Yesterday I heard The Beach Boys song, Good Vibrations, on the radio and it took me right back to my youth. It came out in 1966….that’ll be 60 years next year! I’d only be 12 when I bought the single. I’ve always loved it. It was innovative and it’s aged especially well. I enjoy it now as much as I ever did.
But, here’s the thing. This time it evoked a certain sadness in me. Something it hasn’t done before. It wasn’t the sadness of getting old. Sure I can feel sad that my mortality is more obvious to me than it was when I was young, but surely that’s just normal, and it’s not something that colours my everyday. Maybe it was a bit of nostalgia – for the years, on the brink of becoming a teenager, enjoying my life with my large group of friends who all shared an enthusiasm for music. There are so many songs from that decade which delight me still….and I read a study recently which suggested the most powerful music for us (neurologically) is the music we listened to between the ages of 15 and 25. Well, those figures are not fixed, for sure, and I’ve read many other studies about the power of music to increase quality of life and slow down cognitive decline, especially the music of our teens and twenties.
But, no, this wasn’t a nostalgia for my teenage years with my friends. It was a nostalgia for America.
OK, I know that every Age is a complex mix of experiences and events, but I grew up through the years where music like the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and so on, created very positive, delightful, moods for me. To be honest, I started with the Beatles, moving on to bands like The Kinks, The Who, Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, and so on. I used to listen to the pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, and the constantly fading out and in signal of Luxembourg, 208. My vinyl collection (yes, I still have those records I bought, mainly through those years), is heavily British, but there are a significant number of American artists in there.
I suppose the kind of feeling I had for America was coloured by that music, by Woodstock, and Peace and Love. And, frankly, those feel like kinder days.
Those feel like lost days.
In 2025, the stories from America are about hatred. Hatred of “immigrants”, and “others”. Stories of turning allies into enemies. Stories of suppression, of arrests and deportations. The UK and several EU countries have changed their travel advice to citizens seeking to go to America – and the message is, even a visa won’t guarantee you entry. I don’t know anyone who is thinking of traveling to America this year. It feels a place of hostility and fear.
So, the sadness I felt when I listened to Good Vibrations, came, I think, from feeling that the vibrations from America now are anything but good.
I’m sure you’ll have a different experience from me. We all have our own experiences. But I thought I’d just take a few moments to share what happened to me. And to hope…..to hope that, one day, maybe in my lifetime, I’ll associate America with Good Vibrations again.
Heroes Not Zombies 