My song today is ‘Aquarius: Let the Sunshine In’. This is a medley of two songs that were written for the 1967 musical ’Hair’ by James Rado. Gerome Ragni wrote words and Galt MacDermot wrote the music. It was released as a single by the American R&B group ‘The 5th Dimension’. The song spent six weeks at Number 1 on the US ‘Billboard Hot 100’ pop singles chart in the spring of 1969 and was eventually certified platinum in the US by the RIAA. Instrumental backing was written by Bill Holman and provided by session musicians commonly known as the ‘Wrecking Crew’. The actual recording is something of a rarity, as the song was recorded in two cities, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, then mixed together in the studio. The song listed at Number 66 on Billboard’s "Greatest Songs of All Time.”
This song was one of the most popular songs of 1969 worldwide, and in the United States, it reached the Number 1 position on both the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ and the ‘Billboard Easy Listening Chart.' It also reached the top of the sales charts in Canada and elsewhere. Billboard ranked it as the Number 2 ‘Hot 100 Single’ for the year of 1969. It won the ‘Grammy Award for Record of the Year’ and ‘Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group for the Grammy Awards of 1970. After being published on the album ‘The Age of Aquarius’ by the 5th Dimension, it was released as a seven-inch vinyl single record.
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The lyrics of this song were loosely based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the ‘Age of Aquarius’. This is an age of love, light, and humanity. This change was presumed to occur at the end of the 20th century; however, astrologers differ widely as to precisely when. The exact starting date of this new age is up for debate. Some astrologers suggest it starts on the vernal equinox on March 20, 2021, in the northern hemisphere, while others, such as Kelly, focus on the conjunction that occurred in December 2020.
Ironically, these are the timelines when the COVID-19 pandemic virus struck the global world. Records show that the first case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2019 and was subsequently declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). It came to dominate 2020/2021.
If ever a song was more appropriate in the message to its time, it is ‘Aquarius’. Surely, this pandemic crisis has given every country in the entire world the perfect opportunity to realise that this is the time for the world to heal. This is the time for everyone to stand up and be counted! This is the time for every nation in the world to stand up, and to show all the better side of humankind!
This is the age to show the entire world what humanity stands for, and who humanity stands for? This the age to dispel the ‘us’ and the ‘them’ from the equation, and to focus solely on the ‘we’; for without ‘we’, you and I hold no worth, and all we value is meaningless.
The world has never had a better opportunity to see the benefit by acting like one instead of many different nations. This cruel and pervasive pandemic can provide the opportunity for the world to move towards enlightenment and away from all that is blind, uncaring, and selfish. Perhaps it takes an illness of such magnitude to provide civilisation with the opportunity of discovering what can be achieved when country upon country come together in a single purpose to find an answer to the pandemic problem that attacks us all.
It is only when an individual is struck down sick and becomes a hospital patient that they find out who their true friends are. This is the time when true friends freely offer their help and hold out any kind of assistance that will restore their friend’s good health and sense of well-being. As an individual who has spent many months (indeed, years) being a patient on hospital wards, I have experienced the heartache and social isolation felt by some patients who rarely received hospital visitors bearing gifts, good wishes, and the hope embodied in ‘get well soon’ cards they leave behind. It can be difficult witnessing the ward patient in the next bed being overwhelmed with more visitors than they are allowed when you have had no visitor for several days.
This hospital analogy got me wondering how differently mankind can respond in similar situations? Who are experiencing the same life-threatening problems? It got me to thinking why one country reacts so favourably to a neighbouring nation and is hostile to another? I began to wonder what different consequences we bring about when we decide to walk past a dying hospital patient on a ward without giving them a second glance, yet we smile with pleasure farther down the ward to see our close friend who is occupying a bed on the same ward as the dying patient?
Imagine walking past the dying hospital patient, bearing gifts of two vaccines to fend off Covid-19 that we’re bringing to restore the good health of our friend who is a patient farther down the ward? Are we not engaged in precisely the same situation when it comes to the most pressing issue of our times, the most pressing issue that has ever been? Do we save our vital resource for self and friends or do we share with others to preserve survival?
We live in a world of 'pass the parcel' and 'duck the responsibility'.Take this political bombshell we presently hold in our hands, which could explode anytime. If any country within a world of many countries has more vaccines than that country’s needs, does that country share with other countries who have less than what they need? When vaccines are effective lifesavers, do we share, all available vaccines, or do we stockpile in our own medicine cabinet and ignore all but our closest friends?
How much do we really help ourselves, and how much do we really help our friend in such a situation? Do we help the sick patients on the hospital ward if we blithely walk past a dying Covid patient who has no vaccine, while we carry two and more vaccines in our hand for our best friend to consume and stockpile?
No! It is just like seeing your next-door neighbours’ terrace house on fire. The fire is blazing, and the house shall be burnt down before the Fire Brigade has arrived. Your neighbour is fighting a losing battle, during a drought when it has not rained for over a year and water is extremely rationed across the globe. Your next-door neighbour is fighting the flames alone, and it is only with your help, and having immediate access to the use of your water supply to put out the fire, you may both be able to quench the flames and save the day. Examine this analogy closely. if we do not join forces in our firefight now, then sadly both our houses shall burn down because of ‘selfishness’ on my part, because of being uncooperative. I was not prepared to share our efforts and resources to help him put out his house fire, and the inevitable consequence was that both his and my house were burned to the ground!
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it will have hopefully taught us the advantage of never taking anything for granted ever again, however large, or small. In a world of hidden treasures, the most precious of them all is often found in the most common of things that do not cost the benefactor one penny! If this pandemic has taught us anything, it might even have taught us everything we truly need to know! We will have learned that smiles, touch, contact, proximity to loved ones, comfort, hugs, kisses, embraces, walks with nature, access to everyday things, the observance of family customs, the worth of routines, and work are all essential to our daily happiness, sense of wellbeing and purpose.
It is things of such stuff that fill our treasure chest, and are the greatest of all our human needs. These are the things that really matter in our lives We will have learned that family feeds love, love feeds the soul, and it is only through the act of ‘sharing’ that survival of self is possible.
Unless we recognise that until every person is protected then none of us are protected. We are all doomed to die before our time. Whenever one person in the western world eats two slices of bread where one will suffice, someone, somewhere in the eastern part of the world will starve to death.
If this is the ‘Age of Aquarius’, sharing vaccines and all material things across the world should not be left as an act to soothe the individual conscience, but remain a time of positive action; a time to be, a time to share. If this is not the ‘Age of Aquarius’, then let us usher that Age in and bring on the sunshine. Come on, bring it on and let it in!
Love and peace
Bill xxx