If you live in a city with a large train station and you find yourself with a spare afternoon, I highly recommend sitting in a particularly busy spot and just watching. It doesn’t even have to be a train station; any transportation hub will do – bus terminal, airport, highway on-ramp, whatever.
The point is that it’s interesting to be still and observant in a place where you’re usually moving and distracted. To turn a transitory place into a private theatre filled with 10-second stories that parade past you without even noticing that you’re giving them an audience.
That watching-the-world-go-by feeling is the heart of this song by The Kinks. The narrator watches the Thames flowing by, watches a couple meeting at a train station, watches the sun go down. Neither happy nor sad, just watching. The original is good, but Amy Turnnidge (aka Theoretical Girl) does a wonderful job of capturing the emotion of the aloof observer.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The repeating rhythm of the piano somehow reminds me of the chimes that often come over the PA system in a train system right before an announcement is made.
2. The “ooh” backup vocals in the chorus are like the whistle of a distant train.
3. The original ends on an odd fade-out, and this one ends mid-chord. It’s almost like that passive observer gets jolted out of their reverie and realizes they’ve got to get back to the office.
Recommended listening activity:
Sitting on the stairs halfway between floors.
Download it here.