Covid Island Discs

Day 454: Twilight, Electric Light Orchestra

This song is pretty technofunky and captures very much the music of the 80s. I still remember so clearly when this album came out. My brother bought the album for me on vinyl and I literally played this song over and over for about a week. At the time I was off school with shingles and I remember sitting on the sofa in our house which was 55 Gurney Street Seaforth Australia looking out at the glorious views of Sydney middle harbour while listening to Time, the ELO album which contained this song.

Yet there was another song on the Time album called “21^st century man”. A line from that song that also stood out to me was: “I wish I was back in 1981” (the year I was actually listening to the song). I remember at the time wondering what my life would be like in the 21^st century and to be frank, I now realise this line would turn out to be prophetic, at least in relation to my life. When I compare the simplicity of the 20^th century; without the knowledge of global warming, the constant battle with computers and passwords, the tribalism of social media, the success of right wing political parties despite the continued dramatic growth in wealth inequality, or the bullying woke cancel culture of the left, it is hard not to pine for those distant days when life just seemed to be so much easier to negotiate in so many ways.