Waterloo Sunset — The Kinks
Several years ago I took someone I loved dearly on a musical tour of London. We started at Abbey Road and visited about a dozen other sites with some sort of musical connection in the city.
She, like me, is a big music fan. So at each stop I asked her to guess the musical connection. Admittedly I started with an easy one at Abbey Road. And of course I took a picture on her phone of her crossing the famous zebra crossing there.
When we reached Waterloo Station at the end of our journey she guessed the musical connection was to Abba’s “Waterloo”. Except that wasn’t the connection at all…the connection I had in mind was to “Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks.
I had an ulterior motive in all this, just like I did when we first met as teenagers. I loved her dearly from the moment I met her, but she was out of my league. So I used to do oblique things to tell her I loved her without actually saying the words.
Which is where “Waterloo Sunset” comes in.
As Kinks songs go, I prefer “You Really Got Me”, but “Waterloo Sunset” is a wonderful lyrical and musical story of someone looking out their window and seeing two lovers meet at Waterloo Station.
Yes, I know this is all very soppy and far too indirect for anyone sensible to ever pick up on the clues, but that’s the way it always was…
