You know...
A million years and a thousand more to that riding were such times ...
Yes, you still won't believe it ...
Men fell in love with women, boys courted girls, boys fought over girls (even though they kept their noses up). Funny, right? Everything then fell into place by itself, although there was not much more order in that old world.
But love - there was definitely more love in him. Because of that very love, they wrote poems, sang songs, stood at night under other people's balconies (depriving both neighbors of sleep and the subject of sighs) and generally committed a great many beautiful and inexplicable stupidities, for which they were almost never ashamed. In that old world...
For example, they went to dances in it. And they were treated to all sorts of burgers and sandwiches with fizz (and it was with a degree). In that same world, they watched movies at night, and then discussed it until dawn. In that very world, it was possible to get a word spoken at the wrong time and out of place.
"Damn! All the same thing is happening now!" - you will say and you will not believe yourself. Because almost nothing of the same thing happens anymore. Or okay - it happens, but only in conditions of the strictest self-control and the most severe lack of emotions.
You need to find two records. Maybe in the closet. Maybe on a tolkuchka. Are there still crushes? That's where you need to find. Vinyl is definitely needed...
Album What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! (Dinah Washington, 1959; Mercury Records).
Album Unforgettable (Dinah Washington, 1961; Mercury Records).
This is the divine, now almost forgotten, albeit named the queen of the blues Dinah Washington - a girl from Tuscaloosa, who was once (and very long ago) called Ruth Lee Jones. She was born in August 1924 - then the onion rings in burgers were no less than those of Saturn, and the Earth rotated at a speed of 78 revolutions per minute. As soon as people stayed on its surface?.. How did air corn and soda machines not fly into space? After all, both of them contained so much alien air ...
You know, it's a text about voice. Never, once you hear these records, you will not be able to confuse her, Dinah Washington, with anyone. It's like she's playing classics and love with you. He sings so correctly, pronounces the lyrics so clearly. Vibrations of the voice. Orchestra. Everything seems (from today) to be some kind of puppet. Not real. After all, "real" people do not know how to do that. "Real" people do not have enough time for this.
And also strength, mind and spirit.
Listen, just listen.
I Remember You, I Thought About You, That's All There Is to That.
This Bitter Earth, I Understand, This Love of Mine, Alone.
Perhaps these are the greatest hits of the world's greatest female vocals. What a pronunciation of human feelings and passions in it.
A flame that cannot be extinguished as long as we humans are alive. Love itself could speak there. If only we humans wanted to hear it.
I return to these records whenever a wave of realization rolls in: how much beauty has been, and is in our imperfect life, whenever only it is not distorted and twisted for the sake of human madness, now called "unprecedented progress of universal tolerance."
If you've lit candles and filled glasses, you'll need some more music: two duets by Dinah Washington and Brooke Benton, Baby (You've Got What It Takes) and A Rockin' Good Way. They often recorded on Mercury Records together - a man and a woman, experienced both in life and in love. They recorded, yes, they sang, it goes without saying, but really...
In that old world, only two people could talk like that - he and she, who had lost their heads from love, who had seen a lot and were accustomed to everything, but who had grown cold in heart. Any two, he and she - I'm not just talking about Dina and Brooke.
Listen to me. Just listen.
And here's another interesting thing: is it really true that soda was a thousand times tastier then? Is it?!
At what a terrible speed our little planet rotated - 78 revolutions per minute. As soon as... Then it slowed down to 45. And then - up to 33 with a third. And then it stopped altogether. Now somewhere all the time is night, somewhere day, and somewhere eternal hopeless twilight.
What to do?
What is our salvation?
Why did it all work out this way?
You know, humanity has become "wiser" and horrified that nothing in the old world was eternal - only love. Even when the eternal two that held hands from the beginning of time disappeared, there was still love after them.
But... New people could not tolerate this. We are almost like gods. And so we stopped time. We tightened the showcases of life with film, twisted the light, added sound and superimposed a joyful picture. And now even the wind does not blow, but in a great many there are specialists who know everything about the wind and know how to swing trees with their hands - in virtual space.
Listen to me.
Just listen...
We have to start the rotation of our Earth again.
Otherwise, why is it all?
Unforgettable
That's what you are
Unforgettable
Tho' near or far
Like a song of love that clings to me
How the thought of you does things to me
Never before has someone been more
Unforgettable in every way
And forever more, that's how you'll stay
That's why darling it's incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable too...
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.