Mary Magpie believes in recycling. Here she recycles her English paper for us
The song I’ve chosen is originally by Louis Armstrong, but I chose the Ramones’ version of “What a Wonderful World”. Growing up, it was pretty much the first rock song I’d ever listened to. When I could barely talk, my mom would make me name the members of The Ramones, and then she’d turn this song up. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I loved it and I still do. I always have and always will consider it “our song”.
Whenever I’m in a down mood, the lyrics always come to mind. “I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom, for me and you.” There are such vivid details in the song that to this day, I remember the image of my mom’s hair blowing behind her because the windows were rolled down all the way. And even if I was in the back seat, I was singing along like I was Joey Ramone. Now, if the song ever comes on, it almost brings tears to my eyes because it is just a reminder of my life back then and how grown I am now.
“The colours of a rainbow, so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by. I see friends shaking hands, saying ‘How do you do?’ They’re really saying ‘I love you’.” This has always been my favourite line of the song. It makes me think of how much I love my friends and family. This song’s lyric brings pictures of a rainbow with people walking across it, shaking hands and laughing and smiling.
To me, the most thought-provoking lyric of the song is “I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know”. I think of a man sitting in a park, watching people go by, and he’s growing up because of this experience. That’s how I want to grow up.
“What a wonderful world.” It truly is a wonderful world we live in. Even if times are hard or something bad is happening, if you just sit back and truly think about the world, it is a great place. Some people don’t see it that way, but that is because they are clouded by their issues.
Even just talking about the song makes me reflective. If it weren’t for this song being a part of my childhood, I would’ve brushed it off as another song you occasionally hear on the radio. My mom was the one who decided to play it, and it was unintentional that it became our song.
“What a Wonderful World” is a great song and brings back millions of memories. “And I think to myself…what a wonderful world.”