In The Year Of '39

One of my favorite Queen songs is '39.  In it, a group of space explorers go on what they believe to be a  year-long voyage.  However, when they return, a hundred years have passed due to the time dialation effect in Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  So, the loved ones they left when they embarked on their journey are dead or aged beyond recognition.

Brian May, who composed and sang the lead vocals for the song, had studied astrophysics before embarking on his music career.  He has always insisted that '39 is "a science fiction folk song" (hmm...) and denied any political, social or historical references.  But it's difficult to hear the song without thinking of the year 1939, after which the world would not be the same because nobody who survived would be innocent (if they ever were) again.

They would never again be like these boys, who were discussing what would be the last Tour de France for another seven years:

Photo by Robert Capa

 

Topless Or Fat-Bottomed?

If you're my age, or older, you remember the hoopla that accompanied the release of Queen's album Jazz.  It's the one that includes, among other songs, "Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottomed Girls", which were also released as a "double-A side" single record.  

To promote the record and album, Queen staged a bicycle race with 65 nude young women:

I'm in the third row, fifth from the left.

As you can imagine, they had to retouch that photo (There was no Photoshop in those days!) any number of times to keep from running afoul of various local decency laws.  

Fast-forward thirty-five years:  Within the past month, dozens of municipalities--including Portland, San Francisco and Mexico City--staged massive nude bike rides.

I was almost tempted to find such a ride.  The weather has been so hot here!  That got me to thinking about one thing I can't do now that I could do until a few years ago.

You guessed it:  riding topless!  Actually, back when I was the "before" photo, I very rarely rode without a jersey or some other kind of top.  For one thing, I have always looked better with clothes than without. (Most people do. Trust me, I know!)  But, more to the point, I have fair skin and therefore burn easily.  And I always found sunburn on my shoulders, neck and back to be particularly painful. That, by the way, is also the reason why I almost never rode in a tank top or sleeveless jersey.  

But, one day, I just might ride au naturel.  If I'm doing it with a hundred other cyclists, maybe nobody will notice.  They just might compliment my bike!

Gerald Is A Good Mouse Because I've Got A Bike

I know a mouse and he hasn't got a house.
I don't know why I call him Gerald. 
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.

Would you believe the above stanza is from a song about bicycling?  Well, it's sort of about bicycling, anyway.

You wouldn't need to believe it--you'd know it--if you were a Pink Floyd fan.  What's more, you'd know that Syd Barrett was probably the only one who could've pulled it off.  At least he could before the drugs destroyed him.


I heard "Bike" today for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long.  It doesn't, like most of PF's music from their early (pre-Dark Side of The Moon) albums, doesn't get much airplay these days.  One reason, of course, is that it doesn't have the polished, orchestrated sound of the songs on DSTM and later albums.  Also, I think this song and others from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn are even more surreal, but not dreamier, than other psychedelic music of the time.    It's not the sort of thing people tune into "Golden Oldies" or "Classic Rock" stations to hear.


All right.  You didn't come to this site to read half-baked commentary about music.  The reason I'm mentioning Bike is that hearing it made me realize how few songs (popular ones, anyway) there are about bicycling.  It seems that about the only one most people know is Queen's Bicycle Race.  

By Golden Bird

I wonder why that is.  After all, there's a pretty fair amount of visual and graphic art, as well as literature, about cycling.  Or, at least, bicycles or bicycling are at least part of the material for those works.  As I'm not a musician, I couldn't make a song about two-wheeled trekking.  I have written a couple of poems about cycling; I suppose I could write one that someone could set to music.  

I know that many cyclists (I include myself among them) are avid readers and writers, and I know of at least a few (including Lovely Bicycle's "Velouria") who are photographers, painters and artists of other kinds.  So it seems natural that we'd have literary and visual works about cycling.  However, I've known more than a few cyclists who were musicians, and Eric Clapton is known to have a passion for cycling.  So why the apparent dearth of songs and music about cycling?


What do you think, dear readers?