This was last night’s last skit. I hope everyone caught it. I was amazed that with a simple, off-center concept they were able to get such a hearty laugh out of me, and I don’t laugh at much anymore. This tickles my weakness for the absurd while awakening nostalgia for good times and loud, dated rock. The music may not be deathless, but more than a few of us in the hi-fi generations will go to our rest with song lyrics in our heads and perhaps on our lips. One can only hope we quote from Astral Weeks and not Live at Budokan, though, given my early fondness for Cheap Trick, the latter is more likely to escape my mouth.
Remembered lyrics can enrich our last moments and also, sadly, shape how we misperceive the world. I was reminded of this in church this week when the congregation sang Elvis Presley’s favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art” and these words from the first verse rolled across the jumbotron, “I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder…” I was flooded with thoughts, not of the vastness of God, but first, of the American bombing campaign in the Vietnam War with a name inspired by those words, and second, of the Dylan tour named for the bombing campaign named after the hymn lyrics.
And the Bachelor parody cold open was inspired as well.
