Song Lyric Sunday. The Final Goodbye and Don’t look back.

Good morning and welcome to Jim Adams Song Lyric Sunday . This week’s Theme is picked by Nancy The Scillian storyteller. Nancy’s theme is songs about dealing with God or the afterlife.

There are many songs about meeting your maker, heaven, hell, and near death experiences. Here are some of my favourites and I am sure the will feature today. I have included their Wikipedia links incase they are new to you.
Stairway to Heaven
Knocking on heavens door
Lady Eleanor
Stay with Me.

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The song I have chosen is probably going to be popular today but I am sticking with it because it is the most sincere song and actually video too.
Freddie Mercury died in 1991 . Freddie knew he was dying, you can see he is, you can see he is suffering. He is not only saying goodbye to us all when he looks straight into our eyes he is also looking into the eyes of God. At the end of the beautiful video which shows us the truly heroic effort Freddy made he looks straight into the camera and tells us “I love you” it’s his final goodbye he can see death is waiting. I cry every time I watch the video or hear the song. I love you too Freddie.

“These Are the Days of Our Lives” is a song by the British rock band Queen. Although credited to the whole band, it was largely written by their drummer Roger Taylor, and is the eighth track on the band’s 1991 album Innuendo. You can read more here at Wikipedia

Reminiscing on the past, Roger Taylor penned the song as Freddie Mercury’s health was deteriorating. As a teenager, Taylor had known Mercury since the late 1960s when they worked together at Kensington Market in London before the two (along with Brian May) founded Queen in 1970.The opening chorus in the song reminisces, with “Those were the days of our lives”, while the second chorus refers to the present, “Cause these are the days of our lives”.

“I was sitting at home in a rather reflective mood and I did know that Freddie was ill, and I think it came out of that slightly melancholic mood. I guess I was trying to put an optimistic slant on it in a way—those were the days then. And these are the days of our lives—Today is more important than yesterday.”
 Taylor speaking to Absolute Radio in 2011.

Here is how they made the video.

Sometimes I get to feelin’
I was back in the old days, long ago
When we were kids, when we were young
Things seemed so perfect, you know?
The days were endless, we were crazy, we were young
The sun was always shinin’, we just lived for fun
Sometimes it seems like lately, I just don’t know
The rest of my life’s been, just a show

Those are the days of our lives
The bad things in life were so few
Those days are all gone now but one thing is true
When I look and I find I still love you
You can’t turn back the clock, you can’t turn back the tide
Ain’t that a shame?
Ooh, I’d like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride
When life was just a game
No use in sitting and thinkin’ on what you did
When you can lay back and enjoy it through your kids
Sometimes it seems like lately, I just don’t know
Better sit back and go, with the flow

These are the days of our lives
They’ve flown in the swiftness of time
These days are all gone now but some things remain
When I look and I find, no change

Those were the days of our lives, yeah
The bad things in life were so few
Those days are all gone now but one thing’s still true
When I look and I find, I still love you
I still love you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Brian May / Freddie Mercury / John Deacon / Roger Taylor

These Are the Days of Our Lives lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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A a little aside here is one that is definitely about the afterlife and possibly escaping it . It’s an old one by the Herd.

“From the Underworld” is a single by the English rock band the Herd, released in August 1967. Written by the band’s managers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, the song’s lyrics are based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It became the band’s first hit upon release, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart and launching singer Peter Frampton as a pop star. It was later included on the group’s only studio album Paradise Lost (1968).

The Herd comprising 16-year-old guitarist Peter Frampton, keyboardist Andy Bown, bassist Gary Taylor and drummer Andrew Steele, signed with Fontana Records in early 1967. The band’s live performances were marked by an R&B sound, with Frampton, Bown and Taylor all taking lead vocals However, the band’s managers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, known for their success with Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, positioned Frampton as the frontman. Frampton sang lead on the Herd’s first Fontana single, “I Can Fly”, and later reflected “they didn’t put the Herd on the covers of the magazines, they put me on. And instantly it started discontent in the band. I felt terrible. The die was cast.”

Howard and Blaikley wrote “From the Underworld” before they became involved with the Herd. The partners considered it a more serious work than the hits they wrote for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. LThey compared their approach to that of the English writer Graham Greene, who divided his work into novels and “entertainments”; in a 1967 interview, Howard declared “The Herd are the novels and Dave Dee and co are the entertainments – and that is not meant to be derogatory in any way.”Lyrically, “From the Underworld” is based on the ancient Greek legend of the musician and poet Orpheus, who descends to the underworld to rescue his lover Eurydice, only to lose her when he breaks the commandment given to him by Hades and looks behind during their journey back to the living world. Howard and Blaikley had reportedly learnt the story when studying Latin at University College School, Hampstead. Regarding the song’s Greek mythology theme, Michael Beale of the Birmingham Mail considered the success of Procol Harum‘s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” proof “that there is room at the top of the chart for something different”.

Musically, the song employs an elaborate string and brass arrangement. A fuzz guitar part and trumpet obligato also feature, with a “demonic chorus” and “a most difficult, galloping rhythm”, according to Ray Connolly. It opens with a tolling bell, dubbed “Big Ben, or a near relation” by Peter Jones of Record Mirror. Information from Wikipedia

Out of the land of shadows and
Darkness, we were returning
Towards the morning light
Almost in reach of places I knew

Escaping the ghosts of Yesterday
You were behind me following
Closely
“Don’t turn around now”

I heard you whisper in my ear
“If you should turn now,
All that you won
Will vanish just like a passing dream.

Just on the very verge of the
Morning, daylight was dawning,
Freedom was but a step away
Now with the deep dark river

Behind us,
What could go wrong if I stayed
Strong in mind.
What was the sudden lapse into

Madness, what was the urge that
Turned my head around to look at you?
What was the stubborn will
To destroy the love and the joy

I nearly held?
Three times the thunder roared
In my ears
In all of my years I’ll see that lost

Look in your eyes.
As, with a sigh like smoke in the wind
You slipped from my grasp into
The waiting shadows

So much I longed to say,
But my touch found only the
Empty air and a black nights
Coldness.

Into another world you entered
And never again I can reclaim you.

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Howard Blaikley

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE 🌹💜