Lay for the Day 26th May

1999: Waldo Semon, the chemist who, in the late 1920s, in Akron, Ohio, invented polyvinyl chloride – otherwise known as PVC or just plain vinyl – dies at the age of a hundred. It seems fitting that Semon should have attained his century, since 100 is such a popular number with vinyl junkies: the 100 Greatest Singles of All Time, the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time, etc.

That Was Now

There’ll be dancing
In the streets
When there’s more to life
Than trying to make ends meet.
Purple haze,
Here comes the night.
She loves you
In black and white.
That was now
But this is then.
We’re going to have to do
It all again.

I can’t get no
Satisfaction
Out of all this
Replay action.
Time is tight,
Change gonna come.
Baby, let’s play house
Of the rising sun.
That was now
But this is then.
We’re going to have to do
It all again.

Oh you send me
Eight miles high
Good vibrations
And I feel fine.
Do right woman,
Do right man
On a magic bus
To a wonderful land.

Try a little
Tenderness.
These boots were made for
Walking back to happiness.
Something in the air
Like a rolling stone.
Say a little prayer,
Bring it on home.
That was now
But this is then.
We’re going to have to do
It all again.

Words and music by The Children

 

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar