Side by Side by Wallowing in it
May. 6th, 2013 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceTwo thirds of my life ago - very possibly to the month - I first visited the house that changed my life, where I met Jay and Philippa and Phil and Dean. Jay died last year, and that's a thing; Philippa is now married to Mike, who was staying here last week, and that's a different thing. Phil I haven't heard from for too long, which is another thing; and Dean I haven't heard from for significantly longer, and that's another kind of thing, but it was because of Dean that I moved to Newcastle thirty-two years ago, with all that that implies. Which is all my life since then, basically, that implication...
Anyway: I was eighteen and they weren't, and they introduced me to many things that an eighteen-year-old ought to meet in the company of people older and smarter than himself; they taught me to drink, and to smoke, and and and. They lent me books, and played me music. And in between the Edith Piaf and the George Crumb, they not so much exposed as revealed me to Stephen Sondheim. Since when he has been one of my criteria, and I love all his works almost without reservation - but Side by Side by Sondheim is what I heard first, and what I loved first, and you know all about first loves.
So here I am thirty-six years later on the other side of the world, and I just dug out my copy of Side by Side...; and while I cook and drink and wait for the yogis, I am playing it loudly and singing along. And yes, I still remember every word; and yes, it still does the thing that it always did. Two pianos, three voices, one overarching wit. It's extraordinary, and extraordinarily effective. And sunk like a harpoon in my soul, seemingly. 'Scuse me, I need to get back...
Anyway: I was eighteen and they weren't, and they introduced me to many things that an eighteen-year-old ought to meet in the company of people older and smarter than himself; they taught me to drink, and to smoke, and and and. They lent me books, and played me music. And in between the Edith Piaf and the George Crumb, they not so much exposed as revealed me to Stephen Sondheim. Since when he has been one of my criteria, and I love all his works almost without reservation - but Side by Side by Sondheim is what I heard first, and what I loved first, and you know all about first loves.
So here I am thirty-six years later on the other side of the world, and I just dug out my copy of Side by Side...; and while I cook and drink and wait for the yogis, I am playing it loudly and singing along. And yes, I still remember every word; and yes, it still does the thing that it always did. Two pianos, three voices, one overarching wit. It's extraordinary, and extraordinarily effective. And sunk like a harpoon in my soul, seemingly. 'Scuse me, I need to get back...