For some unknown reason, I had a Rod Stewart phase. "Young Turks", "The Rhythm of My Heart", and "Forever Young" were some of my favorites. "Maggie May" was not--is not--and never will be. I don't know why--I have an irrational dislike of it for some reason. Perhaps it is because I never think the guitar introduction (which I DO like) goes with the rest of the song. But that's another story.
"Forever Young" is a sweet song about wishing someone well and always remembering them. According to Rod Stewart himself, it is a song about his children. Very sweet.
The confusion in my younger mind came in the second verse of the song where he sings this puzzling line:
"Build a stairway to heaven where the princes are all fat and bald."
What does that even mean? Heaven is great because everyone is a prince and they have plenty to eat and they don't need to brush their hair? Maybe it's a weird reference to Yul Brynner?
Well. Of course that isn't the line. It is this:
"Build a stairway to heaven with a prince or a vagabond."
Honestly, I'm still not quite sure what that means. Perhaps he's telling his children to be kind to all sorts of people whether of high or low estate.
Well, at least vagabonds are sweeter than fat, bald princes. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment