Daniel Boone – Beautiful Sunday

Daniel Boone (born Peter Green, 31 July 1942, Birmingham, England) is a British pop musician who became a one-hit wonder in the U.S. with the single “Beautiful Sunday” in 1972.

“Beautiful Sunday” remains the biggest selling single by an international artist on the Japanese Oricon chart (coming in 19th on the all-time singles sales list with almost 2 million copies sold) and it has also become a popular song among fans of Scottish football club Dundee United.

I carry your heart with me

“I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)

I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows

“Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide”

And this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)”

~ E.E. Cummings

On Thrift : MM Lee Kuan Yew

‘I see no reason why I should impress people by having a big car or changing my suits every now and again to keep up with the latest styles.’

MM Lee is known in Singapore for his simple, down-to-earth lifestyle. He lives in a house which has not been renovated for decades in Oxley Road, prime real estate in the city area. He wears the same worsted wool suits when travelling on planes to go overseas. He was, in a sense, an ecologically conscious consumer long before such a concept became fashionable. Never in favour of the disposable society, he believes in the value of thrift, not over-consuming resources. The day this interview took place, he was wearing a jacket so old, he confessed that the man who tailored it for him had died. His lifestyle is so spartan, he considers it an extravagance for the Prime Minister to wear a new shirt each year for the National Day Rally.

Do you try to recycle?

We haven’t got the system of different dustbins for different items. Our people have yet to understand and would not be able to do it: Bottles, tins, food go into different chutes and bags. We’ll get there sometime.

Another part of being environmentally conscious is not to consume so much, and you’re not particularly a great consumer?

No, I’m not. I eat less, I travel less. I wonder whether I’m right in buying my car. Even if I travelled by the best Mercedes-Benz taxi limousine, it’ll cost me less than what my Lexus is costing me every day. Except that I don’t know what time I’m going to wake up, and take the one kilometre to office, one kilometre back. My car is five years old and it’s only done 20,000km.

In photographs we can see that your wardrobe, your shirts, seem to have been kept for years, decades. You don’t throw away your stuff.

Why should I throw something away which I’m comfortable with? I’m not interested in impressing anybody.

I had a supervisor who taught me criminal law. He used to be a lecturer but, you know, he became old, so he only did supervisions and he had a fireplace that did not give out any smoke because he was gassed in the First World War, and he had a lung problem. He also had a large family. He had leather patches on his coat elbows, knees of his trousers. One student was bold enough to ask him, ‘Sir, are you lacking in clothing?’ He took it gracefully. He laughed and said, ‘That college porter at the gate has to be dressed well. He wears a top hat, always to look smart. I don’t have to dress to impress anybody.’

As I listened to that, I said, ‘It’s inverted snobbery.’ But it makes sense. I see no reason why I should impress people by having a big car or changing my suits every now and again to keep up with the latest styles.

The trouble is my wardrobe is now full up. I’ve got many new suits that are absolutely in good condition because I seldom wear them. I don’t go to office every day wearing a suit, except for formal functions or when I am abroad. They are of finest worsted wool. In fact, the older I get, the less willing I am to spend time putting on a suit and tie. I just have a blouson or a buttoned-up Chinese jacket, and it saves a lot of trouble. I have had them for many years and they are very comfortable.

Isn’t it a virtue though?

No, it is not. You may say it’s a virtue, others think, why is this chap that thrifty? Watch other prime ministers. They always have new ties, new shirts and suits to look good on TV.

I mean, you look at our Prime Minister. He wears a new shirt every year for the National Day Rally. Look, I have no reason to want to impress anybody.

May I ask, how many years have you had your jacket?

This one? It’s a very comfortable jacket. The man who tailored it for me is dead.

How many years have you had it?

I can’t remember now. Nearly two decades or 15 years. And it’s very comfortable.

Queen – I Want to Break Free

“I Want to Break Free” is a song performed by Queen, which was written by bassist John Deacon. It featured on their 1984 album The Works. In the UK Chart, it peaked at number 3, and remained in the chart for fifteen consecutive weeks from its release in late April 1984.

Having featured in serious music videos, the band decided to do a parody. The music video “I Want to Break Free”, directed by David Mallet, was a spoof of the northern British soap opera Coronation Street. During part of the video, the band members dressed in drag, the idea of which came from Roger Taylor, as mildly similar characters found in the soap at the time; Mercury’s character was loosely based on Bet Lynch, while May’s character was based on Hilda Ogden. The video also depicted the band in what appeared to be a coal mine in their normal look, and it also features a ballet piece choreographed by Wayne Eagling with the Royal Ballet (one of the dancers was Jeremy Sheffield), for which Freddie Mercury shaved his trademark moustache to portray Nijinsky as a faun in the ballet L’après-midi d’un faune (though he had kept it for the parody part of the video). According to Brian May in an interview about Queen’s Greatest Hits, the video ruined the band in America, where many people – unlike the case in the UK – failed to see the soap-opera connection and interpreted the video as an open declaration of transvestitism and Mercury’s homosexuality. The song, a hit in the UK where it went to number three, only managed to reach number forty-five on Billboard. The video was initially banned by MTV in the U.S., but the ban was lifted in 1991 when it aired on VH1’s My Generation two-part episode devoted to Queen hosted by guitarist Brian May. The song received renewed attention when it was used in a media advertising campaigns for Coca-Cola C2 and Safeway.