Buitenzorg
15th Dec 2004, 00:03
Last of the truly great songs?
Bumping along a near-continuous series of potholes after helping the engineers track and balance until 20:30, and it’s Rod Stewart on the radio, crooning “what a wonderful world”. Again. Yeah, right mate, with a socking big mansion in the Hollywood Hills, who wouldn’t say so? But I can’t get that song out of my head, and start thinking of Louis Armstrong’s version (creditable effort by Mr. Stewart, but Satchmo’s is the definitive one, no contest), even next morning as an hour before sunrise I bump and slam and hammer my way back over the same excuse for a road to do the high-speed track flights before the day’s program starts.
And then… She comes to hand like a fine horse, and we blast off the pad into the rays of the rising sun reflecting on the clouds offshore, and there they are, just off the pad playing in the surf, surprised by the early bird, and does she ever do justice to that bikini, and bank hard left to say hi, startled look from the engineer who’s heads down with the Chadwick until he sees them flash by 20 feet below, and the world is green and blue on the left and blue and white and pink on the right and man you can see forever this morning…
And I think to myself… Are those guys ever right or what…
Bumping along a near-continuous series of potholes after helping the engineers track and balance until 20:30, and it’s Rod Stewart on the radio, crooning “what a wonderful world”. Again. Yeah, right mate, with a socking big mansion in the Hollywood Hills, who wouldn’t say so? But I can’t get that song out of my head, and start thinking of Louis Armstrong’s version (creditable effort by Mr. Stewart, but Satchmo’s is the definitive one, no contest), even next morning as an hour before sunrise I bump and slam and hammer my way back over the same excuse for a road to do the high-speed track flights before the day’s program starts.
And then… She comes to hand like a fine horse, and we blast off the pad into the rays of the rising sun reflecting on the clouds offshore, and there they are, just off the pad playing in the surf, surprised by the early bird, and does she ever do justice to that bikini, and bank hard left to say hi, startled look from the engineer who’s heads down with the Chadwick until he sees them flash by 20 feet below, and the world is green and blue on the left and blue and white and pink on the right and man you can see forever this morning…
And I think to myself… Are those guys ever right or what…