3/16/07: Robin Scott “Song of the Sun” (1969)

We all enjoyed our recent look back at the Phoenix Trolley (it was just two days ago, damnit; doesn’t anyone remember this stuff?), but let’s end this week with a sensitive ’60s guy. Robin Scott was a young London artist who stumbled onto a chance to make a lo-fi acid-folk recording that sounded like Nick Drake having a nervous breakdown—or Nick Drake having one of the nervous breakdowns that Drake himself didn’t bother to record.

Woman In The Warm Grass didn’t get much attention, but “Song of the Sun” resonates today. This gentle tune has Scott pondering the cycle of the changing seasons. He’s also considering the start of each new day. He’s got all kinds of deep thoughts going about the life-giving orange heat and the God of Darkness.

There’s also a menacing finger pointing at the early morning ruddy sky. Scott’s got this notion that a raging storm that never dies is going to turn Man, machine, and Nature’s home into frothing fervent foam. This seems so likely that the poor guy can’t stop wondering what the sun really means.

As it turns out, there’s a sleeping form whose love has chanced to keep him warm. He touches and awakens her and asks her to explain his dream: “What does the sun really mean?”

Here’s what happens: In her bewildered eyes, I see/The question is thrown back at me /Cold comfort is her body then/I know I am alone again.

This poor hippie gal wakes up next to the sensitive artist, and maybe she thinks he’s poking at her because he wants to go make her some tea and crumpets, and, instead, the guy is asking her to explain what the sun really means. We’d say that Robin Scott had been finding himself alone again on a regular basis.

But we’re not here to laugh at some Leftist eco-porn. Robin Scott turns out to be a smart guy. He comes to a conclusion that keeps eluding today’s ecological incompetents. The song closes as Scott declares, “The thing I seek to understand/Was made before the world began.”

You know the best part? Robin Scott wised up. He got out of bed, quit worrying about the weather, and started having a good time. Ten years later, he even went back into the music biz and made an important hit record. Good for him.

Make it your own: Woman In The Warm Grass would probably have been reissued even without Scott’s subsequent career. It’s certainly worth owning—as is a lot of his later work. There’s a good two-disc retrospective available at Scott’s website.

 

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