Is it nostalgia? Or does it mean I haven’t given up? Jo
I am pondering those questions as I’m listening to “Abbey Road,” specifically “Something.”
When “Abbey Road,” I was a couple of years shy of the demographic that made it one of the most iconic albums of all time. Still, whatever your age, you heard its most popular songs, like “Come Together,” “Something “ and “Here Comes The Sun” on the radio in 1969. The album is great because of its songwriting, musicianship and the sheer charisma of “The Fab Four.” But it’s also a reminder—or, at least it reminds me—of how what some would see as idle whimsicality is as necessary as analysis. Actually, rationality has nowhere to go without imagination.
The album also reminds me that cynicism is not to be confused with wisdom, and it’s not naive to believe that joy is still possible. If anything, it might simply be an act of defiance: It’s not about not letting go, it’s about not allowing something to be taken from you.
That is not nostalgia. It’s what we need to move forward or, more precisely, what’s necessary to make the journey, whatever remains of it (personally or globally) meaningful.
