“England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies, and humors”….George Santayana
Many have grown poetic about England, the generation of the untouchables, the trend setters, the jeweled isle of Shakespeare, the coolest country on the planet…One of the most beautiful, truthful, thought provoking and sensitive songs comes from American, multi-award winning composer Randy Edelman…..entitled “Young England.” It takes a special kind of person to sift through the memories, expose the anguish, the joy of youth, and to be in the midst of the rush of humanity, but Edelman does all that in one song that any nation would be proud to celebrate and call their own….
Come the 1960’s….whereas the parents of the British youth were fighting for their lives, spending much of their own younger days entangled in the Second World War, the children of the 60’s were given a dose of freedom. It was almost as if Edelman’s song prophesied as a pleasant warning the edginess, the defining aspects of music, the British invasion, the fashion, the individuality….
The black and white nostalgic video of “Young England” sets the scene for a sentimental journey backwards into a past that would change the world and alter humanity forever. Taken from “English Children-Life in the City”, a 1949 short film, produced by Encyclopedia Britannica, the visuals spawn waves of emotion, an anemoia and a longing for a past, a time beyond your own that you have never lived.
With a world-renowned career beginning in England with his pop hits “Uptown, Uptempo Women” and “Concrete and Clay” which premiered on the BBC’s iconic show “Top of the Pops”, Randy Edelman has an affinity and passion for England. After writing super-hits for artists including Barry Manilow (A Weekend in New England), Patti LaBelle (Isn’t it A Shame), Nelly (My Place), The Carpenters (You), Olivia Newton-John, Willy Nelson, Bing Crosby, and many more, Edelman was thrust into a new career writing music for motion pictures. Included within the soundtracks that breathed life into the films were “My Cousin Vinny”, “Last of the Mohicans”, “Billy Madison”, “Ghostbusters ll”, While You Were Sleeping”, and an enormous montage of others.
Transmigrating back to the here and now Randy continues to compose music for films as he’s currently working on the scores for “Too Hot to Handle”, the documentary for Ghostbusters ll and the new Cuba Gooding Jr. Holiday movie “Athena Saves Christmas.” He is also in the midst of creating his new record album “Can’t Kill Me By Any Conventional Means”, as well as his new musical “Short Cuts” about the building of the Panama Canal. Aside from that Randy has created an edgy solo show that he has performed in London and all over New York City with a sold out crowd at every performance.
“Young England” is a joyous and touching anomaly. It is somebody’s memory, somebody’s joy, somebody’s regret. It is the weaver of somebody’s cloth and the keeper of our fellow travelers in time. Even if details are blurred through time, there is a Mosaic of truth, and we realize we are nothing more than the experiences that we make. Both Joy and pain passes and better days and worse days to come and still we long to see what lies ahead. We yearn for our vision to pierce the veil. The brilliance of Randy Edelman and his song “Young England” walks in the footsteps of the souls that went before.
Watch the “Young England” music video by Randy Edelman here: