In his autumn before the winter comes man's last mad surge of youth

created by heyoka

(idea) by heyoka (1.9 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) 2 C!s Fri Dec 08 2000 at 22:41:31

The Chameleons' first album (Script of the Bridge, from 1983) opens with the following line, beautifully enunciated by an BBC-toned english man:

"In his autumn before the winter comes man's last mad surge of youth."

and a perplexed woman, sounding rather like Joan Greenwood responds:

"What on earth are you talking about?"

There's a moment's pause, and then the glorious sounds of Don't Fall, the opening track, come surging in.

I have been trying to find the source of this sample for years. I've been wondering about it, looking for it ever since I fell in love with the album back in 1985, listening to it every single night when I was studying for my A Levels. It comes back to haunt me every couple of years.

The biggest problem is that even the band don't know where it comes from. They were recording stuff randomly from the television one night, pointing a microphone at the TV in the studio. They can't remember what it was.

Back in college, my housemate Jim and I watched dozens of old movies, listening out for this line. For one glorious day I thought it might have been from The Man in the White Suit. I rushed out and rented the video, and we waited patiently for the lines that never came. He even put the lines in his sig file, for years, hoping that someone would recognise it and write to him. Nothing. Never a sniff of hope.

Do you know what it is? Can you put me out of my misery? It's OK. The album will always remind me of foxes, and losing the secret won't make it go away.

printable version
chaos

What do you hear in the silence?	Things to do with fallen leaves	How to jump into a pile of leaves	Borrowing his enigmatic jacket
Why do leaves change color in autumn?	new apples	I almost stopped believing in shooting stars	Leftover parts of autumnal sun dimming
The Chameleons UK	Now Close the Windows	Fox	BBC
autumn	Peeping	Solstice Solace	Wild Turkey Liqueur
Whirlpool Ain't Cool	You'll never win anything with kids	September 21, 2002	Junior Classical League
The Man and the Lightning	Autumn:Winter Collection	winter	each flake a cold kiss she brushes off

Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.

Login
Password

remember me
password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

cooled by lawnjart

Just another sprinkling of indeterminacy
Mr. Clean will clean up everything you hold dear, leaving you crying, sanitized and utterly alone
Philosophical theories of truth
elastrator
Thomas Jefferson
Hecate
What is conflict, and why bother to resolve it?
Planck units
Bikram Yoga
The Guru got a girlfriend
Richard Harris
Anonymous Men Think They Can Talk To Me
Satsuma
I Can't Make You Love Me

antigravpussy
One fly amongst many	(person)
sam512
Moon Base Shackleton, 1978	(fiction)
Pavlovna
toy boy	(person)
XWiz
tear jerker	(review)
Heitah
Anarchy is Order	(idea)
jessicaj
July 26, 2008	(dream)
Berek
ABBA	(person)
devolution
k-hole	(place)
Nadine_2
The Sound Of Madness	(review)
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo, the Loneliest dog in Purgatory	(fiction)
locke baron
lynx	(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology	(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman	(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts	(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us	(person)

E2 is a by-product of the existence of The Everything Development Company