Paradise Lost
Paradise is best described in a song. No I won't sing it. It's already been done. Let's take a minute and go through the history of paradise in music.
Paradise 1929
The 1920s began with the Spanish Flu and ended with the October 1929 stock market crash leading to the Great Depression. This song was recorded in November 1929 by Leo Reisman & His Orchestra for the Motion Picture, "Chasing Rainbows".
The music tells of a celebration of the happy days of the past. Perhaps a celebration of the First World War and the roaring twenties. People so much wanted to carry that celebration into the 30s. This song even became the campaign song for Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 presidential election. Everybody wanted those "Happy Days" but what they got was the "Great Depression".
Paradise 1932
A couple years later comes the Paradise waltz by Nacio Brown and Gordon Clifford. It's played on a very different key and tempo, much slower. Here paradise is not about happy days, but paradise is about the person you are with now.
The first recorded version by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra is actually sung by a woman and makes me feel that paradise is oh so romantic with "a heavenly kiss as he dims the light. He takes me to paradise." This paradise kept many couples going even through the times of the Depression.
Paradise 1944
Now let's move up ten more years to 1944. The grip of the Great Depression was still felt and then stories of fascism in Europe were frightening. At that time right before World War 2, Woodie Guthrie recorded, "This Land is your land".
As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
Saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me
He saw paradise as the land right below our feet and the sky above our head and there was no one gonna take that land away from us. It was made for me and you. He even made it clear that this song was written for everyone to sing.
This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do.
Paradise 1955
Ten years later World War 2 was over and the Korean war was over. Don Julian & The Meadowlarks recorded "Heaven and Paradise" in 1955. Just looking at those boys sing together gives me hope for paradise.
It must have been unheard of for an interracial band to sing together but they were doing it. The song gives hope again for people to find paradise in love.
Paradise 1965
It was the time of the baby boomers and the beatniks. In the 1960s people were still looking for Paradise. Here the Ronettes sing of paradise as a wonderland they can find when they are taken away.
The song is dreamy like a wish they hope will happen but not certain if it ever will. This was a turning point in the 1960s after the Cuban missile crises and after John F Kennedy's assassination. The world was changing and things were about to get worse.
Paradise 1970
Music changed a lot in that five years from 1965 to 1970. People were disillusioned by the Vietnam war and a world that was seemingly falling apart. Joni Mitchell recorded "Big Yellow Taxi" in 1970 and in a very cool way expresses what is happening to paradise. This is the problem:
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
The message was "Paradise is here" so enjoy it and savor every moment of it because there is no guarantee it will be here long.
Paradise 1977
More years of Vietnam, Watergate and Nixon's impeachment, the world just gets more disillusioned until you get music like Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". This 1977 song is a passionate rock drama of a couple looking for paradise.
It turns out that the boy and girl have a different picture of paradise. She want's love and commitment. He wants to sleep on it. He ends with "It was long ago and it was far away and it was so much better than it is today." In 1977, paradise was a passionate rock drama and the battle of the sexes.
Paradise 1984
This brings us some years later to 1984, the age of the yuppies. Many of the baby boomers were now finished with college and well into their professional careers. It was the time when everyone had a house, 2 cars and 2.5 children. The problem is that not everyone in the world was living like that.
Phil Collin sings "Another Day in Paradise" shedding light on social issues. He highlights the contrast between the rich and poor in the world with the warning, "Think twice". We don't think of our life as another day in paradise, but if we look at those suffering around us we can see that our jobs and our standard of living is like paradise.
Even today first world countries protest for their freedom of choice to do this or that. But seriously many countries have no freedom of choice because those amenities are not available.
"It's another day day for you and me in paradise..."
Phil Collins
Paradise 1994
OK, who was not in a mosh pit in the 90's? It was the age of Depeche Mode and Nirvana, Anthrax and Metallica. Green Day is kind of a mixture of all of them. It's like a whinny punk band. They came up with this Paradise song in 1994.
They are not even pretending this world is a paradise. The song is pure sarcasm. Even their description of Paradise is whining. They say, "Welcome to Paradise" sarcastically in an empty and lonely world. I'm not sure what made the 90's this lost decade. Maybe it was too many N2O whippets.
Paradise 2011
Ten years after 9.11, Cold Play challenges the concept of Paradise once again. This time the song is very personal. The song begins with a girl who dreamed of paradise. She expected the world, but it just flew away. Life was not what she wanted it to be. She was drenched in sorrow and tears, but when she sleeps she dreams of paradise. She hopes this could be paradise.
Maybe people were hopeful at this time in the world because the song seems to imply that paradise could be restored if only in our dreams. Like this little girl we all had dreams of how the world could be. After some years we see it for what it really is. We are despaired. Yet in our deep heart never lose the dream.
This could be paradise.
Paradise 2021
The song is upbeat like a journey. It is the journey of a relationship. It comes at a time when much of the world is cut off. International travel is restricted. Even travel within cities is restricted because of social distancing regulations. Masks are required in many areas. At the same time racial and social tensions have increased.
At this time the Italian producer Meduza comes up with "Paradise" using the Irish singer Dermot Kennedy. The music is about bridging the difference. He sings, "There is a thousand miles between you and I." Then he sings, "There's a thousand miles between me and paradise."
There are so many barriers of fear that keep people apart. This song is about overcoming fear and bringing people together.
We're all scared to fly, still we try
Learn to be brave, see the other side
Won't you lead me there? Have no fear
Close your eyes, find paradise
Perhaps paradise is not so far away.
If I've learned anything through looking at these songs it is that the world will be difficult. There will be even more challenging times. But in these times we can find paradise. It's not a person or place. It is not an idealistic society. It is right there inside you. It is the peace that overcomes fear and it is the dream of a child that lasts the years.
Maybe Milton was right. We really have to get back to the garden.
Woodstock