"Rainbow Connection" by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher
The sweet sound that calls the young sailors
“Why are there so many songs about rainbows / And what's on the other side? / Rainbows are visions, but only illusions / And rainbows have nothing to hide / So we've been told and some choose to believe it / I know they're wrong, wait and see”
I remember the first time I saw “The Muppet Movie”. It opens with a shot of Kermit the Frog sitting on a log in a swamp, holding a banjo and starting to play this song. I had just turned seven, my family had just returned from a chaotic year in Mexico. My grandmother had recently acquired one of the first videocassette recorders (VCRs) and begun to amass what eventually became a house-filling library of literally thousands of movies that she taped from TV.
My grandmother’s love languages were sarcasm, food indulgences and home-taped movies. “The Muppet Movie” was one of the first tapes she gave us.
“Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection / The lovers, the dreamers, and me”
This song, which opens the movie, was written by two songwriting legends, Paul Williams and Ken Ascher. Go look at their catalogs, there are a ton of other songs you know. Great ones. But for me, “Rainbow Connection” stands on its own because I heard it a a pivotal point in my childhood. Every time I hear it, I time travel back to a state of innocence, asking questions about this unfamiliar world:
“Who said that every wish would be heard and answered / When wished on the morning star? / Somebody thought of that and someone believed it / and look what it's done so far”
My brain couldn’t comprehend these lyrics as a child, but my heart did, thanks to the melody. We can’t ever know the number of lives that have probably been saved by this song. There’s a generation of people who were first exposed to this song in the late seventies and early eighties, for whom it can help untangle some of the knottiest emotions. Maybe only for a moment, but in many cases one moment of grace is enough to avert a terrible choice.
“What's so amazing / That keeps us stargazing / And what do we think we might see? / Someday we'll find it / The rainbow connection / The lovers, the dreamers and me / all of us under its spell / We know that it's probably magic!”
A sense of wonder about the world is hard to regain, once lost. Most of us lose it in brutal ways that take decades to comprehend. To have a song like this one which acts as a direct link to earlier states of innocence for me is its own kind of rainbow connection. It can open my heart when nothing else will.
“Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices? / I've heard them calling my name / Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors? / The voice might be one and the same / I've heard it too many times to ignore it / It's something that I'm supposed to be / Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection / The lovers, the dreamers and me / Ba da da dee da da da, Ba da da da dum... ooom!”
I’ve never tried to sing it. I’m taking an initial crack at it in the video below. But now that I’ve started, I’m hoping to keep this song in rotation for the rest of my life. Whether it’s coming through Kermit the Frog or an 80-year-old, the message in this song transcends the voice delivering it. All we need to do is get out of its way and let it in.
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Vey lovely song, description and way to stat this day.