airplay by the BBC during the first Gulf War – it looks like it made its point, though sadly it is still just as relevant today, perhaps even more so.

That’s all for today, and as usual I hope that you have enjoyed my selections, and I thank Jim for hosting SLS so well.

I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes – something a little different for you this week. Until then, enjoy your Sunday and Monday 😊